How Andrè Coutinho arrived with news of the English ships; how the Captain-Major sent him to Ormuz, and the ships arrived off the Fortress, saluted it, and anchored; and of what was agreed upon in Ormuz for the defence of the Fortress.

The grief felt at the death of Dom Francisco was sharpened by the loss that the fortress of Ormuz suffered through the removal of his prudence and valour, for although there were still many fidalgos who were serving his Majesty in that Strait, they were only youths, and thus both in them and in others there was lacking the age and experience necessary for dealing with and disposing of the critical events that occur in war. In Queixome the continuous assaults and batteries ceased neither by day nor night. The English ships had been sighted, albeit without their being seen very clearly, and the Almirante Francisco de Britto had made the signal which the Captain-Major had appointed, although so badly that everyone in the Fortress of Queixome thought it was a salute, and not a warning of which they were to take heed, so that everything was preparing the way for the misfortune which followed.