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