Khojah Zofar Continued To Press The Siege, And There Was Much Slaughter
And Destruction On Both Sides; But This Was More Evident And Prejudicial
In The Castle, Owing To The Small Space And The Weakness Of The
Garrison.
Mascarenhas on his part exerted every means for defence,
always repairing to wherever there was most danger, as desirous of
gaining equal honour with Silveyra who had so gallantly defended the
same place only a few years before.
He was no less fortunate in
courageous women than Silveyra, as those now in the castle encouraged
the men to fight valiantly, and both assisted and relieved them in the
labour of repairing the walls. On one occasion that some Turks had got
within the walls and had taken post in a house, one of these valiant
females ran there with a spear and fought against the enemy, till
Mascarenhas came up with his reserve and put them all to the sword.
Zofar used every effort and device to fill up the ditches and to batter
down the walls of the castle; but equal industry was exerted by the
besieged to repair the breaches and to clear out the ditches, the prime
gentry doing as much duty on those occasions as the private soldiers and
masons; repairing every night such parts of the walls and bastions as
had been ruined in the day.
Astonished to see all the defences thus restored, and angry at the
obstinate resistance of so small a garrison, Zofar made a furious
assault upon the castle, but had his head carried off by a cannon-ball.
"In this violent death he fulfilled the prediction of his mother at
Otranto, who having in vain endeavoured to prevail upon him to return
into the bosom of the church, used to superscribe her letters to him in
the following manner. To Khojah Zofar my son, at the gates of hell."
He was succeeded by his son Rumi Khan, who inherited his fortune and
command, and was as eager as his father to reduce the castle of Diu.
Being in great straits, Mascarenhas was under the necessity of applying
to the governor-general at Goa and the commanders of the neighbouring
garrisons for reinforcements, on which occasion a priest was employed,
who run great danger, as the sea was at this season scarcely navigable:
But then Portugal had some decii and reguli, while it now has only
the grief of wanting such patriots[366].
[Footnote 366: It is hardly necessary to observe that this is the
expression of D. Faria in the seventeenth century, when Portugal
groaned under the yoke of the Austrian sovereigns of Spain. - E.]
In the mean time Rumi Khan and Juzar Khan gave a general assault,
particularly directing their efforts against the bastions of St John and
St Thomas, where they found a vigorous resistance and lost a prodigious
number of men. Yet numbers at length prevailed, and the enemy gained a
temporary possession of the bastion of St Thomas. The garrison adding
fury to despair, made so desperate an effort to recover the bastion,
that they made a wonderful slaughter of the numerous assailants who had
penetrated their works, throwing headlong from the wall such as had
escaped the sword, insomuch that the bastion and the ditch below were
heaped with dead bodies. Rumi Khan spent the succeeding night in prayers
and processions to propitiate Mahomet, and next morning renewed the
assault with equal fury. But after mounting the two bastions, he was at
length forced to retreat with the loss of near 2000 men, among whom was
Juzar Khan the Abyssinian general, who was succeeded in his command by
his uncle of the same name. In this action the Portuguese lost seven
men. Several other assaults were given with similar success. In one of
these the fire was so close and furious that several of the Portuguese
who were clad in cotton garments had their clothes set on fire, on which
they ran and dipt themselves in water, after which they returned to
their posts. Such as happened to have skin coats escaped this danger;
and as Mascarenhas noticed this circumstance, he caused the gilt
leather hangings of his apartments to be made into coats for his
soldiers.
As the enemy had raised a mount near the castle which overlooked the
walls, whence they greatly annoyed the enemy, Don Juan and Don Pedro de
Almeyda sallied out with an hundred men and destroyed that work, killing
300 Moors. At another time Martin Botello went out with ten men to
endeavour to make some prisoners, to procure intelligence. This party
fell upon a post of the enemy occupied by eighteen men, all of whom fled
except one Nubian, who bravely endeavoured to defend himself against
the whole eleven. Botello closed with him, and finding him hard to
overcome while he touched the ground with his feet, raised him in his
arms as Hercules did Anteus, and carried him to the fort by main
strength. The assaults were frequently renewed, and the besieged were
worn out with fatigue and reduced to the last extremity by famine, being
forced to feed even upon naseous vermin. A crow or a vulture taken while
feeding upon the dead bodies was so great a dainty for the sick that it
sold for five crowns. Even the ammunition was almost spent. In this
extremity, the enemy gave a fresh assault and forced their way into the
bastion of St John, whence they were driven out. Scarcely had they
retired when the bastion blew up with a vast explosion, carrying up 73
of the garrison into the air, ten of whom came down alive. Among these
was Diego de Sotomayor, who fell into the fort with his spear still in
his hand. One soldier fell in a similar manner among the enemy, and was
immediately slain. It was no fable that armed men were seen in the air
on this occasion[367]. Foreseeing the danger, as he believed from the
retirement of the enemy so suddenly that they had secretly caused it to
be undermined, Mascarenhas gave orders for the Portuguese soldiers to
retire from the bastion; but one Reynoso prevented them from doing so,
unaware of what was intended, upbraiding them for cowardice.
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