In The Same Year 1520, Lope De Brito Went To Succeed Juan De Sylveira In
The Command Of The Fort
Of Columbo in Ceylon, and carried with him 400
soldiers and many workmen, by whose means he made the fort
So strong
that it raised the jealousy of the natives of Columbo, who at the
instigation of the Moors gave over trade with the Portuguese, and
besieged the fort for five months, during which the garrison suffered
great hardships. At length Antonio de Lemos arrived with a reinforcement
of fifty men; with which small additional force Brito ventured to attack
the vast multitude of the enemy, whom he completely routed, and matters
were immediately restored to their former quiet.
On the change of the monsoon, Sequeira set sail from Ormuz and joined
Albuquerque at Muscat, where he found one ship from Lisbon of nine that
sailed together, but all the rest came safe afterwards. One of the ships
of this fleet, while sailing before the wind beyond the Cape of Good
Hope, was stopped all of a sudden. On examining into the cause, it
appeared that a sea monster bore the ship on its back, the tail
appearing about the rudder and the head at the boltsprit, spouting up
streams of water. It was removed by exorcisms, no human means being
thought sufficient. By the sailors it was called the Sambrero, or the
hat-fish, as the head has some resemblance to a hat. A similar fish,
though less, had been seen on the coast of Portugal near Atouguia,
where it did much harm.
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