But Their Enemies
Always Increased In Numbers, And They At Length Brought Up Certain
Engines To Beat Down Part Of
The wall, in which they at length succeeded.
On this, our men issued out by a door which led towards
The sea side, in
hopes of being able to fight their way to the boats, in which attempt
Corea was slain, and fifty more of our men were either killed or made
prisoners, twenty only escaping who swam to the boats, most of whom were
much wounded. Among these were Fra Henriques, and Antonio, the son of
Aries Corea, then only eleven years old; who hath since done many noble
feats of arms in the Indies and other places, as I shall afterwards
declare in the _Fourth_ Book of this history.
The general was much concerned at this event, not only for the loss of
his men, but on seeing how little confidence could be reposed on the
promises of the zamorin after all the presents he had received, and the
services which had been performed for him. He had now spent three months
at Calicut, during which he had only loaded two of his ships, and knew
not how to procure loading for the rest; especially as he could not
expect a favourable reception at Cochin on account of having captured the
ship with the elephant as before related. Considering the treason which
had been practised on our men, the general determined upon taking a
signal revenge, if the zamorin did not make an ample excuse for what had
taken place, and make a full reparation by immediately providing the rest
of the ships with lading. The zamorin, however, had no such intentions,
being much pleased with what the Moors had done, and even ordered all the
goods in our factory to be seized, to the value of 4000 ducats. He
likewise ordered all of our people who had been taken on shore to be made
captives, four of whom died of their wounds. Seeing that no message or
excuse was sent by the zamorin all that day, the general held a council
with his officers as to the proper steps to be taken on the present
emergency; when it was determined to take immediate and ample revenge,
without giving time to the zamorin to arm his fleet. On this, orders were
issued to take possession of ten large ships which lay in the road or
harbour of Calicut, which was done after some resistance, many of their
crews being killed or drowned, and others made prisoners who were
reserved to serve as mariners on board our fleet. Some spices and other
merchandize were taken in these ships, and three elephants, which were
killed and salted as provisions for the voyage; and it appeared that 600
Moors were slain in defending these ships. After every thing of value was
taken from the Moorish ships, they were all burnt in sight of the city.
Many of the Moors embarked in their almadias to attempt succouring their
ships, but our men soon put them to flight by means of their ordnance.
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