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. But he was afraid to venture on land with so
small a force against so great a multitude, or even to approach too near
the shore, lest the enemies might assail him in their almadias and tonis.
He lay off, therefore, at a considerable distance, where he remained a
spectator of the valiant defence made by our people at the factory,
whence they killed great numbers of the assailants.
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