Portuguese portraits

by Aubrey F. G. Bell

Meanwhile twelve thousand infantry had advanced against the ford. Message after message came to Pacheco for help, but the tide was still running out and he contented himself with answering that he was still engaged with the fleet but that this was “not the day of the King of Calicut.” At the turn of the tide, after having dealt faithfully with the fleet of the enemy’s boats, he went; but the water was still too shallow when he approached the ford and the ships grounded. He was able, however, to work great havoc with his artillery among the many thousands of assailants, although he could not come up to fight with them at close quarters.

For a long hour the low water at the ford gave every advantage to the enemy. Crowds of them surrounded the stranded ships, thousands rushed forward to attack the ford. The water was tinged with red. And still the ships refused to move. At last they floated, and as the tide rose the danger of the attack grew less and less, till at dusk it ceased entirely.

Another most formidable battle was fought at the beginning of May when the King of Calicut in person attacked the ford. The Nairs from Cochin who were to have defended the stockade deserted their post, many of the enemy actually succeeded in crossing, and it was only by unparalleled exertions that Pacheco, after being retained with his ship by the low water, was able to hurl them back with great loss. A cannon-shot aimed at the King of Calicut, which succeeded in killing several persons near him, profoundly discouraged him in what began to seem a hopeless enterprise, instead of child’s play as at first.

But the strain on Pacheco was not relaxed, and he spent night and day watching and fighting. One Sunday as he sat at his midday meal in his caravel after keeping watch all night, the look-out man sighted eighteen hostile craft approaching. He determined to attack, but when he arrived in mid-stream another fleet of sixteen, and then eighteen more, darted out suddenly from behind a promontory, and it proved no simple affair to beat them off.

The King of Cochin came up in time to witness Pacheco’s victory, and after congratulating him reproached him for having exposed himself alone to such a risk. Pacheco did not think it advisable to tell the King that he had attacked in the belief that the enemy were only a third of their real number, and his prestige with the natives was still further enhanced.

The King of Calicut was in despair, and his forces were already reduced from 60,000 to 40,000 men by battle and cholera, when a Moor of Repelim invented a scheme which put new heart into the King and seemed to give certain promise of capturing the Portuguese ships and all the Portuguese in them. The device resembled that of moving towers built to the height of the walls of a besieged town. Two boats were lashed together to support a square wooden tower capable of holding some forty men.

Pacheco had spies in the enemy’s camp who warned him of the new danger, but the information was also divulged in Cochin, to the dismay of the King and his subjects. The King paid Pacheco a visit, and, although he was received on board with dance and song, besought him with tears in his eyes to save himself by flight since further resistance was useless, and when he left bade him farewell as for the last time.

To embolden the natives, Pacheco declared that he intended to defeat the enemy now as on previous occasions, and asked them if he had ever failed to keep his word. The further to encourage them, he erected a great pointed stake on which to “spit the King of Calicut.” He did not neglect more practical measures, for he raised the prows of his vessels by means of wooden structures high enough to dominate the enemy’s castles, and he put together a boom and fixed it by means of six anchors a stone’s throw in front of his ships.

About two hours after midnight on Ascension Day a few shots announced that the enemy were in motion. Pacheco landed, and after harrying the advancing infantry returned to his ships at dawn in readiness to receive the approaching fleet. At first the Portuguese artillery seemed to make no impression on the strongly built tower that confronted them, and for a short time it seemed that the enemy must be victorious. “Lord, visit not my sins upon me now!” was Pacheco’s despairing cry. But at last one of the towers came crashing down and Pacheco knelt on deck and gave thanks to God, for the destruction of the rest was now only a matter of time. The fighting lasted till dusk fell. So complete was the discomfiture of the enemy and so miraculous seemed the escape of the handful of Portuguese that the natives of Cochin lost all fear of Calicut, and the Portuguese in India acquired far and wide a reputation for invincible prowess.

The King of Calicut now had serious thoughts of giving over the war, but two Italians, Milanese, persuaded him to attempt a night attack. The plan was for the Prince of Repelim to advance with a large force, and when he had engaged the enemy certain Nairs, posted in palm-trees, were to raise fire-signals for the King of Calicut to follow with the second army.