Next morning, on observing the change of posture in the Portuguese ships, Malek Azz conceived that they meant to retreat; he immediately came out therefore from the place where he had taken shelter, and boldly charged them, undismayed at the havock which was made among his small vessels by the Portuguese cannon.  Most unfortunately at this time the ship of Don Lorenzo ran foul of some stakes in the bed of the river, and let in so much water that she was in danger of sinking.  The brave Lorenzo exerted himself to the utmost in this perilous situation, till a ball broke his thigh; then ordering himself to be set up leaning against the main-mast, he continued to encourage his men till another ball broke his back and killed him.  His body was thrown below deck, where it was followed by his page Gato, who lamented the fate of his master with tears mixed with blood, having been shot through the eye by an arrow.  After a vigorous resistance, the Moors boarded the ship, and found Gato beside his masters body.  He immediately rose and slew as many of the Moors as covered the body of Lorenzo, and then fell dead among them.  At length the ship sunk, and of above an hundred men who belonged to her only nineteen escaped.  In all the Portuguese ships an hundred and forty men were slain, while the enemy lost upwards of six hundred.  The other captains got to Cochin, where the viceroy then was, and who received the intelligence of his sons glorious death with wonderful resolution.

Soon after the defeat of the Portuguese fleet at Chaul, Almeyda received a letter from Malek Azz.  This man was born in slavery, being descended of heretic Christian parents of Russia, and had risen by degrees to the rank he now held.  The origin of his advancement was owing to the following trivial incident.  One day a kite flying over the king of Cambaya, muted on his head, on which the king was so enraged that he declared he would give all he was worth to have the kite killed.  Malek Azz who heard this, was an excellent bowman, and immediately let fly an arrow which brought down the kite.  The king of Cambaya rewarded this lucky shot so bountifully, that the archer soon rose to be lord of Diu, a famous sea-port in Guzerat, seated on a triangular peninsula, which is joined to the continent by so small an isthmus that it is generally reputed an island.  In this letter to the viceroy, Malek Azz craftily endeavoured to secure himself at the same time both in the favour of the king of Cambaya, and to conciliate the Portuguese, though he mortally hated them for the injury they had done to the trade of Diu.  While he pretended to condole with the viceroy on the death of his son, whose bravery he extolled in exalted terms, he sent him the nineteen men saved from his sons ship, who had been made prisoners in the late battle; endeavouring by this conciliatory conduct to appease his wrath for having aided Mir Husseyn and occasioned the defeat of the Portuguese.