When Morning
Broke And The Assailants Had Retired, The Monastery Was All Stuck Full
Of Arrows, And The Dead Bodies Of 300 Moors Were Seen Around Its Walls,
While The Defenders Had Not Lost A Single Man.
The enemy renewed the
assault on this post for five successive days, and were every time
repulsed by the Portuguese with vast slaughter, the garrison often
sallying out and strewing the field with slain enemies.
It was at length
judged expedient to withdraw the men from this place into the town, lest
its loss might occasion greater injury than its defence could do
service. Seventeen of the Portuguese were here slain. One of these used
to stand on a high place to notice when the enemy fired their cannon,
and on one occasion said to the men below; "If these fellows should now
fire Raspadillo, a cannon 18 feet long to which that name was given,
it will send me to sup with Christ, to whom I commend my soul, for it
points directly at me." He had hardly spoken these words when he was
torn in pieces by a ball from that very gun. On getting possession of
the monastery of St Francis, the Moors fired a whole street in the town
of Chaul, but on attempting to take post in some houses, they were
driven out with the loss of 400 men. At this time Gonzalez de Camera
went to Goa for reinforcements, as the garrison was much pressed, and
brought a relief in two galleys.
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