But On The Viceroy Almeyda Receiving Notice Of The Preparations At Calicut, He Sent His Son Don Lorenzo Thither With A Squadron Of Ten Ships.

At this time Gonzalo Vaz was in Cananor with his ship, taking in water; and on his voyage to

Join Don Lorenzo he fell in with a ship belonging to Cananor having a Portuguese pass, which he sunk with all her moorish crew sewed up in a sail that they might never be seen. But this wicked action was afterwards discovered, for which Vaz was broke; a very incompetent punishment for so great a crime, owing to which the Portuguese afterwards suffered severe calamities, as will appear in the sequel.

On his way towards Dabul in search of the Calicut fleet, Don Lorenzo cast anchor at the entrance of the port of Chaul, into which seven vessels belonging to the Moors entered without making any return to his salute. On this Lorenzo followed them in his boats, and the Moors leaped overboard to escape on shore, but many of them were slain by the Portuguese in the water. Lorenzo then took possession of the ships, which were laden with horses and other goods; and as the Moors endeavoured to overreach him with regard to ransoming their vessels, greatly underrating their cargoes, he ordered them all to be burnt. Going thence to Dabul, where he found the Calicut fleet, he anchored off the mouth of the river, and called a council of his officers to consult on the proper measures for an attack; but owing to the narrowness of the river it was carried in the council not to attack, contrary to the opinion of Lorenzo, who was eager to destroy the enemies ships. 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.

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