Having Furnished His
Boats With A Larger Force Of Armed Men, He Returned To The Shore, Still
Accompanied By Coello And The Moorish Pilot, Who, Seeing No Means Of
Escaping, Now Pointed Out The Watering-Place Close By The Shore.
At this
place they observed about twenty Moors armed with darts, who shewed as if
they meant to prevent them from taking water.
The general therefore gave
orders to fire three guns, to force them from the shore, that our men
might be able to land unopposed. Amazed and frightened by the noise and
the effect of the shot, the Moors ran away and hid themselves in the
bushes; and our people landed quietly, and took in fresh water, returning
to the ships a little before sunset. On arriving, the general found his
brother much disquieted, because a Negro, belonging to John Cambrayes,
the pilot of Paulo de la Gama, had run away to the Moors, though himself
a Christian.[34]
Upon Saturday the 24th of March, being the eve of the annunciation of our
Lady, a Moor appeared early in the morning on the shore, abreast of the
ships, calling out in a loud and shrill voice, "that if our men wanted
any more water they might now come for it, when they would find such as
were ready to force their return." Irritated at this bravado, and
remembering the injury done him in withholding the promised pilot, and
the loss of the Negro, the general resolved to batter the town with his
ordnance in revenge, and the other captains readily agreed to the measure.
Wherefore they armed all their boats, and came up before the town, where
the Moors had constructed a barricade of boards for their defence on the
shore, so thick that our men could not see the Moors behind. Upon the
shore, between that defence and the sea, an hundred Moors were drawn up,
armed with targets, darts, bows, arrows, and slings, who began to sling
stones at the boats as soon as they came within reach. They were
immediately answered with shot from our ordnance, on which they retired
from the shore behind their barricade, which was soon beaten down, when
they ran into the town, leaving two of their men slain. The general and
his men now returned to the ships to dinner, and the Moors were seen
running from that town to another; and so much were they afraid of the
Portuguese, that they abandoned the island, going by water to another
place on the opposite side. After dinner, our people went with their
captains on shore, to endeavour to take some of the Moors, with the hope
of procuring restitution of the Negro belonging to Cambrayes, who had run
away from the ships, and they were likewise desirous of recovering two
Indians, who were said by the Moorish pilot to be detained as captives in
Mozambique.
On this occasion, Paulo de la Gama seized four Moors who were in a boat;
but a great many Moors in other boats escaped, by hastening on shore and
leaving their boats behind, in which our men found much cotton cloth, and
several books of their Mahometan law, which the general ordered to be
preserved.
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