They Answered That They Had Nothing To Produce,
As All Their Goods Were In Calicut; On Which De Gama Ordered One Of Them
To Be Bound Hand And Foot And Thrown Into The Sea.
The rest were
intimidated by this procedure, and immediately delivered up every thing
belonging to them, which was very
Valuable; all of which was committed to
the charge of Diego Hernando Correa, the factor appointed for conducting
the trade at Cochin, by whose directions they were transported into one
of the Portuguese ships. De Gama ordered all the children belonging to
the Moors to be taken on board one of his own ships, and vowed to make
them all friars in the church of our Lady at Belem, which he afterwards
did[7]. All the ordinary merchandize belonging to the Moors was divided
among his own men; and when all the goods were removed, he ordered
Stephen de la Gama to confine the Moors under the hatches, and to set the
ship on fire, to revenge the death of the Portuguese who were slain in
the factory at Calicut. Soon after this was done, the Moors broke open
the hatches, and quenched the fire; on which the admiral ordered Stephen
de Gama to lay them, aboard. The Moors rendered desperate by this inhuman
treatment, defended themselves to the utmost, and even threw firebrands
into our ship to set it on fire. Night coming on, Stephen had to desist,
but was ordered to watch the Moorish ship carefully that it might not
escape during the dark, and the Moors all night long were heard calling
on Mahomet to deliver them out of the hands of the Christians.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 669 of 812
Words from 185335 to 185614
of 224388
