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.
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