for a long siege, and into which the king with his wife and children and some of the chief people of the court had gone for shelter.  The Turk landed his men and raised batteries against the fort, which he cannonaded incessantly for a whole month; but finding that he lost many of his men and had no prospect of success, he plundered the city, and went over to the island of Kishom, to which many of the principal people of Ormuz had withdrawn, where he got a considerable booty and then retired to Basrah.  The viceroy had been informed of the danger to which Ormuz was exposed, and fitted out a fleet in which he embarked in person for its relief; but hearing at Diu, on his way to the Persian Gulf, that Ormuz was out of danger, he sailed back to Goa.  On his return unsuccessful from Ormuz, Pirbec was beheaded for having acted beyond his instructions, and Morad-beg was sent in 1553 with fifteen gallies to cruise in the Persian Gulf against the Portuguese.  An encounter took place between this Turkish squadron and one belonging to the Portuguese under Don Diego de Noronha, which ended without material loss on either side; but the Turks were forced to take shelter in the Euphrates, where the water was too shallow to admit the Portuguese galleons.  In the course of this year 1553, Luis Camoens, the admirable Portuguese poet, went out to India, to endeavour to advance his fortune by the sword, which had been so little favoured by his pen.

About this time new troubles took place at Diu in consequence of the death of Sultan Mahmud, king of Guzerat or Cambaya.  Like Mithridates, he had accustomed himself to the use of poison, to guard against being poisoned.  When any of his women happened to be near their delivery, he used to open them to take out their children.  Being one day out hunting accompanied by some of his women, he fell from his horse and was dragged by the stirrup, when one of his women boldly made up to his horse and cut the girth with a cymeter; in requital for this service he killed her, saying “that a woman of such courage had enough to kill him.”  He was at length murdered by a page in whom he had great confidence.  For tyrants always die by the hands of those in whom they repose most trust.  He was succeeded by a child who was his reputed son; but the nobility of the kingdom, offended by the insolence of Madrem-al-mulk who acted as governor of the kingdom, rebelled in several places.  Abex Khan, who commanded in the city of Diu, was one of these, and in consequence of some disagreement between his soldiers and the Portuguese garrison, Don Diego de Almeyda made an assault on the city with 500 men, in which many of the Moors were slain and their houses plundered.  Though late, Abex Khan saw his error, and made proper concessions.  Soon afterwards, when Don Diego de Noronha succeeded Almeyda in the command of the castle of Diu, fresh troubles broke out at Diu, which were not appeased, till a good many men had been skin on both sides, chiefly owing to the rashness and obstinacy of Diego de Noronha, for which he was afterwards excluded from the appointment to the viceroyalty of India.