Rabelo perceived the discomfiture of our men, they brought up a body of soldiers to the entrance of the palisade to stay them in their flight, for there was no necessity for flying; and, had it not been for this fresh assistance, the rout would have been more disastrous. The Naires who were following hard upon our men dared not advance any further when they arrived at the place where D. Antonio and Rodrigo Rabelo were stationed, but withdrew. Our men were so thoroughly beside themselves, that on reaching the beach they threw away their arms and got into the water intending to take refuge in the boats. But Afonso Dalboquerque, who was suffering severely from the pain of his wounds and dared not venture to go up on board his own ship, commanded them to carry him to Antonio Pacheco's caravela, which was nearest to him, and there his wounds were dressed, and there he remained that night. And on the following morning he returned to his ship, and gave orders for all the fleet to set sail direct for Cochim, leaving behind him Jorge Botelho and Simão Afonso in their caravelas to lie to over against the port of Calicut, with orders not to allow any ship to sail away from that coast with spices.

CHAPTER XVII.

Of the behaviour of the Çamorim, when he learned that the Portuguese had entered the City of Calicut: and how the great Afonso Dalboquerque despatched Fr. Luis to Narsinga, to relate to the King what had taken place in Calicut, and further proceedings.

By the time that the great Afonso Dalboquerque and the Marshal had arrived with their fleet opposite Calicut, the Çamorim had been gone for some days already into the interior country close to the mountain-range, to war with a great lord, who was a vassal of the King of Cochim. But when news was brought to him that the Portuguese had

forced their way into the city, he broke up his camp, and set off in the greatest haste by night without being perceived by the enemy. The Lord of the hill country, when morning broke, and he saw that the Çamorim's camp was broken up, and the Çamorim himself had gone away, hastened rapidly after him, burning and destroying everything in the land as he went.

It was not, however, until four days after the departure. of Afonso Dalboquerque that the Çamorim reached Calicut; who, when he beheld the destruction of the city, and his mosque and palaces all burnt, and his Catual, the governor of the city, and two Caimais killed, as well as over three thousand of the native and Malabar soldiery dead, became very dejected; and, showing signs of the deep feeling which had seized him, he was unwilling to enter his palace, but ordered the principal Moors of the city to be summoned before him, and blamed them greatly for the excessive weakness they had exhibited in their defence of the city, and swore he would ruin them and cast them out of his kingdom. That which made him feel this destruction more deeply was the knowledge that there had not been killed more than eighty Portuguese.

Even these I believe would not have been killed if our men had not fled in so disorderly a way, without any body of Naires (who compose the principal body of soldiers that the King has) attacking them and throwing them into such a rout as to leave two chief captains and ten or twelve fidalgos who there met their death with them to be cut to pieces, and without turning to look behind them to see what imaginary danger it was from which they were fleeing. For had there been twenty men who had cared to rally themselves together, the Marshal would not have been killed, nor Afonso Dalboquerque wounded, for all the rest that were killed in that affair were men without any sense of shame, and careless of the general orders and proclamations

that had been issued, and only going up and down pillaging in the houses. And because the Naires also busied themselves with robbing, if, in the house any of them entered, any Portuguese were found, the greater number overpowered the less, and in this manner some were killed, while the fire cut off others who placed themselves in positions that had not been preconcerted.

Afonso Dalboquerque was so deeply concerned at the death of the Marshal and the fidalgos who had been slain with him, that he determined to exact vengeance for their loss, so he wrote to the King of Narsinga (for his kingdom. touches that of Calicut, and the two Kings were not very friendly), that if he would come with his army by land, he Afonso, would come by sea, and thus they would destroy the Çamorim; and to further the chance of success, he would endeavour to come to an understanding with some lords of the hill country to assist him. With this end in view, he dispatched Fr. Luis of the order of St. Francis with instructions as to what he was to say to the King (as is here given below in full); and the friar set out from Cochim in a vessel and reached Baticalá', and from that place made his way on land straight to Narsinga. And Afonso Dalboquerque also despatched Diogo Correa with a message to Duarte de Lemos, as I have already related.

Two days after they had set out, two vessels of the fleet commanded by Diogo Lopez de Sequeira arrived, and with them came Nuno Vaz de Castelo-branco, who related to him all that had taken place in Malaca, and how the Governors of the city had planned treachery against Diogo Lopez de Sequeira by order of their king, intending to seize him, and all who accompanied him on shore, at a banquet which he intended to give him, and afterwards to take the fleet; but this plan had not succeeded, for Diogo Lopez

1 Baticalá. See page 53, note; and page 77; also Chapter xlviii,

de Sequeira had been warned by a Jaoa,' the lover of one of our mariners, who came by night swimming to his ship; and that the King, when he saw that the treason was discovered, had laid hands upon Ruy de Araujo the factor, and twenty other men who were with him on land attending to the collection of the cargo of the ships; and how he had ordered two of the vessels which composed the fleet to be burnt because he had not hands sufficient for their navigation, and sailed away; and how, when Diogo Lopez de Sequeira had arrived at Caecoulão, where he first heard that Afonso Dalboquerque was Captain-General of India, he had despatched him, Nuno Vaz de Castelo-branco, in these two vessels, to make their way to Cochim, for they were in a very leaky condition, and from that port, he, Diogo, had made his way to Portugal to the seaward of the Island of S. Lourenço.2

THE INSTRUCTIONS WHICH FR. LUIS CARRIED.

"First of all you will say to the king of Narsinga, that I announce to him that I am now newly arrived as CaptainGeneral of these parts of India by command of the King of Portugal; and that trusting in the confidence which his ancestors possessed in him, I command you to visit him, and to offer to him the fleets and army of the King my Lord; for I know for certain that he, the King of Portugal, will be much gratified at my so doing, confiding in his friendship, his messages, and kindly offerings, which he has always received from the Kings his ancestors, and which were given to him in Portugal.

"You will tell him of the greatness and power of the King my Lord, and of the great fleets which he sends every year to India, and how the Indian seas are not navi

1 Jaoa; a woman of the Island of Jaoa, Jauha, or Java.

2 Madagascar. See vol. i, page 25.

gated now without a safe conduct from him; and how the ships and merchandise of those who do not carry his safe conduct are captured; and likewise you will tell him how in my instructions the King of Portugal commands me to render honour and willing service to all the Gentile kings of his land and of the whole of Malabar, and that they are to be well treated by me, neither am I to take their ships nor their merchandise; but I am to destroy the Moors, with whom I wage incessant war, as I know he also does; wherefore I am prepared and ready to help him with the fleets and army of the King, my Lord, whensoever and as often as he shall desire me to do so; and I likewise for my part expect that he will help us with his army, towns, harbours, and munitions, and with everything which I may require from his kingdom; and that the ships which navigate to his ports may pass safely throughout all the Indian sea, and receive honour and good treatment at the hands of the fleets and fortresses of the King of Portugal.

"You will give him an account of the destruction of Calicut, and how I have been informed that he is its capital enemy, and desires to overthrow it; and therefore I send to inform him that its palaces and the city itself have been all burned and the inhabitants put to the sword, and all its artillery captured, and that the Çamorim did not venture to succour the city, but kept himself aloof in the hill country which is over against Calicut and on the borders of his kingdom, until he knew that we had withdrawn from the place.

"You will tell him that my determination is to take the Çamorim captive and send him to Portugal to the King my Lord, and that this can well be done if he, the King of Narsinga, will only come with his camp over against the hills of Calicut, whither the Çamorim withdraws when any one makes war upon him on the sea coast; and while he is marching his army through the interior country, I will