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.
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