All The Intrenchments And Redoubts Of The Besiegers Were Successively Carried, With Prodigious Slaughter Of The Moors And Nayres, Of Whom Above 3000 Were Slain, Besides Many Others Burnt In Their Wooden Forts And Bulwarks.

In this engagement Don George de Menezes made great slaughter of the enemy with a two-handed sword; till losing his right hand, he took a smaller sword in his left, and continued to fight with great valour.

Don Enrique remained master of the field, in which he encamped for some days: But as the fort was not considered important in proportion to its expence, it was stripped of every thing of value with great care and privacy, and mines and trains laid to blow it up; after which the whole army retired to the ships. On seeing the fort evacuated, the Moors rushed in to plunder in vast numbers; but the mines suddenly taking fire, blew up the whole fabric with a vast explosion, in which great numbers of the enemy perished miserably.

In the year 1526, Hector de Sylveira went with a squadron to the Red Sea, and on his way thither assaulted and took the city of Dhofur on the coast of Yemen in lat. 17 deg. N. He then entered the Red Sea, where he reduced the islands of Massua and Dallac to pay tribute; after, this he went to Arkiko on the coast of Abyssinia, where he received Don Rodrigo de Lima who had been on an embassy to the king of Abyssinia, and was there waiting for a passage along with an ambassador from Prester John to the king of Portugal.

In this same year 1526, a small vessel was sent from Ternate to discover the islands of Celebes, which were said to abound in gold. The discoverer easily found the islands but no gold. Being on his return to the Moluccas, he was carried away by a storm to the eastward till he lost his reckoning, and unexpectedly fell in with a large and beautiful island, inhabited by a simple race of men who treated the Portuguese with much civility. They were strong made and of a comely appearance, with their complexion inclining to fair, having long lank hair and long beards, and their clothing was of fine mats. Their food consisted chiefly of roots, cocoa nuts, and figs. Their language was not understood, but by signs they gave the Portuguese to understand that there was gold in the mountains, but of which they made no use. They had no knowledge of iron or any other metal. Leaving this island, which they named after the pilot Diego Lopez Sequeira, they returned to Ternate, after an absence of eight months.

Don Enrique de Menezes, died at Cananor about the end of January 1526, in the thirtieth year of his age. He was a man of large stature, with a pleasing countenance, just in all his actions, continent, free from covetousness, a true patron of merit, and of the most unblemished honour.

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