[3] Caliver is the old name of the matchlock or carabine, the precursor of the modern firelock or musket.--E.
On his return from this victory, Francisco was joyfully received by the rajah of Cochin, who desired him to desist from any farther operations against the enemy, as he considered himself sufficiently revenged. But Francisco requested his permission to continue the war, as he was still unsatisfied till he had taken effectual vengeance on the zamorin, and accounted it no trouble to fight in the service of the rajah. He seized, however, the present opportunity of the high favour in which he stood with the rajah, to solicit permission for constructing a fort at Cochin, for the protection of the Portuguese factory during the absence of the ships. This request was immediately complied with; the rajah even offered to be at the sole charge, and Francisco lost no time in proceeding to construct the intended fort. As there were neither stones, lime, nor sand to be procured, it was necessary to build the castle of timber; which the rajah ordered to be immediately provided for the purpose, and brought to the spot appointed, which was close to the river side, as best adapted for resisting the assault of the Calicut fleet in any future attempt against Cochin. The rajah sent likewise a great number of his subjects to carry on the work; saying that our people had already had enough to do in the operations of the war: But Francisco commanded our people to work in constructing the fortifications, the foundations of which were laid on the 26th September 1503. The inhabitants of Cochin were astonished at the diligence with which our people laboured at this work, saying there were no such men in the world, as they were equally good at all things.
On the 30th September, four days after the commencement of the fort, Alonso de Albuquerque arrived with his ships at Cochin, having been delayed on his voyage by severe storms and contrary winds, yet brought all his men with him in excellent health. Francisco was much pleased at his arrival; and a portion of the fort being allotted to those newly arrived, it was soon finished. Though built of timber, this castle was as strong and handsome, as if it had been constructed of stone and lime. It was of a square form, each face being eighteen yards, with bulwarks or bastions at each corner mounted with ordnance. The walls were made of two rows of palm trees and other strong timber, firmly set in the ground, and bound together with iron hoops and large nails, the space between the two rows of timber being rammed full of earth and sand, and the whole surrounded by a ditch always full of water[4]. The day after this fort was finished, which was named Manuel in honour of the king of Portugal, the captain- general with all his people made a solemn procession, in which the vicar of the fort bore the crucifix under a canopy carried by the captains of the fleet, preceded by trumpets and other instruments of music. The fort was solemnly blessed, and consecrated by the celebration of mass; after which friar Gaston preached a sermon, in which he exhorted his hearers to be thankful to God, who had permitted the inhabitants of the small western kingdom of Portugal to construct a fortress in this distant region, among so many enemies of the Catholic faith. He expressed a hope that this might be the forerunner of many other establishments of a similar nature, to the advancement of the true religion among the heathen, and the glory of Portugal. He likewise desired his hearers to keep always in mind the high obligations they owed to the rajah for the good service he had rendered to the king of Portugal on this occasion. A faithful report was carried to the rajah of this part of the discourse, who was much gratified, and gave thanks for the same to the two generals.
[4] A very ordinary precaution in India, to guard the passage of the wet ditch in fortified places, both against desertion and surprise, is by keeping numbers of crocodiles in the water.--E.
After completing the fort, the Portuguese renewed the war, and made an attack on two towns belonging to the lord of Repelim on the coast, about five leagues from Cochin, having learned from spies that they were but slightly garrisoned. On this expedition the generals took a body of seven hundred men, and departing from Cochin about two hours before day, they arrived at their destination about nine o'clock next morning. These towns had a population of six thousand people, besides children, and were only defended by three hundred nayres, all bowmen. Alonso de Albuquerque with part of the forces landed at the nearest town, and Francisco with the remainder of the forces at the other, which was only about a cannon-shot distant from the former. In the first town the enemy was completely surprised and run away, and the place was set on fire without resistance. On seeing the people run away, our men pursued and slew many of the fugitives, and when wearied of the pursuit they plundered and destroyed the country. In the mean time the alarm was spread over the neighbourhood, and about 6000 nayres assembled, who made an attack upon our men as they were embarking, so that they were in great danger: In particular, Duarte Pacheco, not being able to find his boat in the place where he had left it, was closely pursued; and though he and his company defended themselves valiantly, and killed many of the enemy, eight of his men were wounded with arrows. So superior was the number of the enemy on this occasion, that Pacheco and his men had assuredly been all slain, if the rest of the troops had not again landed to his rescue; on which the enemy lost heart and run away, leaving the field of battle strewed over with their slain. After the defeat of the nayres, our men set fire to fifteen paraws, which were drawn up on the beach, and carried away seven which were afloat.
The lord of Repelim was much grieved at the destruction of his towns; and being afraid of our people making an attack on another about a league farther up the river, he sent a strong detachment of his nayres for its security. The generals, however, resolved to follow up their victory, and to do all the evil in their power to the territories of this lord. For this purpose, after allowing their men some time for rest, they departed about midnight, while it was still so dark that they could not see each other in the boats, expecting to come upon their enemies by surprise by dawn of next morning. The boats in which Alonso de Albuquerque and his party were embarked got considerably a-head of the rest, and arrived at the town which it was intended to attack a good while before day. Weary of waiting for the rest, he landed his men, and gave orders to set the town on fire. At first they were successful in this rash enterprise, as the ordinary inhabitants were a cowardly unarmed people. But the garrison of above two thousand nayres, having assembled on the alarm, attacked Alonso and his men with great fury and forced them to retreat to their boats, after killing one man and wounding several others of the party, which only consisted originally of forty men. Alonso and his soldiers would not have been able to make good their retreat, if the sailors who remained in charge of the boats had not fired off a falcon[5], or small piece of ordnance, on which the nayres gave over the pursuit. By this time day broke, and Francisco de Albuquerque approached with the rest of the boats; and seeing the perilous situation of Alonso, he commanded the ordnance in the boats to be played off against the enemy, on which they fled from the shore. At this time Pacheco, who was somewhat astern of the rest, observed a great number of armed nayres marching along a narrow passage to reinforce the others at the town; and brought his boat so near the pass, that he completely stopt their passage that way. The whole of our men were now landed, and soon constrained the enemy to take flight with considerable loss; after which they set the town on fire, but did not think it prudent to pursue the runaways, as they were not acquainted with the country.
[5] A falcon or faulcon is described as a small cannon of two pound shot. The following enumeration of the ancient English ordnance, from Sir William Monsons Naval Tracts, in the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First, is given in Churchills Collection, Vol. III. p. 803. I suspect the weight of the basilisk, marked 400 pounds in this list, may be a typographical error for 4000.--E.
Names. Bore. Weight. Shot. Powder. Random
inches. libs. libs. libs. paces.
Cannon-royal 8-1/2 8000 66 30 1930
Cannon 8 6000 60 27 2000
Cannon-serpentine 7 5500 53-1/2 25 2000
Bastard cannon 7 4500 41 20 1800
Demi-cannon 6-3/4 4000 30-1/2 18 1700
Cannon-petro 6 3000 24-1/2 14 1600
Culverin 5-1/2 4500 17-1/2 12 2500
Basilisk 5 400* 15 10 3000
Demi-culverin 4 3400 9-1/2 8 2500
Bastard culverin 4 3000 5 5-3/4 1700
Sacar 3-1/2 1400 5-1/2 5-1/2 1700
Minion 3-1/2 1000 4 4 1500
Faulcon 2-1/2 660 2 3-1/2 1500
Falconet 2 500 1-1/2 3 1500
Serpentine 1-1/2 400 3/4 1-1/2 1400
Rabanet 1 300 1/2 1/3 1000
After this exploit, Duarte Pacheco and Pedro de Tayde went with their divisions to destroy another town at some distance, in their way towards which they fought and defeated eighteen paraws belonging to the zamorin, and then set the town on fire. From thence they stood over to the island of Cambalan , the caymal of which was an enemy of the Cochin rajah, where they destroyed a large town. From that place, Pacheco went with five armed paraws of Cochin to burn another town, where he met with considerable resistance, and slew a great number of the enemy, seven of his own people being wounded. After setting the town on fire, he retired towards Cochin, and was forced to fight with thirteen armed paraws of Calicut, which he defeated with the assistance of Pedro de Tayde and Antonio del Campo, who fortunately joined him in this emergency. On their defeat, the Calient paraws retired into a creek, where one of them ran aground and was taken by Pacheco; but our men being worn out with hard rowing, were unable to pursue the rest, and returned to Cochin. On receiving an account of these transactions, the rajah was much satisfied with the revenge which had been taken of his enemies, and requested of our generals to discontinue the war, to which, however, they were by no means inclined.
On account of the war, no pepper was brought from the country to sell at the factory in Cochin, neither dared the merchants to go out in search of that commodity, insomuch that the factory had only been able to procure 300 bahars [6], and the factor requested the generals to go in quest of some which was to be procured at a place about nine leagues from Cochin. For this purpose the two generals and all their captains set out from Cochin under night, that their intentions might not be discovered by the enemy. On the way Pacheco destroyed a whole island, in which he fought against six thousand of the enemy with his own company only, and the two generals put thirty-four paraws to flight. After this Pacheco and del Campo destroyed a town on the continent, where they defeated two thousand nayres, many of whom were slain, without any loss on their side. After this, the generals sent on the tony [7] for the pepper, which carried such merchandize as was meant to be given in exchange; and for its protection Pacheco and three other captains accompanied it with two hundred men, and five hundred Cochin paraws[8]. In passing a narrow strait or river, our people were assailed from the banks by a vast number of the natives armed with bows and arrows, but were defended by their targets, which were fixed on the gunwales of their boats. Leaving one of his captains with fifty Portuguese t protect the tony, Pacheco with the other two captains and the troops belonging to the rajah, made towards the shore, firing off his falcons against the enemy, whom he forced to quit the shore with much loss; after which he landed with his troops, most of whom were armed with hand-guns. The enemy, who were full two thousand strong, resisted for a quarter of an hour, but at length took to flight after having many slain. Pacheco pursued them to a village, where the fugitives rallied and were joined by many nayres, insomuch that they now amounted to six thousand men, and our people were in great jeopardy, as the enemy endeavoured to surround them, and to intercept their return to the boats. But our men defended themselves manfully, and fought their way back to the shore, where the natives divided on each hand, being afraid of the shot of the falcons, which slew great numbers of them, and our men re-embarked without having a single man killed or wounded.
[6] Two weights of that name are described as used in India for the sale of pepper and other commodities, the small and the large bahar; the former consisting of three, and the latter of four and a half peculs. The pecul is said to weigh 5 1/2 pounds avoirdupois: Consequently the smaller bahar is equal to 16 1/2, and the larger to 24 3/4 English pounds. A little farther on in the present work of Castaneda, 4000 bahars are said to equal 1200 quintals; which would make the bahar of Cochin equal to thirty Portuguese pounds.--E.