On This Occasion, The
Mine Had To Be Sprung Before It Was Quite Ready, Because The Portuguese
Had Already Come So Near It With A Counter Mine, That The Persians Were
Afraid Of Their Mine Being Rendered Useless Before They Could Place
Their Powder.
Another deserter came from the castle on the 15th, who
confirmed the report given by the former, and told
Us that the two
frigates which had assailed ours had come from Muskat, with the son of
the deceased Don Francisco de Sousa, late governor of the castle of
Ormus, who had come on purpose to carry away his mother and other women
from the castle.
At this time, the Moors who had surrendered to us from the castle of
Kismis, were delivered up to the Persian general, at his earnest
request, and partly with their own consent, on promise of being pardoned
for having served under the Portuguese against their own king and
country, and of being provided for and employed in the siege of Ormus.
He seemed to ratify this promise, both to them and us, by entertaining
some of their chiefs in our presence, with much apparent courtesy, even
giving fine new vests to five or six of the principal officers. Yet next
morning he caused eighty of their heads to be cut off, and sent the five
or six newly-vested chiefs to the Khan at Gambroon, to receive their
final doom, which was soon settled, as they were sentenced to the same
fate with their fellows. Mir Senadine, their chief captain, was executed
by the hands of Shere Alli, governor of Mogustan, who had married his
daughter, and yet put his father-in-law to death with as much
willingness as if he had been his mortal enemy.
The 17th of April, the Persians sprung another mine, closely adjoining
their first. This did not produce the effect expected, as it burst out
at the side, carrying part of the wall along with it, yet did little or
no harm upwards, which was the point aimed at, on purpose to widen the
former breach. Yet it encouraged the Persian general to try another
assault, with at least 2000 soldiers. They ran up the breach with great
resolution, into part of a bulwark or bastion, which they might easily
have gained, had not their haste run their resolution out of breath;
insomuch, that eight or ten Portuguese, assisted by a few blacks, armed
only with rapiers, made them give ground and retire to the outer skirt
of the bulwark, where there was not room for forty men to face the
enemy. They here endeavoured, however, to entrench themselves; but,
before they could establish a lodgement, the Portuguese plied two or
three pieces of ordnance upon them from a flanking battery, which sent
some scores of the Persians with news to their prophet Mortus Alli
that more of his disciples would shortly be with them. This accordingly
was the case, chiefly owing to their own ignorance and cowardice; for,
had they not made a stand in that place, but rushed pell-mell along with
the Portuguese into the castle, they might have carried it with less
than half the loss they sustained that day to little purpose. Had I not
been an eye-witness, I could hardly have believed the stupid ignorance
of the Persian general on this occasion. He had two breaches, almost
equally good, yet applied all his men to the assault of one only,
instead of attempting both at one time. Besides, he had at least eighty
or an hundred scaling-ladders, yet not one of them was brought near the
castle walls. His soldiers hung clustering on the breach, like a swarm
of bees, or a flock of sheep at a gap, none having the heart to enter,
while the Portuguese gleaned away five or six at a shot, sometimes more,
driving forwards their black soldiers to throw powder-pots among the
Persians.
The assault was renewed on the 18th, but with more harm to the Persians
than the Portuguese. During the intervening night, two blacks made signs
to the Persians on the top of the breach, that they wished to come over
to them, and were drawn up with ropes. By these it was learned that the
captain of the castle had been wounded in the head by a stone; that
there were not above an hundred men in the garrison able to handle their
arms: and that their water grew daily more scanty and worse in quality,
by which the mortality continually increased. They reported also that
great difference in opinion prevailed among the Portuguese, some wishing
to endeavour to escape by sea, while others held it more honourable to
sell their lives at a dear rate, by defending the castle to the last
extremity, and proposed, when they could no longer hold out, to put all
their women and treasure into a house and blow them up, that the
Persians might neither enjoy their wealth nor abuse their wives; and,
when this was done, to rush upon the Persians, and so end their days.
In the evening of the 19th, the Persians made another effort to press
forwards, and got possession of the entire bulwark, forcing the
Portuguese to retire farther within the castle. In this conflict many of
the Portuguese were wounded, and sore scalded with fire-pots, in the
management of which the Persians had now become expert, though many of
them had paid dearly for their instruction. In this conflict four
Portuguese were slain, and their heads brought to the Persian general.
In this art of cutting off heads, the Persians are particularly cunning,
insomuch, that I do not think there is an executioner in all Germany
that can excel them. No sooner does a Persian lay hold of an enemy, than
off goes his head at one blow of his scymitar.[308] He then makes a hole
in the ear or cheek with his dagger, by which he will sometimes bring
three or four heads at once to his general.
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