That He Had Employed The Portuguese To Seize The Ship To
Try Their Courage, And Had Allowed Them To Load Their Ships, That The
Money They Had Brought To Purchase Goods Might Remain In The Country; And
Finally, That He Would Not Forsake Them In Favour Of The Strangers.
The
Moors were by no means satisfied with all this, because the zamorin did
not order us to depart from Calicut, and did not stop our trade, which
was their chief purpose.
Though disappointed in these views, they
continued to intermiddle in our affairs, particularly by buying up the
spices and sending them elsewhere, in hope of irritating our people, and
bringing on a quarrel, that they might have a pretext to attack us. This
they were much inclined to bring about, as, being greatly more numerous
than our men, they hoped the zamorin would take part with them against us.
They likewise used all possible means to draw over the common people of
Calicut to their side, and to excite them to enmity, against us, by
making them believe that our people had injured them.
Through those devices, our factor was unable to procure more spices than
sufficed to load two ships in the course of three months, from which the
general was convinced that the friendly assurances of the zamorin was
little to be depended on; and if he had not been afraid of not being able
to procure a sufficient supply elsewhere, he would have gone to another
port: But, having already consumed a long time and been at heavy charges,
he determined to remain at Calicut, and sent a message to the zamorin,
complaining of the delays, which ill accorded with the promises of his
highness, that the whole fleet should be loaded in twenty days, whereas
three months were now elapsed and the loading of two ships only was
procured. He urged the zamorins promise that the Portuguese ships were to
be first loaded; whereas he had assured information that the Moors had
bought up great quantities of spices at lower prices, and sent them to
other places, and begged the zamorin to consider that it was now time for
the ships to begin their voyage to Portugal, and that he anxiously wished
for dispatch. On receiving this message, the zamorin pretended to be much
surprised that our ships were still unprovided with a loading, and could
not believe that the Moors had secretly bought up and removed the spices,
contrary to his orders; and even gave permission to the general to take
those ships belonging to the Moors which were laden with spices, paying
the same prices for the spices which had been given by the Moors. This
intelligence gave much satisfaction to the Moors, as a favourable
opportunity for drawing on hostilities with the Portuguese; and,
accordingly, one of the principal Moorish merchants began immediately to
load his ship: openly with all kinds of drugs and spices, and suborned
several Moors and Indians, who pretended to be the friends of our factor,
to insinuate that he would never be able to find a sufficient loading for
our fleet, if he did not seize that ship. Correa listened to this
insidious advice, which he communicated to the general, urging him to
take that Moorish ship, as he had license from the zamorin to that effect.
The general was exceedingly unwilling to proceed to this extremity,
afraid of the influence of the Moors with the zamorin, and of producing
hostilities with the natives. But Correa remonstrated against delay,
protesting that the general should be responsible for all losses that
might accrue to the king of Portugal through his neglect. Over-persuaded
by this urgency of the factor, the general sent all the boats of the
squadron on the 17th of December to take possession of the Moorish ship.
When this intelligence was received on shore, the Moors thought this a
favourable opportunity of destroying our people, and immediately raised a
great outcry against the Portuguese, incensing the people of the city to
join with them in complaining to the zamorin; to whom they went in a
tumultuous manner, representing that we had bought and shipped a much
larger quantity of drugs and spices than the value of all our merchandize,
and not contented with this, were for taking all like thieves and pirates;
they blamed the zamorin for permitting us to trade in the city, and
requested his license to revenge themselves upon us for the loss of their
vessel. The faithless and inconstant king save them the license they
required; on which they immediately armed themselves, and ran furiously
to our factory, which was surrounded by a wall eight or ten feet high,
and contained at that time seventy Portuguese, among whom was Fra
Henriques and his friars. Of our people in the factory, only eight were
armed with crossbows, all the rest being only armed with swords, with
nothing to defend them but their cloaks. On hearing the tumult, our
people went to the gate of the factory, and seeing only a few assailants,
they thought to defend themselves with their swords against a mischievous
rabble, but the numbers of the Moors soon increased, and galled our
people so severely with their spears and arrows, that they were forced to
shut the gates, after killing seven of the enemy, hoping to be able to
defend themselves by means of the wall. In this conflict four of our men
were slain, and several wounded, and all the remainder mounted the wall
to defend it by means of the crossbows, judging that the assailants were
at least four thousand men, among whom were several nayres.
Cores now found himself unable to defend the factory against so great a
force, and therefore hoisted a flag as signal to the fleet. The general
was at this time sick in bed, having been just blooded, and was not
therefore able to go in person to relieve the people in the factory; but
immediately sent all the boats of the fleet, well manned, under the
command of Sancho de Toar.
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