On the day after my arrival I had an interview with Mustafa Pasha, who,
after seeing my credentials, made over to me the 15 galleys which were
needing a great deal of repair. As far as could be, they were put in
order, calked and provided with guns, which, however, were not to be
had in sufficient quantity either from the stores there or from Ormuz.
A water-supply had also to be arranged for, and as it was yet five
months before the time of the monsoon,[63] I had plenty of leisure to
visit the mosque of Ali and the graves of Hasan Basri, Talha, Zobeir,
Uns-bin-Malik, Abdurrahman-bin-Anf, and several martyrs and companions
of the Prophet. One night I dreamed that I lost my sword, and as I
remembered that a similar thing had happened to Sheik Muhieddin and
had resulted in a defeat, I became greatly alarmed, and, just as I was
about to pray to the Almighty for the victory of the Islam arms, I
awoke. I kept this dream a secret, but it troubled me for a long time,
and when later on Mustafa Pasha sent a detachment of soldiers to take
the island of Huweiza (in which expedition I took part with five of my
galleys), and the undertaking resulted in our losing about a hundred
men all through the fickleness of the Egyptian troops, I fully believed
this to be the fulfilment of my dream. But alas! there was more to
follow—for:
What is decreed must come to pass,
No matter, whether you are joyful or anxious.
When at last the time of the monsoon came, the Pasha sent a trusty
sailor with a frigate to Ormuz, to explore the neighborhood. After
cruising about for a month he returned with the news that, except for
four boats, there was no sign of any ships of the infidels in those
waters. The troops therefore embarked and we started for Egypt.