All This, However,
Could Not Induce The Zamorin To Perform His Promise; For He Was Of An
Inconstant And Wavering Disposition, And Influenced By The Counsels Of
The Moors.
The outward shew he had made of peace was only feigned, or
occasioned by the fear he had of
Seeing so great a fleet in his port,
from which he dreaded to sustain great injury; but the Moors had now
persuaded him into a contrary opinion, and had prevailed on him to break
his word.
When the time appointed by the admiral was expired, he ordered a gun to
be fired, as a signal to the captains of his ships to hang up the poor
Malabar prisoners, who had been distributed through the fleet. After they
were dead, he ordered their hands and feet to be cut off and sent on
shore in a paraw, accompanied by two boats well armed, and placed a
letter in the paraw for the zamorin, written in Arabic, in which he
signified that he proposed to reward him in this manner for his deceitful
conduct and repeated breach of faith; and, in regard to the goods
belonging to the king of Portugal which he detained, he would recover
them an hundred fold[9]. After this, the admiral ordered three of his
ships to be warped during the night as near as possible to the shore; and
that these should fire next day incessantly on the city with all their
cannon, by which vast injury was done, and the royal palace was entirely
demolished, besides several other houses belonging to the principal
inhabitants of the place.
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