s not idle; he solicited the assistance of the
Mahometan princes, pressed them with all the motives of religion, and
obtained a reinforcement of two thousand musketeers from the Arabs, and a
train of artillery from the Turks. Animated with these succours, he
marched out of his trenches to enter those of the Portuguese, who
received him with the utmost bravery, destroyed prodigious numbers of his
men, and made many sallies with great vigour, but losing every day some
of their small troops, and most of their officers being killed, it was
easy to surround and force them.

Their general had already one arm broken, and his knee shattered with a
musket-shot, which made him unable to repair to all those places where
his presence was necessary to animate his soldiers. Valour was at length
forced to submit to superiority of numbers; the enemy entered the camp
and put all to the sword. The general with ten more escaped the
slaughter, and by means of their horses retreated to a wood, where they
were soon discovered by a detachment sent in search of them, and brought
to Mahomet, who was overjoyed to see his most formidable enemy in his
power, and ordered him to take care of his uncle and nephew, who were
wounded, telling him he should answer for their lives; and, upon their
death, taxed him with hastening it. The brave Portuguese made no
excuses, but told him he came thither to destroy Mahometans, and not to
save them. Mahomet, enraged at this language, ordered a stone to be put
on his head, and exposed this great man to the insults and reproaches of
the whole army. After this they inflicted various kinds of tortures on
him, which he endured with incredible resolution, and without uttering
the least complaint, praising the mercy of God who had ordained him to
suffer in such a cause.

Mahomet, at last satisfied with cruelty, made an offer of sending him to
the viceroy of the Indies, if he would turn Mussulman. The hero took
fire at this proposal, and answered with the highest indignation that
nothing should make him forsake his heavenly Master to follow an
impostor, and continued in the severest terms to vilify their false
prophet, till Mahomet struck off his head.

Nor did the resentment of Mahomet end here; he divided his body into
quarters, and sent them to different places. The Catholics gathered the
remains of this glorious martyr, and interred them. Every Moor that
passed by threw a stone upon his grave, and raised