after burning the ships in the port, to remain in reserve with 300
men. Albuquerque then proceeded to follow the Marshal, who was
rapidly making his way towards the Zamorin's palace. As the Marshal
moved forward--

'There came against him twenty or thirty Nairs, armed with swords
and shields, shouting aloud in their accustomed manner. When he
caught sight of them coming against him he began to chuckle, and
said to Gaspar Pereira, who was close beside him:--"Is this your
Calicut that you terrify us all with in Portugal?" Gaspar Pereira
replied that he would think differently before long; for he would
wager that, if they could that day penetrate to the houses of the
Zamorin, those little naked blacks would give them trouble enough.
The Marshal replied:--"This is not the kind of people who will give
me any trouble."[3]

[Footnote 3: Albuquerque's _Commentaries_, vol. ii. p. 67.]

{69} The Portuguese vanguard under the Marshal managed to reach the
Zamorin's palace, but the men soon scattered to plunder and got into
disorder. They burnt the palace, but were hotly attacked by the Nairs
when they endeavoured to retreat. More than eighty of the Portuguese
were killed as they retired, including the Marshal and ten or twelve
of the principal officers. Albuquerque himself was wounded, and all
the invaders would probably have been cut to pieces but for the
gallant conduct of the reserve under the command of Dom Antonio de
Noronha. After this repulse, which was the most serious the
Portuguese had sustained in India, Albuquerque returned to Cochin.

It is interesting to compare the account of this attack on Calicut,
as given by Sheikh Zin-ud-din in his historical work called the
_Tohfut-ul-mujahideen_, which was written in the sixteenth century:--

'Now on Thursday, the 22nd day of the month of Ramzan, in the year
of the Hejira 915, the Franks made a descent upon Calicut,
committing great devastation and burning the Jama Mosque which was
built by Nakuz Miscal; and they attacked also the palace of the
Zamorin, hoping to obtain possession of it, as that prince was
absent, being engaged in war in a distant part of his dominions.
But the Nairs that had been left behind at Calicut, having united
against these invaders, made an assault upon them, and succeeded in
ejecting them from the palace, killing at the same time nearly 500
of their party; a great number also were drowned, and the few that