and so in other places.  In the mean while it was generally recommended at Goa that Chaul ought to be abandoned, but the viceroy thought otherwise, in which opinion he was only seconded by Ferdinand de Castellobranco, and he immediately sent succours under Ferdinand Tellez and Duarte de Lima.  Before their arrival, Zimiri Khan, who had promised the Nizam that he would be the first person to enter Chaul, vigorously assaulted the ports of Henry De Betancour and Ferdinand de Miranda, who resisted him with great gallantry, and on receiving reinforcements repulsed him with the slaughter of 300 of his men, losing seven on their side.

The enemy erected a battery against the monastery of St Francis where the Portuguese had some cannon; and as the gunners on both sides used their utmost endeavour to burst or dismount the opposite guns, the bullets were sometimes seen to meet by the way.  On the eve of St Sebastian, the Portuguese made a sally upon some houses which were occupied by the Moors, and slew a great number of them without the loss of one man.  Enraged at this affront and the late repulse, the enemy made that same night an assault on the fort or monastery of St Francis with 5000 men, expecting to surprise the Portuguese, but were soon undeceived by losing many of their men.  This assault lasted with great fury for five hours; and as the Portuguese suspected the enemy were undermining the wall, and could not see by reason of the darkness, one Christopher Curvo thrust himself several times out from a window, with a torch in one hand and a buckler in the other to discover if possible what they were doing.  During this assault those in the town sent out assistance to the garrison in the monastery, though with much hazard.  When morning broke and the assailants had retired, the monastery was all stuck full of arrows, and the dead bodies of 300 Moors were seen around its walls, while the defenders had not lost a single man.  The enemy renewed the assault on this post for five successive days, and were every time repulsed by the Portuguese with vast slaughter, the garrison often sallying out and strewing the field with slain enemies.  It was at length judged expedient to withdraw the men from this place into the town, lest its loss might occasion greater injury than its defence could do service.  Seventeen of the Portuguese were here slain.  One of these used to stand on a high place to notice when the enemy fired their cannon, and on one occasion said to the men below; “If these fellows should now fire Raspadillo, a cannon 18 feet long to which that name was given, it will send me to sup with Christ, to whom I commend my soul, for it points directly at me.”  He had hardly spoken these words when he was torn in pieces by a ball from that very gun.  On getting possession of the monastery of St Francis, the Moors fired a whole street in the town of Chaul, but on attempting to take post in some houses, they were driven out with the loss of 400 men.  At this time Gonzalez de Camera went to Goa for reinforcements, as the garrison was much pressed, and brought a relief in two galleys.