South America - A General History And Collection Of Voyages And Travels - Volume 7 - By Robert Kerr
 -  Encouraged by this success, the admiral
immediately grappled another large ship which had chained itself to one
of the Christian - Page 59
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Encouraged By This Success, The Admiral Immediately Grappled Another Large Ship Which Had Chained Itself To One Of The Christian Foists; This Ship Was Likewise Taken And Sunk, With The Loss Of 500 Mahometans.

Discouraged by this defeat, the Mahometans assailed our twelve foists with all their force, _and carried them away_.

On this emergency the captain of the galley, Joam Serano, shewed the utmost gallantry, as he fiercely assaulted in his single galley those ships of the enemy which had _carried away_ our foists, and made such prodigious slaughter among the Mahometans as seemed quite incredible, so that he recovered all the foists, and sunk two other Mahometan ships. The conflict continued with unabated fury from morning till the darkness of the night parted the combatants, and God so favoured the Christians that few of them were slain, though many were wounded.

I must not omit to notice the zeal and courage displayed by Simon Martin, the captain of one of our ships, on the following occasion in this battle. It so happened that the brigantine in which I was, was at one time somewhat parted from the rest of our ships, on which four ships of the enemy assailed us all at once; and 150 of the Mahometans having boarded our vessel, constrained us to flee to the poop for safety. While we were in this extreme danger, Simon Martin leapt on board our vessel, invoking the name of Jesus to aid him, and fought with such desperate valour that he slew six of the enemy with his own bond. Encouraged by his gallantry, we came down from the poop to his assistance, and so handled the Mahometans that they leapt overboard for safety, when some of them were drowned and others escaped by swimming. Upon this our success, the enemy sent down four other foists to help those who were already engaged against us. But our captain took several empty casks in which gunpowder had been kept before, and placed them in such a manner on the side of our brigantine, that they seemed like large pieces of artillery, standing beside them with a _fire-stick_ or lighted match, as if about to discharge them. This device put the enemy in such fear that they departed from us.

Our admiral continued to pursue the enemy, and gave them another great overthrow, taking seven of their foists laden with various kinds of merchandise, and sank ten others by the shot of his artillery, one of which was laden with elephants. Hie enemy, seeing the ocean almost covered with the bodies of their slain, their principal ships taken, sunk, or much injured, and having lost all hope of victory, endeavoured to save themselves by flight. But the Portuguese determined to follow up their success, and again brought them to battle, which continued a whole day and night, to the utter discomfiture of the Mahometans, most of whose vessels were sunk. At this time some of our foists saw a large ship belonging to the enemy at some distance, and made sail towards her; but as the enemy saw themselves overmatched, they hurled all their carriages into the sea [110], after which they leapt overboard themselves, in hopes to swim on shore, as they are most expert swimmers. But our men followed them even to the shore with lances, cross-bows, and stones, killing them while swimming, so that the sea was coloured with their blood. Yet about 200 of them escaped on shore, after swimming about 20 miles. These Mahometans are all exceedingly expert swimmers, being accustomed to it from their early youth; and while we pursued them, they often dived and remained so long under water, that we thought they had sunk outright, and when they came up again and floated on the water, we thought we had been deceived by phantoms. They were however mostly all destroyed afterwards by one mischance or another, so that on this occasion the enemy lost a prodigious number of men. After the battle and pursuit ceased, our admiral sent some boats on shore in sundry places to number the dead bodies, which had been cast up by the sea, when about 3000 were found, besides many that had been carried away by the sea.

[Footnote 110: Perhaps they threw their guns overboard to lighten their vessel and facilitate their escape. - E.]

The king of Cananore beheld this great victory from the shore, and gave great commendations to the Portuguese for their valour, and very deservedly; for, though I have been in many hard-fought battles, I never saw greater valour than was displayed on this occasion by the Portuguese. After this great victory, we thought to have enjoyed peace and security, but worse events ensued; for the king of Cananore, who was a great friend to the Portuguese, died a few days afterwards, and was succeeded by a mortal enemy to the Christians, and a great friend to the zamorin, by whole interest he had been advanced to the kingdom of Cananore. This new king assembled his forces to make war against the Portuguese in all haste, believing that much of their ammunition had been expended in the late naval battle, and that their men were much wearied, and for the most part wounded, so that they would be unable to make any great resistance. To aid him on this occasion, the zamorin sent him 24 pieces of great cannon. This war began on the 7th of April, and continued to the 20th of August [111], before peace was restored. It were too long to recount all the brave actions performed by the Christians in this war against the Mahometans [112], who never encountered them with less than twenty-five or twenty-six thousand men and 140 pieces of artillery. The enemy on this occasion were armed in the manner already mentioned respecting the weapons of the inhabitants of Calicut, and the Christians in the harness and with the weapons then used by us in Europe[113].

[Footnote 111:

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