and contained at that time seventy Portuguese, among whom was Fra Henriques and his friars.  Of our people in the factory, only eight were armed with crossbows, all the rest being only armed with swords, with nothing to defend them but their cloaks.  On hearing the tumult, our people went to the gate of the factory, and seeing only a few assailants, they thought to defend themselves with their swords against a mischievous rabble, but the numbers of the Moors soon increased, and galled our people so severely with their spears and arrows, that they were forced to shut the gates, after killing seven of the enemy, hoping to be able to defend themselves by means of the wall.  In this conflict four of our men were slain, and several wounded, and all the remainder mounted the wall to defend it by means of the crossbows, judging that the assailants were at least four thousand men, among whom were several nayres.

Cores now found himself unable to defend the factory against so great a force, and therefore hoisted a flag as signal to the fleet.  The general was at this time sick in bed, having been just blooded, and was not therefore able to go in person to relieve the people in the factory; but immediately sent all the boats of the fleet, well manned, under the command of Sancho de Toar.  But he was afraid to venture on land with so small a force against so great a multitude, or even to approach too near the shore, lest the enemies might assail him in their almadias and tonis.  He lay off, therefore, at a considerable distance, where he remained a spectator of the valiant defence made by our people at the factory, whence they killed great numbers of the assailants.  But their enemies always increased in numbers, and they at length brought up certain engines to beat down part of the wall, in which they at length succeeded.  On this, our men issued out by a door which led towards the sea side, in hopes of being able to fight their way to the boats, in which attempt Corea was slain, and fifty more of our men were either killed or made prisoners, twenty only escaping who swam to the boats, most of whom were much wounded.  Among these were Fra Henriques, and Antonio, the son of Aries Corea, then only eleven years old; who hath since done many noble feats of arms in the Indies and other places, as I shall afterwards declare in the Fourth Book of this history.

The general was much concerned at this event, not only for the loss of his men, but on seeing how little confidence could be reposed on the promises of the zamorin after all the presents he had received, and the services which had been performed for him.  He had now spent three months at Calicut, during which he had only loaded two of his ships, and knew not how to procure loading for the rest; especially as he could not expect a favourable reception at Cochin on account of having captured the ship with the elephant as before related.  Considering the treason which had been practised on our men, the general determined