Battle of El Tor

In 1538, the Ottoman Empire had sailed a large armada to India and sieged the Portuguese fortress of Diu in Gujarat, but failing to take it, returned to Egypt. Two years later, the Portuguese Governor of India Dom Estevão da Gama assembled a fleet of 80 ships to undertake a retaliatory campaign against the Ottomans within the Red Sea, as far as Suez. Along the way they called at Massawa, sacked Suakin and Qoseir before they headed towards El Tor, on the west coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Most of the Portuguese fleet was ordered to return after Suakin loaded with spoil while Dom Estevão proceeded with a small strike force. Aware that there were Christians residing at El Tor, Dom Estevão sought to capture the town and obtain information regarding Ottoman forces at the port of Suez. ==Battle of El Tor==

As the Portuguese approached the beaches on boats seeking to land, they were confronted by a squadron of 200 mounted Turkish gunners that appeared from the city, shouting and flying white and green banners. Mass and knighting ceremony at El Tor With the attack halted, the Portuguese were led into the church of a Christian monastery at El Tor in a procession, at the sound of psalms that the friars sung "in their fashion", the Portuguese taking a banner with the Cross of the Order of Christ. Governor Estevão da Gama would die in 1576 at the age of 71 or 72, and upon his tomb an epitaph was engraved that stated: "Here lies Dom Estevão da Gama, who armed knights at the foot of Mount Sinai". ==See also==