After waiting some days, and finding no friendly steps taken by the governors of Calicut towards a peace; and being likewise without hope of recovering the captives, Suarez resolved to take revenge by cannonading the city of Calicut, which he did for a whole day and a night, during which time he did prodigious damage, destroying the palace of the zamorin, several of their pagodas or idol temples, and many of the houses, and slew a great number of the inhabitants. For this service, he brought seven of his smallest ships as near the shore as possible, and advanced all the boats of the fleet, likewise carrying ordnance, close almost to the beach. After this he departed for Cochin, where he arrived on Saturday the 13th of September. He landed next day near the Portuguese castle, in as great state as he had done before at Cananor, and was received with many marks of satisfaction by Trimumpara. After embracing, they went hand in hand into the hall, in which a chair of state was placed for the admiral. As the rajah sat on the cushions on the floor, according to the custom of the country, and was therefore much lower than the admiral, he commanded his chair to be removed somewhat farther from the rajah, by which he greatly offended the native chiefs who were present at the interview. He now delivered to Trimumpara a letter from the king of Portugal, in which great compliments and many thanks were given, for the favour and protection the rajah had vouchsafed to the Portuguese. To this the rajah answered, that he had been amply repaid, by the good service which Duarte Pacheco had rendered him in the war with the zamorin. Next day, the admiral sent a large sum of money to Trimumpara, as a present from the king of Portugal, who knew that his finances had been greatly injured ill consequence of the war with Calicut.
Soon after, Suarez sent Pedro de Mendoza and Vasco Carvallo with their ships to guard the coast of Calicut, with orders to capture all ships belonging to the Moors that were laden with spices. He likewise dispatched De la Cocta, Aguilar, Cotinho, and Abreu, to go to Coulan to take in their loading, being informed that spices were to be had there in abundance. He likewise sent Tristan de la Silva with four armed boats up the rivers towards Cranganor, against some armed paraws of Calicut which were stationed in that quarter. In this expedition, Silva had a skirmish with these paraws and some nayres on the shores of the rivers; but falling in with a Moorish ship laden with pepper, he captured her and brought her to Cochin, where he and the other captains loaded their ships, as spices were now procured in great abundance.
Duarte Pacheco happened to be off Coulan when he learnt the arrival of Suarez; and knowing that his own command was ended so soon as the new captain-general should arrive at Cochin, determined to attempt some exploits while he remained master of his own conduct. With this view, he put to sea on the 22d of October, and soon after got sight of a ship at a great distance, to which he gave chase all that day and part of the night. The chase was driven into Coulan, when Pacheco learnt that she belonged to the confederates550, and was bound from Coromandel. He immediately afterwards descried three ships of Calicut, to which he gave chase, keeping as near the coast a possible to take the advantage of a land breeze. In the morning he put off to sea in chase of the vessel, which he was unable to get up with till towards evening close to the land; after a brave defence, as the ship had many men, she at length yielded; and not chusing to encumber himself with so many prisoners, he landed a part of her company, and made the rest prisoners in irons in his own ship. Learning that this was one of the three ships belonging to Calicut of which he was in search, he put two of his men on board the prize, with orders to keep him company. Being arrived directly abreast of Cape Comorin, he met with a sudden whirlwind, by which he was nearly cast away, and when this subsided, he came to anchor within a league of the shore, where he remained all night. While at anchor thirty of his Moorish prisoners made their escape, twelve of whom were retaken by means of his boat. Pacheco remained for some time off the Cape in expectation of the other ships of the Moors coming round from Coromandel, but none making their appearance, he went to Coulan with the ship he had captured, which he delivered to the factor at that city with all its rich merchandize. He then went to Cochin, where he put himself under the command of Suarez.
The zamorin had now resumed the government, having withdrawn from the torcul or religious seclusion. He had dispatched one of his generals with a fleet of eighty paraws and fifty ships551 to defend the passages of the rivers, and to obstruct the trade of Cochin with the interior; and had likewise set on foot a considerable land army under the prince Naubea Daring. It was the intention of the zamorin to stand on the defensive only while the Portuguese fleet remained in India, and to renew the war against Cochin after their departure. But the admiral Suarez, by the advice of all his captains, resolved to make an attack on Cranganor, a town belonging to the zamorin, about four leagues from Cochin, whence the enemy had often done much injury to the dominions of Trimumpara during the late war. For this purpose, Suarez took fifteen armed boats with raised defences on their gunwales, and twenty-five paraws belonging to Cochin, all armed with cannon, and accompanied by a caravel, the whole manned with about 1000 Portuguese soldiers, and an equal number of nayres from Cochin. The armament arrived before day at Palypuerto, where it had to wait for daylight, not daring to attempt the passage of certain shoals, as the boats were heavily laden. On arriving at Cranganor, the fleet of Calicut was found drawn up ready to repel the Portuguese attack. The Calicut commander was posted in the front, in two new ships chained together, which were full of ordnance and well manned; chiefly by archers. In the rear of these ships, and on both flanks, the paraws of Calicut were arranged, all full of armed men.
On the arrival of the Portuguese flotilla, the battle immediately commenced by the discharge of ordnance on both sides. Five Portuguese captains who led the van, pushed on to attack the Calicut admiral in his two chained ships, which they carried by boarding after a brave resistance, in which that officer and two of his sons with many others of the Malabars were slain. After the capture of these ships, the paraws made little resistance, and soon took to flight. Suarez immediately disembarked his troops, which soon put Naubea Daring to flight, who commanded the land army of Calicut. The Moors and Malabars in their flight, plundered the houses of Cranganor, which was immediately afterwards set on fire by the Portuguese. Certain Christian inhabitants of the place came to Suarez and prayed him not to burn their city, representing that it contained several churches dedicated to the Virgin and the Apostles, besides many Christian houses which were interspersed among these belonging to the Moors and Gentiles. For their sakes, Suarez ordered the conflagration to be stopped; yet many of the houses were destroyed before that could be effected, as they were all of wood. After the fire was quenched, our men plundered the houses belonging to the Moors, many of whom had formerly dwelt in Cochin. The two ships, and several paraws which had been taken in the before mentioned engagement, were set on fire, and other three ships that were found drawn on shore.
At this time Suarez was joined by the prince of Cochin, who informed him that Naubea Daring remained with his army at no great distance, and intended to return to Cranganor after his departure. A considerable force was therefore sent against Naubea Daring; but immediately on seeing their approach, the troops of Calicut fled. On the return of the Portuguese flotilla towards Cochin, Suarez was disposed to have destroyed another town which lay near their passage; but the prince of Cochin represented that half of it belonged to him, and prevailed on the admiral to spare it, as he could not destroy one part without the other. Suarez, therefore, returned to Cochin, where he knighted some of his officers for their bravery during the last engagement. A few days after his return, there came an ambassador from the rajah of Tanor, whose dominions are next adjoining to those of Cochin. This ambassador represented, that his master had hitherto adhered to the zamorin, and had assisted him in all his wars against Pacheco. But that the zamorin, since he had come out from his religious seclusion, had redoubled his arrogant ideas of his irresistible power, and in reward of the services of the rajah of Tanor, now threatened him with war and conquest. He farther represented, that on the late occasion, when the general of the Calicut forces was in full march for the relief of Cranganor, the rajah of Tanor had placed 4000 of his nayres in ambush in a defile in their line of march, who had defeated the troops of Calicut, and hod slain 2000 of them. On this account the rajah of Tanor was in great fear of the zamorin, and humbly requested assistance from the admiral, promising in return to become subject to the king of Portugal.
550
This expression is quite inexplicable, unless we may pick out very darkly that it belonged to the Calicut confederacy against the Portuguese. Yet Castaneda, or his imperfect translator Lichefild, does not inform us whether this vessel was made a prize. Lichefild seems almost always to have had a very imperfect knowledge of the language of the author, often to have mistaken his meaning or expressed it with great obscurity, and sometimes writes even a kind of jargon, by endeavouring to translate verbally without being able to catch an idea from the original. –E.
551
According to Astley, from De Fariz only