Volume Ii Part 33 (2/2)

In the course of the night, by the advice of the Italian lapidaries who had deserted to the enemy, the zamorin caused a sconce or battery to be erected directly over against the place where Pacheco was stationed, on which five pieces of ordnance were placed, from which great service was expected in the ensuing battle, owing to the narrowness of the pa.s.s. On the morning of Palm Sunday, the zamorin marched forwards with 47,000 men, partly naires and part Moors, and accompanied by all the rajahs and caymals who had joined him in this war. Of these, the rajah of _Tanor_ had 4000 naires; the rajahs of _Bybur_ and _Curran_, whose countries lay near the mountains of Narsinga, had 12,000 naires; the rajah of _Cotogataco_, which is between Cochin and Cananor close beside the mountains, had 18,000 naires; the rajah of _Curia_, which is between Paniani and Cranganor, had 3000 naires. Naubea Daring, the prince of Calicut, and his brother Namboa, who were particularly attached to that part of the army composed of the zamorins immediate subjects, had a large body of men whose numbers I do not particularize. Their warlike instruments were many and of divers sorts, and made a noise as if heaven and earth were coming together.

Before day, the van of this prodigious army arrived at the sconce of the Italians, and began immediately to play off their ordnance against the caravel, which was so near that it was an absolute miracle that not a single shot did any harm. But our cannon were better served, and every shot did execution among the enemy: and so well did they ply their guns, that before sunrise above thirty discharges were made from our caravel.

At day-break, the whole of the enemies fleet, consisting of 169 barks, came out of the rivers of the island of Repelim to attack our small force.

Sixty-six of these were paraws, having their sides defended with bags of cotton by advice of the Italians, to ward off our shot; and each of these had twenty-five men and two pieces of ordnance, five of the men in each paraw being armed with calivers or matchlocks. Twenty of the foysts or large barks were chained together, as a floating battery to a.s.sault the caravel; besides which, there were fifty-three _catures_ and thirty large barks, each of which carried sixteen men and one piece of ordnance, besides other weapons. Besides all these armed vessels, there were a great many more filled with soldiers, so that the whole river seemed entirely covered over. Of this numerous fleet, which contained near 10, 000 men, Naubea Daring was admiral or commander in chief, and the lord of Repelim vice-admiral. All these advanced against the Portuguese, setting up terrible shouts, which was answered alternately by sounding all their military instruments of music. The whole of these people were almost naked, having targets of various colours, and made a very gallant appearance. On the approach of this prodigious fleet, our caravel and boats were hardly discernible, so completely did the enemy cover the face of the water. Terrified by so prodigious a mult.i.tude, the naires of Cochin all ran away, only Grandagora and Frangora remaining, who were on board the caravel, or they would have done like the rest. Indeed their presence was of no importance, except to serve as witnesses of the valour of our men.

Our people plied their ordnance and small arms so incessantly that the air was quite darkened with smoke, and as the boats of the enemy were very numerous and without order, they hindered each other, and our fire did prodigious execution among them, several of their paraws being torn to pieces and great numbers of their men killed and wounded, without any hurt on our side. The twenty-five paraws[3] which were chained together were now brought forwards, and gave much annoyance to our men, who were now likewise much fatigued, as the battle had continued a long time. The captain-general gave orders to fire off a _saker_,[4] which had not been, hitherto used during the battle. By the time this had been twice fired, it did such terrible execution among the thick of the enemy as to sink four of their paraws, and all the others made the best of their way out of the battle, eighteen of the paraws being sunk in all, and vast numbers of the enemy slain and wounded. On the defeat of this squadron, which was commanded by Prince Naubea Daring, Elankol, the lord of Repelim, who was vice-admiral, came forward with a fresh squadron, and gave a proud onset, commanding his paraws to lay the caravel on board; but the Malabars had not resolution to put this order into execution, and held off at some distance. The zamorin also approached with the land army, doing his utmost to force the pa.s.sage of the ford; but all their efforts were in vain, although this second battle was more fiercely urged than the first.

Though the battle continued from daybreak to almost sunset, the enemy were able to make no impression, and were known to have lost 350 men slain outright, besides others, which were above 1000.[5] Some of our men were wounded, but none slain; for the b.a.l.l.s of the enemy, though of cast iron, had no more effect than as many stones thrown by hand. Yet our barricades of defence were all torn to pieces, and one of our boats was very much damaged, which was entirely repaired during the night.

The rajahs and other chiefs who were allied with the zamorin, lost all hope of ever being able to get the victory over the Portuguese, and were sorry for having joined in the war so greatly to their own dishonour.

Being afraid the captain-general might burn and destroy their towns and houses, which were all situated on the banks of rivers, they were anxious to leave the army of the zamorin, and to give over making war on the Portuguese. Some among them withdrew privately from the camp of the zamorin to the island of Vaipi with all their men, and reconciled themselves with the rajah of Cochin: These were _Maraguta, Muta_ Caymal, his brother and cousins. The zamorin was exceedingly mortified by the discomfiture of his people, and severely reprimanded his chiefs for their pusillanimous conduct, in allowing themselves to be defeated by such a handful of men. The two Italian deserters, while they acknowledged the valour of the Portuguese in the late action, represented that it would be impossible for them to continue to bear up long against such vast odds without reinforcements, and recommended the frequent reiteration of a.s.saults, under which they must necessarily be at last overthrown. All those rajahs and chiefs who were for continuing the war, joined in opinion with the Italians. The zamorin made a speech, in which he recapitulated the defeats they had sustained and the defection of some of his allies, who had entered into treaty with the rajah of Cochin. He stated how short a period of the summer now remained for continuing the operations of the war, which must soon be laid aside during the storms and rain of the winter season, when it was impossible to keep the field; and that, on the conclusion of winter, a new fleet would come from Portugal with powerful reinforcements to the enemy, who would then be able to carry the war as formerly into his dominions, to their utter loss and destruction. He concluded by giving his opinion that it was necessary for him to make peace with the Christians. Naubea Daring, the prince of Calicut, made a long speech, in which he defended the Portuguese against the imputation thrown upon them by the Moors of their being thieves and pirates. He recapitulated all their conduct since their first arrival in India, showing that they had always conducted themselves with good faith, whereas they had been forced into war against Calicut by treachery and oppression. He concluded by strongly recommending to negotiate peace with the Christians, as otherwise the city and trade of Calicut would be utterly destroyed, to the irreparable injury of the zamorins revenue, which was of more importance to him than the friends.h.i.+p of the Moors, whose only object was their own profit. The zamorin was greatly moved by this discourse, and recommended to the other chiefs that they should concur with the prince, in procuring the establishment of peace. This opinion was by no means relished by Elankol, the lord of Repelim, who had confederated with the Moors to urge a continuance of the war, and endeavoured to impress upon the zamorin that his reputation would be destroyed by proposing peace at this time, which would be imputed to him as an act of cowardice. The princ.i.p.al 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 fires.h.i.+ps 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. Several of these, which were likewise eight fathoms broad, were moored with anchors and cables, at the distance of a stones throw from the caravels. Likewise, to prevent the caravels from being overlooked by the floating castles, one Peter Raphael built certain turrets on the decks of the caravels of spars set upright, in each of which seven or eight men had room to handle their arms. At this time the rajah of Cochin visited Pacheco, whom he earnestly exhorted to provide well for defence against the zamorin; as he was well a.s.sured his own subjects would desert him, if Pacheco were defeated. Pacheco upbraided Trimumpara for his tears, desiring him to call in mind the victories which the Portuguese had already gained over the enemy; and requested of him to return to his capital showing himself confident among his people, and to rest a.s.sured that he and the Portuguese would keep the pa.s.s against every force the zamorin might bring against it.

In expectation of an immediate attack, Lorenco Moreno returned to the caravels with as many of his people as could be spared from the factory.

Pacheco made all his people take rest early in the night, that they might be able for the expected fatigues of the ensuing day, on which he had intelligence that the grand attack was to be made. About midnight, his small force was summoned under arms; when, after confession and absolution, he made a speech to his men, exhorting them to behave themselves manfully in the approaching conflict. They all answered, that they were resolved to conquer or die. About two in the morning, some of the most advanced vessels belonging to the Calicut fleet began to fire off their ordnance, as they approached towards the pa.s.s. The zamorin was himself along with the land army, which exceeded 30,000 men, accompanied with many field pieces. Elankol, the lord of Repelim, who commanded the vanguard, advanced to the point of _Arraul_, which in some measure commanded the ford, at which place he began to throw up some ramparts or defences of earth. Pacheco landed secretly at the point with a detachment of his troops, on purpose to prevent the enemy from throwing up entrenchments, and a sharp skirmish ensued, in which many of the enemy were slain. On the appearance of day, Pacheco retired to his boats, though with no small difficulty, owing to the vast numbers of the enemy who thronged around; yet got off with all his people unhurt, having effectually hindered the proposed intrenchments.

The land army of the enemy now brought their ordnance to the point, where they began a furious cannonade upon; the caravels, yet without doing us any harm, as our people were all effectually secured by means of high wooden defences on the gunwales of their vessels; whereas every shot of ours made prodigious havoc among the enemy, who were quite unsheltered.

The zamorin sent orders to his fleet to come on with all expedition, to deliver him and his men from this imminent danger. The Calicut fleet now approached in most formidable order, having several fire rafts in front, intended for setting our caravels on fire. After them came 110 paraws, full of men, and every one of them having ordnance, many of these being fastened together by means of chains. After these came 100 _catures_ and eighty _tonys_, each of which had a piece of ordnance and thirty men. In the rear of all came the eight castles, which kept close by the point of _Arraul_, as the _ebb was not yet altogether entered_.[7] The enemy came on with loud shouts and the sound of many instruments, as if to an a.s.sured victory, and immediately began a furious cannonade. Their fire rafts advanced burning in a most alarming manner, but were stopped by the _canizos_, or rafts of defence, formerly mentioned. By these likewise, the paraws and other vessels of the enemy were prevented from closing with our caravels and boats, which they seem to have intended. In this part of the battle many of the paraws and other vessels of the enemy were torn to pieces and sunk, and a great number of their men were killed and wounded. On the turn of the tide, the floating castles put off from the point, and were towed by boats towards the caravels. In the largest of these castles there were forty men, in others thirty-five, and the smallest had thirty, all armed with bows or matchlocks, besides ordnance; and they seemed quite an irresistible force in comparison of ours, which consisted only of two caravels and two armed boats.

When the largest castle came up to our floating defence, it immediately commenced a tremendous fire of all its ordnance upon our caravels; and at this time Pacheco ordered a _saker_ to be shot off, which seemed to do very little harm even at a second discharge. The remainder of the castles now came into their stations, and the battle raged with the utmost fury.

What with incessant flights of arrows, and the smoke of so many guns, our people could seldom see the vessels of the enemy. In this extremity, the saker was discharged a third time against the largest castle, which had been somewhat shaken by the two former discharges. By this shot its iron work was broken, some of its beams were forced from their places, and several of the men on board were slain. By two other discharges of the saker this castle was all torn in pieces, and was forced to retire out of the battle. Still however the rest of the castles, and the numerous fleet of small craft kept up the fight. Towards evening all the castles were much injured, many of the paraws were sunk and torn in pieces, and great numbers of the enemy slain; so that at length they were constrained to retire. On our side not one man was even wounded: One only ball went through the caravel in which Pacheco commanded, and pa.s.sed among many of his men without doing any hurt. On the enemy retiring, Pacheco gave chase in the two boats and some paraws; and the caravels kept up a constant fire upon point _Arraul_, whence they forced the zamorin and the land army to retire, after having 330 of his men slain. After this great victory, the inhabitants of Cochin became quite rea.s.sured, and were no longer in dread of the power of the zamorin. Trimumpara came to visit Pacheco, whom he embraced, and congratulated on his great prowess: Many of the princ.i.p.al naires of Cochin went to compliment him; and even numbers of the Moorish merchants brought him rich presents, hoping to secure his favour.

The zamorin was greatly disheartened by the overthrow of all his mighty preparations, and losing all hope of victory wished seriously to end the war. In a council of his allies and great men, they represented the great losses they had already endured in the war with the Portuguese, and proposed to treat with them for peace. His brother Naubea Daring, who had always been averse to the war, seemed to believe that Pacheco would refuse any treaty, and advised rather to defer making an offer of peace till the arrival of the next captain-general from Portugal. This prince was likewise of opinion that the Calicut army should still keep the field till the coming on of the rainy season made it advisable to retire; as it would look like flight to retreat at this time. Yet he recommended that no more attacks should be made on the pa.s.s, in which attempts they had already met with so much loss. Elankol, the lord of Repelim, urged the continuance of the war, and to make reiterated a.s.saults on the Christians, which must be at last successful; by which means all the Portuguese that were in Cochin, Cananor, and Coulan would be destroyed. He advised likewise, to send false intelligence to these places, saying that they had taken our caravels and slain all our men; on which news the people of Cananor and Coulan would put the people in our factories to death. This was accordingly done; but as the inhabitants of these places had already received notice of the real state of affairs, they gave no credit to this false story. Yet, owing to the malice of the Moors who dwelt in these places, our men were in great danger and durst not come out of their factories, and one of our men was slain in Coulan.

By the persuasion of Elankol and the Moors, the zamorin reluctantly consented to try the event of another battle: And, the castles being repaired, a fresh a.s.sault was made both by land and water, with many more men and vessels than before. This battle continued longer than the other, and the enemy was overthrown with far greater loss than they had ever received before. In consequence of this new victory, the inhabitants of Cochin became quite confident in their security from the power of their enemies; and the rajah, who had hitherto been in much dread of the event, became quite elated. He now came to visit Pacheco in a chair of state, with far more splendour than he had ever a.s.sumed since the commencement of the war. When this was told in the enemies camp, the chiefs urged the zamorin to a fresh attack, lest the rajah of Cochin might hold him in contempt. He desired them to cease their evil counsels, from which he had already sustained great loss, and which would still lead him into greater danger; but to leave him to consider what was best to be done for revenge against his enemies.

The zamorin gave orders to some of his naires in whom he reposed great confidence, that they should go to Cochin on some false pretence, and endeavour to a.s.sa.s.sinate the general of the Portuguese and such of his men as they could meet with. But the naires are an inconsiderate people unable to keep any of their affairs secret, so that this shameful device became immediately known to Pacheco, who appointed two companies of the Cochin naires to keep strict watch for these _spies_; one company at the ford, and the other along the river, waiting by turns day and night. By this means these _spies_ were detected and made prisoners. The chief _spy_ was a naire of Cochin, of the family or stock of the _Lecros_ who had certain other naires attending upon him, who were strangers. On being brought before him, he ordered them to be all cruelly whipt and then to be hanged. The Cochin naires remonstrated against this punishment, because they were naires whose customs did not allow of this mode of execution; but he would not listen to their arguments, saying that their treachery richly merited to be so punished. The Portuguese officers represented to him the great troubles which the _rajah_ of Cochin had endured for giving protection to their nation, and how much this action might displease him, when he was informed of naires having been put to death in his dominions without his authority. Besides, that this might give occasion to some of those about the rajah, who were known to be already unfriendly to the Portuguese, to insinuate that the captain- general had usurped the authority from the rajah, and might in that way wean his affections from them. Pacheco was convinced by these arguments that he had acted wrong, and immediately sent to countermand the execution. Two of them were already _half-dead_; but _those who were still living_, he sent to the rajah, informing him that they had deserved death, but that from respect to him he had spared their lives. The rajah was singularly gratified by this mark of respect, and the more so because there happened to be then present several of his princ.i.p.al n.o.bles and some chiefs from other places, besides sundry of the chief of the Moors of Cochin, who had endeavoured to impress on his mind that the Portuguese were willing to a.s.sume the command in his dominions[8]. Henceforwards Pacheco had such good intelligence, that all the subtle devices of the zamorin were counteracted.

The month of June was now ended and the rainy season, or winter, began to come on, from which Pacheco naturally concluded that the zomorin would soon break up his encampment, on which occasion he was fully resolved to give them an a.s.sault, having sufficient experience of the pusillanimity of the enemy. But the zamorin, being afraid that Pacheco might attack him at his departure, gave out that he intended to make another a.s.sault on the ford with a greater fleet than ever, and even directed the floating castles to be repaired. He even gave out that he meant to a.s.sail the pa.s.sage of _Palurte_ and the ford both at once; that Pacheco might occupy himself in preparing to defend both places, and he might have the better opportunity to steal away unperceived. Accordingly, on the evening of Sat.u.r.day, which was the eve of St John[9], the whole army of the enemy appeared as usual, and Pacheco fully expected to have been attacked that night. Next morning, however, he learnt from two bramins that the zamorin had withdrawn with all his army into the island of Repelim. Pacheco was much disappointed at this news, yet he made a descent that very day into Repelim, where he fought with many of the enemy, killing and wounding a great number of them, and then returned to the ford, where he remained several days, because the rajah was still afraid lest the zamorin might return and get across the ford into the island of Cochin.

The zamorin was so crest-fallen by the great and repeated losses he had sustained in this war from a mere handful of men, that he resolved to retire into religions seclusion, that he might conciliate the favour of his G.o.ds, and dismissed his allies and chiefs to act as they thought best.

His princes and n.o.bles endeavoured to dissuade him from this resolution, but he continued firm to his purpose, and went into the _torcul_ or religious state of seclusion, accompanied by some of his chief bramins or chaplains. Soon afterwards, his mother sent him word that great changes had taken place in Calicut since his seclusion. That many of the merchants had already deserted the place, and others were preparing to follow. That the city was becoming ill provided with victuals, as those who used to import them were afraid of the Christians. Yet she advised him never to return to Calicut, unless he could do so with honour; and that he should therefore continue in seclusion for a time, and afterwards endeavour to recover his credit and reputation by victory, or lose all in the attempt. On this message which greatly increased his discontent, the zamorin sent for his brother, to whom he confided the government of his dominions till such time as he should have completed his religious austerities in seclusion.

On this strange resolution of the zamorin, the rajahs and n.o.bles who had joined him in the war departed to their own countries, most of which lay on the coast. And being under great apprehensions that Pacheco might reduce their dominions, they endeavoured to enter into treaties with him for peace and concord; for which purpose they sent messages to Trimumpara, requesting that he would act as mediator between them and Pacheco. The rajah of Cochin was a prince of a mild and forgiving disposition; and forgetting all the past injuries they had done him in these wars, he undertook the office of mediation, and sent them safe conducts to come to Cochin to make their peace. On their arrival, he accompanied them to wait upon Pacheco, and even became their advocate with him to accept of their proferred friends.h.i.+p, which he readily consented to at the desire of the rajah. Some of these princes were unable to come personally, but sent their amba.s.sadors to solicit peace, which was accorded to all who asked it. Several even of the great Moorish merchants of Calicut, that they might quietly enjoy their trade, forsook that place and came to dwell in Cochin, having previously secured the consent of Pacheco. Others of them went to Cananor and Coulan, by which means the great trade which used to be carried on at Calicut suddenly fell off.

Owing to the great resort of Moors to Cochin, in whom Pacheco could not repose much confidence, and because, by the orders of Naubea Daring, the paraws of Calicut frequently made excursions into the rivers, the captain- general continued for a long while to defend the pa.s.sage of the ford, where he often fought with and did much injury to his enemies. He made frequent incursions, likewise, into the island of Repelim, whence he carried off cattle and other provisions, and often fought with his enemies, always defeating them with much slaughter[10]. At length Elankol, the lord of that island, wis.h.i.+ng to put an end to the miseries of his country, waited on Pacheco and entered into a treaty of friends.h.i.+p with him, making him a present of a great quant.i.ty of pepper, which was abundant in his country[11].

[1] This paragraph, enumerating the forces of the zamorin, is added to the text of Castaneda from Astley, Vol. I. p. 56.

[2] The particular distribution of the force under Pacheco at this time is thus enumerated in Astleys Collection: In the fort thirty-nine men; in the s.h.i.+p left to defend Cochin twenty-five; in the caravel which accompanied him in the expedition to Cambalan twenty-six; into one boat twenty-three; and in the boat along with himself twenty-two; making his whole effective force 135 men; seventy-one only of which went along with him to defend the pa.s.s.--Astl. I. 56.

[3] A very short s.p.a.ce before these are only stated as twenty; but the numbers and names in the text seem much corrupted.--E.

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