The Principal Moors, Likewise, Who Were Present
In The Council Used All Their Art And Influence To Induce The Zamorin To
Persevere; And It Was At Length Determined To Continue The War.
One _Cogeal_, a Moor of Repelim who had been a great traveller, and had
seen many warlike devices, proposed
A new invention for attacking the
caravels at the ford, which was considered to be perfectly irresistible.
Cogeal directed a floating castle to be built of timber on two boats or
lighters, which were firmly secured by two beams at their heads and
sterns. Over this the castle or square tower was strongly built of beams
joined together by bars of iron and large nails, carried up to the height
of a lance or spear, and so large that it was able to contain forty men
with several pieces of ordnance. It was proposed that this castle should
be brought Up to grapple with the caravels, by which the Portuguese might
be attacked on equal terms. On seeing this machine, the zamorin liberally
rewarded Cogeal for his ingenuity, and gave orders to have other seven
constructed of the same kind. By means of his spies, Pacheco got notice
of the construction of these floating castles, and likewise that the
enemy were preparing certain fireworks to set the caravels on fire[6]. To
keep off the fireships and floating castles, he constructed a species of
rafts, made of masts or spars eight fathoms long, and bound together with
iron bolts and hoops.
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