The Fort
Was Solemnly Blessed, And Consecrated By The Celebration Of Mass; After
Which Friar Gaston Preached A Sermon, In
Which he exhorted his hearers to
be thankful to God, who had permitted the inhabitants of the small western
kingdom
Of Portugal to construct a fortress in this distant region, among
so many enemies of the Catholic faith. He expressed a hope that this might
be the forerunner of many other establishments of a similar nature, to the
advancement of the true religion among the heathen, and the glory of
Portugal. He likewise desired his hearers to keep always in mind the high
obligations they owed to the rajah for the good service he had rendered to
the king of Portugal on this occasion. A faithful report was carried to
the rajah of this part of the discourse, who was much gratified, and gave
thanks for the same to the two generals.
After completing the fort, the Portuguese renewed the war, and made an
attack on two towns belonging to the lord of Repelim on the coast, about
five leagues from Cochin, having learned from spies that they were but
slightly garrisoned. On this expedition the generals took a body of seven
hundred men, and departing from Cochin about two hours before day, they
arrived at their destination about nine o'clock next morning. These towns
had a population of six thousand people, besides children, and were only
defended by three hundred nayres, all bowmen. Alonso de Albuquerque with
part of the forces landed at the nearest town, and Francisco with the
remainder of the forces at the other, which was only about a cannon-shot
distant from the former. In the first town the enemy was completely
surprised and run away, and the place was set on fire without resistance.
On seeing the people run away, our men pursued and slew many of the
fugitives, and when wearied of the pursuit they plundered and destroyed
the country. In the mean time the alarm was spread over the neighbourhood,
and about 6000 nayres assembled, who made an attack upon our men as they
were embarking, so that they were in great danger: In particular, Duarte
Pacheco, not being able to find his boat in the place where he had left it,
was closely pursued; and though he and his company defended themselves
valiantly, and killed many of the enemy, eight of his men were wounded
with arrows. So superior was the number of the enemy on this occasion,
that Pacheco and his men had assuredly been all slain, if the rest of the
troops had not again landed to his rescue; on which the enemy lost heart
and run away, leaving the field of battle strewed over with their slain.
After the defeat of the nayres, our men set fire to fifteen paraws, which
were drawn up on the beach, and carried away seven which were afloat.
The lord of Repelim was much grieved at the destruction of his towns; and
being afraid of our people making an attack on another about a league
farther up the river, he sent a strong detachment of his nayres for its
security. The generals, however, resolved to follow up their victory, and
to do all the evil in their power to the territories of this lord. For
this purpose, after allowing their men some time for rest, they departed
about midnight, while it was still so dark that they could not see each
other in the boats, expecting to come upon their enemies by surprise by
dawn of next morning. The boats in which Alonso de Albuquerque and his
party were embarked got considerably a-head of the rest, and arrived at
the town which it was intended to attack a good while before day. Weary of
waiting for the rest, he landed his men, and gave orders to set the town
on fire. At first they were successful in this rash enterprise, as the
ordinary inhabitants were a cowardly unarmed people. But the garrison of
above two thousand nayres, having assembled on the alarm, attacked Alonso
and his men with great fury and forced them to retreat to their boats,
after killing one man and wounding several others of the party, which only
consisted originally of forty men. Alonso and his soldiers would not have
been able to make good their retreat, if the sailors who remained in
charge of the boats had not fired off a falcon[5], or small piece of
ordnance, on which the nayres gave over the pursuit. By this time day
broke, and Francisco de Albuquerque approached with the rest of the boats;
and seeing the perilous situation of Alonso, he commanded the ordnance in
the boats to be played off against the enemy, on which they fled from the
shore. At this time Pacheco, who was somewhat astern of the rest, observed
a great number of armed nayres marching along a narrow passage to
reinforce the others at the town; and brought his boat so near the pass,
that he completely stopt their passage that way. The whole of our men were
now landed, and soon constrained the enemy to take flight with
considerable loss; after which they set the town on fire, but did not
think it prudent to pursue the runaways, as they were not acquainted with
the country.
After this exploit, Duarte Pacheco and Pedro de Tayde went with their
divisions to destroy another town at some distance, in their way towards
which they fought and defeated eighteen paraws belonging to the zamorin,
and then set the town on fire. From thence they stood over to the island
of _Cambalan_, the caymal of which was an enemy of the Cochin rajah, where
they destroyed a large town. From that place, Pacheco went with five armed
paraws of Cochin to burn another town, where he met with considerable
resistance, and slew a great number of the enemy, seven of his own people
being wounded. After setting the town on fire, he retired towards Cochin,
and was forced to fight with thirteen armed paraws of Calicut, which he
defeated with the assistance of Pedro de Tayde and Antonio del Campo, who
fortunately joined him in this emergency.
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