By this time the rajah of Cananor had drawn together a force of 20,000 men, with which he besieged the Portuguese fort, which Brito determined to defend to the last extremity, and used every possible means to strengthen the place.  Much blood was spilt about the possession of a well, which the Portuguese at length made themselves masters of by means of a mine.  After this loss, the enemy retired to a wood of palm-trees, meaning to prepare engines to batter the fort, of which circumstance intelligence was conveyed to Brito by a nephew to the rajah of Cananor, who wished to acquire the friendship of the Portuguese, so that Brito was prepared to receive the intended assault.  Having completed their preparations, the enemy moved on to fill up the ditch and assault the fort; but were opposed with so much energy, at first by incessant discharges of cannon, and afterwards by means of a sally, that the ditch was filled with dead bodies instead of fascines.  After losing a prodigious number of men, the enemy retreated to the wood; and next night, which was cold and rainy, Brito sent out eighty men to beat up their quarters under the command of a Spanish officer named Guadalaxara, who was next in command.  This enterprise was so vigorously executed, that after the discharge of a few small pieces of artillery, the enemy fled in every direction to save themselves, leaving 300 of their men slain.  The joy for this victory on the side of the Portuguese was soon miserably abated in consequence of the destruction of their entire magazine of provisions by fire, by which they were reduced to the extremity of famine, and under the necessity of feeding on all kinds of vermin that could be procured.  In this extreme distress, they were providentially relieved by a rough sea throwing up vast quantities of crabs or lobsters on the point of land where the chapel of the Virgin stands, which was the only food which could be procured by the garrison for a long while.  While in this situation, in consequence of powerful assistance from the zamorin, the rajah of Cananor made a fresh assault upon Brito with 50,000 men, and was again repulsed with prodigious slaughter, without the loss of one man on the side of the Portuguese.  Immediately after this exploit, Tristan de Cunna arrived at Cananor with a reinforcement and a supply of provisions, by which and the noble defence made by Brito the rajah of Cananor was so much intimidated that he sued for peace, which was granted upon conditions highly honourable and advantageous to the Portuguese.

As Tristan de Cunna was now ready to depart for Portugal with the homeward bound ships, the viceroy went along with him to Paniani, a town belonging to Calicut which he proposed to destroy, as it was much frequented by the Moors, who took in loadings of spices at that place under the protection of four ships belonging to the zamorin commanded by a valiant Moor named Cutiale[97].  The viceroy and Tristan, having anchored off the bar,