both within and without, the fort resounded with the cries of women and children, and the groans of the wounded, joined to the noise of the cannon and musquetry and the shrill cries of elephants, which, forced to the walls by their conductors, were driven back smarting with many wounds, and did vast injury in the ranks of the besiegers.  Such was the multitude of the enemy that they did not seem lessened by slaughter, fresh men still pressing on to supply the places of the killed and wounded.  Brito was present in every place of danger, giving orders and conveying relief, and after a long and arduous contest, the enemy at length gave way, leaving 400 men dead or dying at the foot of the walls.  During this assault, some Chingalese who had retired into the fort to escape the tyranny of Raju, fought with as much bravery as the Portuguese.  Twice afterwards, Raju made repeated attempts to carry the place by escalade, but was both times repulsed with much slaughter.  After which he repaired his entrenchments, and prepared to renew the assaults.

[Footnote 406:  The date of the year is omitted by DeTaria, who, always rather negligent of dates, now; hardly ever gives any more light on this subject than the years in which the respective viceroys and governors assumed and laid down their authorities.  The siege therefore must have happened between 1584 and 1588, during the government of Duarte de Menezes.—­E.]

After the commencement of the siege Diego Fernandez Pessoa came from Negapatnam with a ship of his own, and Antonio de Aguilar brought another ship, by means of which the besieged were much encouraged.  Don Joam de Austria the Modeliar of Candea[407], and the Arache Don Alfonzo, did at this time eminent service against the enemy; and a soldier of vast strength, named Jose Fernandez, having broken his spear, threw several of the enemy behind him to be slain by those in his rear.  On learning the danger of Colombo, the city of Cochin fitted out six ships for its relief, with a supply of men and ammunition, which were placed under the command of Nuno Alvarez de Atouguia.  Before their arrival, Raju gave another general assault by sea and land, in which the danger was so pressing that even the religious were forced to act as officers and soldiers to defend the walls, and the enemy were again repulsed with great slaughter.  Immediately after this the relief arrived under Atouguia from Cochin, and nearly at the same time arrived from St Thomases and other places several ships brought by private individuals of their own accord; and in September six ships and a galley arrived with reinforcements from Goa under Bernardin de Carvallo.  On the arrival of such numerous reinforcements, Raju, giving up all hopes of carrying the place by assault, endeavoured to undermine the walls; but this attempt was effectually counteracted by Thomas de Sousa, who found out a way of destroying the miners while engaged in the work.

[Footnote 407:  It will be afterwards seen in the particular history and travels in Ceylon, that this person was the native sovereign of the central region or kingdom of Ceylon, called Candy or Candea from the name of the capital, who had acquired the same in the text in baptism.—­E.]