The day after his arrival, the admiral went on shore in great state to visit the rajah of Cananor, attended by all the captains of the fleet in their boats, decorated with flags and streamers, and armed with ordnance, all the boats crews being dressed in their best apparel. The admirals barge had a rich awning, and was dressed out with carpets, on which stood a chair of state covered with unshorn crimson velvet and two cushions of the same for his feet. His doublet and hose were of satin of divers colours, wrought diamond fashion; his shoes of black velvet, studded with gold; his cap covered over with gold buttons. Over all he wore a loose robe or gown of black velvet, in the French fashion, trimmed all round with gold lace. From his neck hung a triple chain of gold enamelled, from which depended a golden whistle. His rapier and dagger, which were borne by a page, had handles of pure gold. Two lackeys preceded him in splendid attire and six trumpeters with silk flags. He was also accompanied by a band of wind instruments, in a small boat In another boat were the presents which he carried for the rajah from the king of Portugal. There were, six beds of fine Holland, with their pillows of the same, all wrought with gold embroidery. Two coverlets or carpets of unshorn crimson velvet, quilted all over, having three guards of cloth of gold, that in the middle a span in width, and the others two fingers broad. The bedstead was gilded all over, having curtains of crimson satin, fringed with cold thread. On putting off from his ship, all the fleet saluted him with their cannon; then the trumpets and drums sounded for a long time; after which the organs never ceased to play till the boats reached the shore, where vast numbers of Moors and Gentiles waited to receive the admiral.
On his landing, the admiral Was conducted into a sarame or house appointed for his reception and audience of the rajah, in which he ordered the bed and all its rich furniture to be set up, close to which was placed a chair for the admiral to sit upon. Soon afterwards, the rajah was brought to the house, carried in a rich chair of state, preceded by three armed elephants, three thousand nayres, armed with swords, spears, and targets, and two thousand armed with bows and arrows. The admiral, apprized of the rajah's approach by the fleet saluting him with all their guns, went to the door to receive him, where they embraced. Then going together into the apartment, the admiral presented him with the bed already described, on which the rajah immediately lay down, and the admiral sat down beside him in the place appointed. They here conferred together for two hours, when they were interrupted by the barking of a greyhound belonging to the admiral, which wanted to attack one of the elephants.
Soon afterwards a Moor from Calicut waited upon the admiral, having along with him a Portuguese boy, who brought a letter from some of our men who were captives at Calicut ever since the time of Cabral being there. This boy informed the admiral, that the zamorin was so humbled by the defeats he had sustained from Pacheco, that he had gone into religious seclusion. That many of the Moorish merchants had gone from Calicut to other places, as they could carry on no trade there owing to the war, and that even provisions had become extremely scarce. That the zamorin and the prince of Calicut, and the magistrates of that place, were exceedingly desirous of peace with the Portuguese, for which reason they had sent him to the admiral, and had allowed the Portuguese prisoners there to write him to that effect, which they had done accordingly, but chiefly in hopes that he would free them from captivity. After reading the letter, the admiral would have sent a written answer, meaning to have sent it by the Moor. But the boy told him, they had no permission to carry any letter, and that he must return along with the Moor, as the people of Calicut had threatened to put all their Portuguese prisoners to death in case he did not return. On this account, the admiral gave the boy a verbal message for the prisoners; saying that he would very soon come to Calicut, where he would anchor as near as possible to the shore; and as the captives were allowed to go about the city without irons, they might find an opportunity to come off to the fleet either in boats or by swimming.
Suarez went accordingly with the fleet to Calicut, where he came to anchor on Saturday the 7th September; and presently afterwards the boy who had been to visit him at Cananor came on board, accompanied by a servant of Cosebequin, who brought the admiral a present from the rulers of Cochin, and a message requiring a safe conduct for Cosebequin, that he might come on board to treat for peace. The admiral refused to accept of any present until such time as peace were restored; but sent word that Cosebequin might repair on board without fear, as a servant of the king of Portugal; he sent a private message at the same time to the Portuguese prisoners, advising them to use their best endeavours to escape. On receiving this message, Cosebequin was sent on board by the governors of Calicut, to treat of peace, carrying with him two of the Portuguese captives. They requested he would wait three or four days, by which time they believed the zamorin would come out from his seclusion, and that they were convinced he would agree to all that should be required. The admiral answered, that unless they would deliver up the two Italian deserters he would agree to no terms; but he sent no message for the liberation of our captives, as he thought they might easily escape. As soon as the Italians learnt that the admiral had demanded them, they suspected the captives would run away of which circumstance they gave notice to the governors, requiring them to secure the Portuguese captives, as they were men of consideration, and that a peace might be procured in exchange for them almost on any terms the zamorin pleased to prescribe. On this advice, the governors took care to prevent the captives from escaping, and became less urgent in their desire of peace. Owing to this, they remained in captivity till Don Francisco de Almeida became viceroy of India, though some made their escape in the interim, and others of them fell victims to the diseases of the climate.
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 confederates[3] , 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.
[3] 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.
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 ships[4] 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.
[4] According to Astley, from De Fariz only five ships; and indeed in the sequel, Castaneda only mentions two ships as employed, on the present occasion and three others that were drawn up on shore.--E.