[fernando]

As we read chronicles, we find that piracy or corso was a well spread activity in those days, to the extent that it was considered by Kings as legitimate; it would be natural that some Portuguese did not resist such sport.
Piracy or robbery abounded in the Persian Gulf by the time. Actually one of the Portuguese daily occupations was escorting lower defence boats or guard the coast against Noutaques. According to Gaspar Correia these Noutaques go in very light terradas of sail and rowing and the rowers themselves are archers, who carry bow and arrows in their backs; and rowing, when reaching their target, they drop the oars and stand up with the bows, with which they shoot two or three arrows at a time, one between each finger, with three sided heads which, once reaching the spot, the shafts drop off, and they are rather dextrous and accurate in their aiming.
Head Captain Martinho Afonso de Sousa also mentioned that their boats were equiped with falconets and arquebuses. Father Manuel de Almeida confirmed that their boats are very fast and narrates an episode in which the Noutaques captured a Portuguese boat near Muscate, having demanded for a ransom. The Portuguese Captain delivered the ransom and the captives were rescued; but when the Captain and others chased them, their boats were so fast that managed to escape.
Attached an illustration of Noutaques in the Codice Casanatence.

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