[Footnote 110:  Perhaps they threw their guns overboard to lighten their vessel and facilitate their escape.—­E.]

The king of Cananore beheld this great victory from the shore, and gave great commendations to the Portuguese for their valour, and very deservedly; for, though I have been in many hard-fought battles, I never saw greater valour than was displayed on this occasion by the Portuguese.  After this great victory, we thought to have enjoyed peace and security, but worse events ensued; for the king of Cananore, who was a great friend to the Portuguese, died a few days afterwards, and was succeeded by a mortal enemy to the Christians, and a great friend to the zamorin, by whole interest he had been advanced to the kingdom of Cananore.  This new king assembled his forces to make war against the Portuguese in all haste, believing that much of their ammunition had been expended in the late naval battle, and that their men were much wearied, and for the most part wounded, so that they would be unable to make any great resistance.  To aid him on this occasion, the zamorin sent him 24 pieces of great cannon.  This war began on the 7th of April, and continued to the 20th of August [111], before peace was restored.  It were too long to recount all the brave actions performed by the Christians in this war against the Mahometans [112], who never encountered them with less than twenty-five or twenty-six thousand men and 140 pieces of artillery.  The enemy on this occasion were armed in the manner already mentioned respecting the weapons of the inhabitants of Calicut, and the Christians in the harness and with the weapons then used by us in Europe[113].

[Footnote 111:  From the context, combined with the date of the late naval action, as given from the History of the Portuguese Transactions, this land-war with the rajah of Cananore must have been in 1509.—­E.]

[Footnote 112:  In the naval battle the principal force at least must have been Mahometans, as the Hindoos do not use the sea; but, in this land-war with the new rajah of Cananore, the nairs would constitute the main force of the enemy, though there might be some Mahometan auxiliaries.—­E.]

[Footnote 113:  The European soldiers then wore defensive armour and shields.  And besides matchlocks, their offensive arms were pikes, swords, and cross-bows.—­E.]

In their wars, the infidels divide their army into many wings, or brigades, of two or three thousand men each, only one of which proceeds to battle at a time, all the rest waiting the result of this charge before they proceed to join battle.  While marching to give battle, it passes all imagination to conceive the prodigious noise made by innumerable musical instruments after their fashion, which fill the ears of their soldiers and encourage them to fight; while in the mean time a great number of men run before with artificial fireworks[114].  At last they give the onset with such fury and outcry, that two or three thousand of