troublesome task before them, for in that place of defence there was the King with a large body of men and elephants, and the defence was maintained so vigorously that a considerable space of time elapsed without our men being able to get in. Afonso Dalboquerque, seeing from the bridge the circumstances in which our men were situated, made his way with all haste at the head of all his forces to succour them, and because at the mouth of a large street which led to the mosque, where he was, there were many Moors pressing on the flanks of certain Captains that were following the King, who was in flight with three thousand men armed with shields, he stayed himself there with his flag and his men, and sent the Captains word to remain quiet and rally towards the position he had taken up, for there were yet many Moors on their flanks, and then they withdrew at once; and as soon as the junction of these forces had been carried out, Afonso Dalboquerque left in charge over the mosque and stockades Jorge Nunez de Lião, Nuno Vaz de Castelo-branco, James Teixeira, and Dinis Fernandez de Melo, with some of the men, while he himself, with the rest that remained, returned towards the bridge; and he ordered the Captains who were stationed on one side and on the other to stay where they were and not fight with the Moors, even if they came on and attacked them, until he had fortified the bridge; and ordered four large barques which he had, with great bombards, to pass over to the other side and sweep the field on one side and on the other, and cause the Moors to keep off so that the men could more securely work at the stockades; and having arranged this he ordered them to take out of the junk all the munitions which he had brought, and began upon the stockades; and as all went to work with willing hands, in a short space of time he had made two very strong palisades, one on the side of the city, the other on the side of the mosque, with barrels filled with earth, and wood, and he arranged in them many

guns: and ordered that the bridge and the junk should be covered with palm leaves, for the benefit of the men, for the sun was very strong and he was fearful lest they should all fall ill from the hard work they had to perform.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

How the great Afonso Dalboquerque ordered relief to be given to our men who were stationed at the mouth of the street which led to the bridge: and how Utamutaraja and Ninachatu, and other merchants, seeing the overthrow of the city, came and placed themselves in his hands.

While the great Afonso Dalboquerque was thus occupied in this eagerness to complete the fortification of the stockades which he was making upon the bridge, he saw that the Captains whom he had ordered to take up positions at the mouths of the streets were undergoing, rather than disobey his commands, much discomfort from the attacks made upon them by the Moors with bombards which they had placed upon the terraces of their houses, and with matchlocks with which they were firing upon them, so he dispatched with great haste Gaspar de Paiva, Fernão Perez Dandrade, Pero Dalpoem, Antonio Dabreu, who was now by this time well of his wound in the jaw, to go and succour them with their men, along one of the streets of the city, and D. João de Lima, Aires Pereira, Simão Dandrade, Simão Martinz, and Simão Afonso, along another street which led up to a place where the Moors where at lance-thrusts with our men, and to patrol through all the city and not to give quarter to a single person they met, while he himself would come on behind them in support, with his royal standard; and although the Moors were very numerous, the Captains fell upon them so valiantly that, not being able to resist the fury of the onset with which they were attacked, they

turned their backs and threw themselves into flight, and some, indeed, among them, who were nearest to our men, cast themselves into the sea, thinking that thereby they ensured their safety.

The mariners, whom Afonso Dalboquerque had ordered to man the skiffs and row up and down the river, came up at once and put to death every one whom they could get at; and when it was sundown the Captains withdrew to the bridge, where they now had their stockades very strongly built on one side and on the other, and Afonso Dalboquerque took up his quarters in the middle, and they passed the whole of the night on the watch. And he ordered the Captains of the barques that were stationed in the river to keep up a continual fire upon the city all through the night with their bombards, and Pero Gonçalvez, chief pilot, to take all the seamen to the ships to sleep there, and carry out the same instructions regarding the cannonade, and in this manner they remained all night. And it was a terrible thing to look at the city, for on account of the constant firing it seemed as if it were all on fire.

When morning came, the Moors, terrified at the unexpected misfortune which they witnessed, dared not appear in the streets, and this went on for a period of ten days running without any cessation by night or by day, and during this time our men were continually spilling the blood of the Moors, for inasmuch as the hunger they suffered was extreme, they risked their lives to go and look for food in the city, and there they lost their lives. And when they perceived the troubles that had fallen upon them, and the great peril they were in of losing their lives, and the hopelessness of their case, some began to come to Afonso Dalboquerque and beg for mercy; and the first who came were the Pégus, and these he received very kindly and gave them a safeguard to enable them to prosecute their voyage, and permission to carry with them their property, and in