Passing
On Therefore To A River Four Leagues Beyond Dabul, A Brigantine And
Parao Which Led The Van Saw A Ship Sailing Up The River, And Pursued The
Vessel Till It Came To Anchor Over Against A Town, Where There Were Many
Other Vessels.
Seeing the two vessels in pursuit of the ship Lorenzo
sent a galley after them, and the three began
To clear the shore with
their shot of many Moors who flocked thither to defend their ships.
Supposing from the noise of firing that his assistance was necessary,
Lorenzo made all possible haste up the river; but before his arrival the
others had taken all the vessels in the harbour, and had burnt a house
on shore full of valuable commodities. All the ships in this harbour
were burnt, except two from Ormuz having very rich cargoes, which were
carried away. On his return to Cochin with victory and rich spoil,
expecting to be received by his father with applause, he was astonished
to find himself threatened with severe punishment for not having fought
with and destroyed the Calicut fleet. He was however excused, as it
appeared he had been overruled by the votes of the other captains,
contrary to his own opinion. The viceroy broke them all therefore, and
sent them home in disgrace to Portugal. By this severity, Don Lorenzo
was much troubled, and in afterwards endeavouring to restore himself to
the esteem of his father, he lost his life in rashly displaying his
valour.
The body of one of the Moors who had been basely destroyed by Vaz, as
formerly mentioned, was washed on shore, and discovered to be the nephew
of Mamale, a rich merchant of Malabar. Founding on this circumstance,
the zamorin prevailed upon the rajah of Cananor to break with the
Portuguese; and as it was not known who had been guilty of that
barbarous act, the blame fell upon Lorenzo de Brito, captain of the fort
at Cananor, who got notice of his danger, and not being in sufficient
force to defend himself, sent intelligence to the viceroy. This message
was delivered to Almeyda while in church assisting at the service on
Maunday Thursday; and was of so pressing a nature that he immediately
left the church, to give orders for the immediate shipment of provisions
and men to succour Brito; and these orders were executed with such
speed, that those who had lent their arms to others to watch the
sepulchre, as the custom is, had to go to the church to get them back.
Don Lorenzo was appointed to command this relief of Cananor, with orders
on his arrival at that place to put himself under the command of Brito,
who insisted that as son to the viceroy and an officer of reputation and
experience he should take the command: But Lorenzo was positive that he
would not take the command over Brito, pursuant to the orders of his
father; and being unable to prevail, he left the relief at Cananor, and
returned to Cochin.
By this time the rajah of Cananor had drawn together a force of 20,000
men, with which he besieged the Portuguese fort, which Brito determined
to defend to the last extremity, and used every possible means to
strengthen the place. Much blood was spilt about the possession of a
well, which the Portuguese at length made themselves masters of by means
of a mine. After this loss, the enemy retired to a wood of palm-trees,
meaning to prepare engines to batter the fort, of which circumstance
intelligence was conveyed to Brito by a nephew to the rajah of Cananor,
who wished to acquire the friendship of the Portuguese, so that Brito
was prepared to receive the intended assault. Having completed their
preparations, the enemy moved on to fill up the ditch and assault the
fort; but were opposed with so much energy, at first by incessant
discharges of cannon, and afterwards by means of a sally, that the ditch
was filled with dead bodies instead of fascines. After losing a
prodigious number of men, the enemy retreated to the wood; and next
night, which was cold and rainy, Brito sent out eighty men to beat up
their quarters under the command of a Spanish officer named Guadalaxara,
who was next in command. This enterprise was so vigorously executed,
that after the discharge of a few small pieces of artillery, the enemy
fled in every direction to save themselves, leaving 300 of their men
slain. The joy for this victory on the side of the Portuguese was soon
miserably abated in consequence of the destruction of their entire
magazine of provisions by fire, by which they were reduced to the
extremity of famine, and under the necessity of feeding on all kinds of
vermin that could be procured. In this extreme distress, they were
providentially relieved by a rough sea throwing up vast quantities of
crabs or lobsters on the point of land where the chapel of the Virgin
stands, which was the only food which could be procured by the garrison
for a long while. While in this situation, in consequence of powerful
assistance from the zamorin, the rajah of Cananor made a fresh assault
upon Brito with 50,000 men, and was again repulsed with prodigious
slaughter, without the loss of one man on the side of the Portuguese.
Immediately after this exploit, Tristan de Cunna arrived at Cananor with
a reinforcement and a supply of provisions, by which and the noble
defence made by Brito the rajah of Cananor was so much intimidated that
he sued for peace, which was granted upon conditions highly honourable
and advantageous to the Portuguese.
As Tristan de Cunna was now ready to depart for Portugal with the
homeward bound ships, the viceroy went along with him to Paniani, a town
belonging to Calicut which he proposed to destroy, as it was much
frequented by the Moors, who took in loadings of spices at that place
under the protection of four ships belonging to the zamorin commanded by
a valiant Moor named Cutiale[97]. The viceroy and Tristan, having
anchored off the bar, held a council of war to deliberate upon a plan of
attack, when it was determined to send their two sons in two barks and
several boats to attack the place, while the viceroy and admiral should
follow in a galley.
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