not to stain his honour and their own by injuring the Portuguese, whom he and they had sworn to protect.  He exhorted them to persevere honourably and bravely in defending their country and preserving their honour inviolate to the Christians, and comforted them with the assurance that the Portuguese fleet would soon arrive with sufficient reinforcements to drive out the zamorin and to restore him to his dominions.  In the meantime, he proposed that they should retire with what force remained, into the isle of Vaipi, which was of difficult access; and where they could defend themselves till the arrival of the Portuguese fleet, more especially as the winter was at hand, which would stop the progress of the war for some time.  The naires were astonished at the resolution of their sovereign, and promised faithfully to obey his commands in all things.

The zamorin made a new attempt to shake the resolution of the rajah in his present adversity, by offering peace on condition of delivering up the Portuguese and their goods; which the rajah rejected with disdain as he had done all his former overtures.  On this the zamorin gave orders to destroy the whole country with fire and sword, on which intelligence most of the inhabitants of Cochin withdrew to other places.  There were at this time in Cochin two Milanese lapidaries belonging to the factory, named John Maria and Pedro Antonio, who had been brought to India by Vasco de Gama.  These men deserted to the zamorin, to whom they conveyed intelligence of the consternation which reigned among the inhabitants of Cochin, and of the small number of men that remained with the rajah.  These men also made offer to the zamorin to make ordnance for him resembling those of the Portuguese, which they afterwards did as will appear in the sequel of this history, and for which service they were highly rewarded.  The zamorin now moved forwards with his army to take possession of Cochin, and was resisted for some time by the rajah, who was himself slightly wounded.  But finding it impossible any farther to resist against such prodigious odds, he withdrew to the strong island of Vaipi, carrying all our men along with him and every thing belonging to our factory.  The zamorin, on taking possession of the deserted city of Cochin, ordered it to be set on fire.  He then sent a part of his army against the isle of Vaipi, which was valiantly defended by the rajah and his men and in which defence the members of our factory contributed to the best of their ability.  But the winter coming on, and bad weather setting in, the zamorin was obliged to desist for the present season, and withdrew his army to Cranganor with a determination to renew the war in the ensuing spring, leaving a strong detachment in the island of Cochin, which he ordered to throw up entrenchments for their defence.