subdue Ormuz by force of arms.  It was assuredly no small presumption to offer such degrading terms to a king who was at the head of above 30,000 fighting men, and 400 ships, while all the force he had against such prodigious force, was only 460 soldiers and seven ships.  The Moorish captain, who was from Cambaya, went on shore and delivered this insolent message to the king and his governor Attar; who immediately sent Khojah Beyram with a message to Albuquerque, excusing them for not having sent to inquire what the Portuguese wanted in their port, and promising that the governor should wait upon him next day.  Attar however did not perform this promise, but endeavoured to spin out the time by a repetition of messages, in order to strengthen the fortifications of the city, and to receive farther supplies.  Albuquerque immediately perceived the purport of these messages, and told Beyram that he would listen only to the acceptation of peace on the terms proposed, or an immediate declaration of war.  To this insolent demand, Beyram brought back for answer, that Ormuz was accustomed to receive, and not to pay tribute.

During the night, the noise of warlike instruments, and the shouts of the troops collected in Ormuz were heard from all parts of the city; and when morning came, the whole walls, the shore, and the vessels in the harbour were seen crowded with armed men, while the windows and flat tops of all the houses were filled with people of both sexes and all ages, anxious to behold the expected events.  Albuquerque immediately began to cannonade the city and the large Moorish ships, and was spiritedly answered by the enemy, who took advantage of the obscurity occasioned by the smoke to send a large party of armed men in 130 boats to attack the ships, and did some damage among the Portuguese by incessant and prodigious discharges of arrows and stones.  But as many of the boats were sunk by the Portuguese artillery, and numbers of the men slain and drowned, they were forced to retire.  They returned again to the charge with fresh numbers; but after a severe conflict were again obliged to retreat with prodigious loss, the sea being dyed with blood, and great numbers of them slain.  By this time, Albuquerque had sunk two of the largest ships in the port and taken a third, not without considerable opposition on the part of the enemy, forcing the surviving Moors to leap into the sea; and the other captains of his squadron had captured three ships, and had set above thirty more on fire.  The crews of these cut their cables and drifted over to the Persian shore to enable themselves to escape; but by this means communicated the conflagration to other vessels that were lying aground.  These disasters struck such terror into the people of Ormuz that they all fled in dismay within their walls, and Khojah Attar sent a message to Albuquerque offering to submit to his proposals; on which he put a stop to farther hostilities, yet suspecting the governor of treachery, he threatened to inflict still