y behaved
gallantly on the present occasion. His men immediately answered him that
they hoped in the ensuing battle to evince how well they remembered his
exhortations. They all then knelt down and sung the _salve regina_, and
afterwards an _Ave Maria_, with a loud voice. Just at this time, Laurenco
Moreno joined Pacheco with four of his men armed with calivers, who were
all anxious to be present in the battle, and of whose arrival the general
was extremely glad, as he knew them to be valiant soldiers.

In the course of the night, by the advice of the Italian lapidaries who
had deserted to the enemy, the zamorin caused a sconce or battery to be
erected directly over against the place where Pacheco was stationed, on
which five pieces of ordnance were placed, from which great service was
expected in the ensuing battle, owing to the narrowness of the pass. On
the morning of Palm Sunday, the zamorin marched forwards with 47,000 men,
partly naires and part Moors, and accompanied by all the rajahs and
caymals who had joined him in this war. Of these, the rajah of _Tanor_
had 4000 naires; the rajahs of _Bybur_ and _Curran_, whose countries lay
near the mountains of Narsinga, had 12,000 naires; the rajah of
_Cotogataco_, which is between Cochin and Cananor close beside the
mountains, had 18,000 naires; the rajah of _Curia_, which is between
Paniani and Cranganor, had 3000 naires. Naubea Daring, the prince of
Calicut, and his brother Namboa, who were particularly attached to that
part of the army composed of the zamorins immediate subjects, had a large
body of men whose numbers I do not particularize. Their warlike
instruments were many and of divers sorts, and made a noise as if heaven
and earth were coming together.

Before day, the van of this prodigious army arrived at the sconce of the
Italians, and began immediately to play off their ordnance against the
caravel, which was so near that it was an absolute miracle that not a
single shot did any harm. But our cannon were better served, and every
shot did execution among the enemy: and so well did they ply their guns,
that before sunrise above thirty discharges were made from our caravel.
At day-break, the whole of the enemies fleet, consisting of 169 barks,
came out of the rivers of the island of Repelim to attack our small force.
Sixty-six of these were paraws, having their sides defended with bags of
cotton by advice of the Italians, to ward off our shot; and each of these