On Their Defeat, The Calient Paraws Retired Into A Creek, Where One Of Them Ran Aground And Was Taken By Pacheco; But Our Men Being Worn Out With Hard Rowing, Were Unable To Pursue The Rest, And Returned To Cochin.

On receiving an account of these transactions, the rajah was much satisfied with the revenge which had been taken of his enemies, and requested of our generals to discontinue the war, to which, however, they were by no means inclined.

On account of the war, no pepper was brought from the country to sell at the factory in Cochin, neither dared the merchants to go out in search of that commodity, insomuch that the factory had only been able to procure 300 _bahars_[6], and the factor requested the generals to go in quest of some which was to be procured at a place about nine leagues from Cochin. For this purpose the two generals and all their captains set out from Cochin under night, that their intentions might not be discovered by the enemy. On the way Pacheco destroyed a whole island, in which he fought against six thousand of the enemy with his own company only, and the two generals put thirty-four paraws to flight. After this Pacheco and del Campo destroyed a town on the continent, where they defeated two thousand nayres, many of whom were slain, without any loss on their side. After this, the generals sent on the _tony_[7] for the pepper, which carried such merchandize as was meant to be given in exchange; and for its protection Pacheco and three other captains accompanied it with two hundred men, and five hundred Cochin paraws[8]. In passing a narrow strait or river, our people were assailed from the banks by a vast number of the natives armed with bows and arrows, but were defended by their targets, which were fixed on the gunwales of their boats. Leaving one of his captains with fifty Portuguese t protect the tony, Pacheco with the other two captains and the troops belonging to the rajah, made towards the shore, firing off his falcons against the enemy, whom he forced to quit the shore with much loss; after which he landed with his troops, most of whom were armed with hand-guns. The enemy, who were full two thousand strong, resisted for a quarter of an hour, but at length took to flight after having many slain. Pacheco pursued them to a village, where the fugitives rallied and were joined by many nayres, insomuch that they now amounted to six thousand men, and our people were in great jeopardy, as the enemy endeavoured to surround them, and to intercept their return to the boats. But our men defended themselves manfully, and fought their way back to the shore, where the natives divided on each hand, being afraid of the shot of the falcons, which slew great numbers of them, and our men re-embarked without having a single man killed or wounded.

The zamorin was much displeased at the successes of our people against his confederates, and by the loss of many of his paraws in these several actions, and was even afraid lest the Portuguese might eventually dispossess him of his dominions. He used every exertion therefore to prevent us from procuring pepper, being in hopes, if our ships were constrained to return to Portugal without loading, that they would come no more back to India. He used his influence therefore even with the merchants of Cochin to refuse supplying pepper to our ships, which they did so effectually, under pretence of the war, that, in spite of the influence of the rajah, and notwithstanding high offers of reward from Francisco de Albuquerque, the factory had only been able to procure 1200 quintals or 4000 bahars[9] of pepper; and even that was got with hard fighting, some hurt to our own men, and infinite loss of lives to the enemy. Unable to procure any more pepper in Cochin, Alonso de Albuquerque went to Coulan in search of that commodity, accompanied by Pedro de Tayde and Antonio del Campo, knowing that the government of that state was desirous of having one of our factories established in their city, and had solicited both Pedro Alvares Cabral and the lord admiral De Gama to that effect; and Alonso was determined to go to war with the people of Coulan unless they gave him loading for his ships.

Coulan is twelve leagues from Cochin, and twenty-four from Cape Comorin. Before the building of Calicut, Coulan was the principal city of Malabar, and the port of greatest trade on that coast. Its buildings, more especially the temples and shrines of their idols, are larger and more splendid than those of Cochin. The haven is excellent, the country is well stored with provisions, and the condition of the people resembles in all things what has been formerly said of the inhabitants of Calicut. The inhabitants are idolatrous Malabars, having among them many rich Moorish merchants, more especially since the war broke out between us and the zamorin, as many of these merchants had left Calicut to reside at Coulan. They trade with Coromandel, Ceylon, the Maldive islands, Bengal, Pegu, Camatia, and Malava. The rajah or king of this state rules over an extensive kingdom, in which there are many rich cities and several good harbours; by which means he has a large revenue, and is able to maintain a great military force, but the men are mostly of a low stature: He entertains in his palace a guard of three hundred women, armed with bows and arrows, who are very expert archers, and they bind up their breasts very tight with bandages of silk and linen, that they may not stand in the way of using their bows. This rajah usually resides in a city named Calle, and is generally at war with the king of Narsinga[10].

In the city of Coulan, which is governed by certain officers or aldermen, there is a church which was built by the apostle St Thomas, who came here to preach the Catholic faith, and made many converts both among the idolaters and others, who have handed down the Christian belief from generation to generation, so that there are at least twelve thousand families of Christians scattered abroad in the country, in which they have churches in many places.

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