Twenty Of The Foysts Or
Large Barks Were Chained Together, As A Floating Battery To Assault The
Caravel; Besides Which, There Were Fifty-Three _Catures_ And Thirty Large
Barks, Each Of Which Carried Sixteen Men And One Piece Of Ordnance,
Besides Other Weapons.
Besides all these armed vessels, there were a
great many more filled with soldiers, so that the whole river seemed
entirely covered over.
Of this numerous fleet, which contained near 10,
000 men, Naubea Daring was admiral or commander in chief, and the lord of
Repelim vice-admiral. All these advanced against the Portuguese, setting
up terrible shouts, which was answered alternately by sounding all their
military instruments of music. The whole of these people were almost
naked, having targets of various colours, and made a very gallant
appearance. On the approach of this prodigious fleet, our caravel and
boats were hardly discernible, so completely did the enemy cover the face
of the water. Terrified by so prodigious a multitude, the naires of
Cochin all ran away, only Grandagora and Frangora remaining, who were on
board the caravel, or they would have done like the rest. Indeed their
presence was of no importance, except to serve as witnesses of the valour
of our men.
Our people plied their ordnance and small arms so incessantly that the
air was quite darkened with smoke, and as the boats of the enemy were
very numerous and without order, they hindered each other, and our fire
did prodigious execution among them, several of their paraws being torn
to pieces and great numbers of their men killed and wounded, without any
hurt on our side. The twenty-five paraws[3] which were chained together
were now brought forwards, and gave much annoyance to our men, who were
now likewise much fatigued, as the battle had continued a long time. The
captain-general gave orders to fire off a _saker_,[4] which had not been,
hitherto used during the battle. By the time this had been twice fired,
it did such terrible execution among the thick of the enemy as to sink
four of their paraws, and all the others made the best of their way out
of the battle, eighteen of the paraws being sunk in all, and vast numbers
of the enemy slain and wounded. On the defeat of this squadron, which was
commanded by Prince Naubea Daring, Elankol, the lord of Repelim, who was
vice-admiral, came forward with a fresh squadron, and gave a proud onset,
commanding his paraws to lay the caravel on board; but the Malabars had
not resolution to put this order into execution, and held off at some
distance. The zamorin also approached with the land army, doing his
utmost to force the passage of the ford; but all their efforts were in
vain, although this second battle was more fiercely urged than the first.
Though the battle continued from daybreak to almost sunset, the enemy
were able to make no impression, and were known to have lost 350 men
slain outright, besides others, which were above 1000.[5] Some of our men
were wounded, but none slain; for the balls of the enemy, though of cast
iron, had no more effect than as many stones thrown by hand.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 391 of 427
Words from 205257 to 205800
of 224388
