that eight or ten Portuguese, assisted by a few blacks, armed only with rapiers, made them give ground and retire to the outer skirt of the bulwark, where there was not room for forty men to face the enemy.  They here endeavoured, however, to entrench themselves; but, before they could establish a lodgement, the Portuguese plied two or three pieces of ordnance upon them from a flanking battery, which sent some scores of the Persians with news to their prophet Mortus Alli that more of his disciples would shortly be with them.  This accordingly was the case, chiefly owing to their own ignorance and cowardice; for, had they not made a stand in that place, but rushed pell-mell along with the Portuguese into the castle, they might have carried it with less than half the loss they sustained that day to little purpose.  Had I not been an eye-witness, I could hardly have believed the stupid ignorance of the Persian general on this occasion.  He had two breaches, almost equally good, yet applied all his men to the assault of one only, instead of attempting both at one time.  Besides, he had at least eighty or an hundred scaling-ladders, yet not one of them was brought near the castle walls.  His soldiers hung clustering on the breach, like a swarm of bees, or a flock of sheep at a gap, none having the heart to enter, while the Portuguese gleaned away five or six at a shot, sometimes more, driving forwards their black soldiers to throw powder-pots among the Persians.

The assault was renewed on the 18th, but with more harm to the Persians than the Portuguese.  During the intervening night, two blacks made signs to the Persians on the top of the breach, that they wished to come over to them, and were drawn up with ropes.  By these it was learned that the captain of the castle had been wounded in the head by a stone; that there were not above an hundred men in the garrison able to handle their arms:  and that their water grew daily more scanty and worse in quality, by which the mortality continually increased.  They reported also that great difference in opinion prevailed among the Portuguese, some wishing to endeavour to escape by sea, while others held it more honourable to sell their lives at a dear rate, by defending the castle to the last extremity, and proposed, when they could no longer hold out, to put all their women and treasure into a house and blow them up, that the Persians might neither enjoy their wealth nor abuse their wives; and, when this was done, to rush upon the Persians, and so end their days.

In the evening of the 19th, the Persians made another effort to press forwards, and got possession of the entire bulwark, forcing the Portuguese to retire farther within the castle.  In this conflict many of the Portuguese were wounded, and sore scalded with fire-pots, in the management of which the Persians had now become expert, though many of them had paid dearly for their instruction.  In this conflict four Portuguese