He Likewise Set Before Them The Rewards They Might Assuredly Expect From Their Own Sovereign, If They Behaved Gallantly On The Present Occasion.

His men immediately answered him that they hoped in the ensuing battle to evince how well they remembered his exhortations.

They all then knelt down and sung the _salve regina_, and afterwards an _Ave Maria_, with a loud voice. Just at this time, Laurenco Moreno joined Pacheco with four of his men armed with calivers, who were all anxious to be present in the battle, and of whose arrival the general was extremely glad, as he knew them to be valiant soldiers.

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 pass. 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 assault 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 multitude, 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 passage 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 balls of the enemy, though of cast iron, had no more effect than as many stones thrown by hand.

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