FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454   455  
456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   >>   >|  
d to stir up other princes to invade the dominions of Adel Khan, that he might be constrained to abandon the siege. Both he and the king were desirous of peace, but both endeavoured to conceal their wishes; the viceroy giving out that he cared not how long the king continued the siege, and the king pretending that he would persevere till he gained the place. At length, towards the end of August 1571, when the summer or fine weather had begun, and when the enemy might still better have been able to keep the field, and to recommence active operations, the number of the hostile tents could be seen plainly to decrease, then the cannon were drawn off from the posts of the enemy, and at last the men entirely disappeared; Adel Khan having abandoned the siege without coming to any accommodation, after a siege of ten months, in which he lost 12,000 men, 300 elephants, 4000 horses, and 6000 draught bullocks, partly by the sword and partly by the weather. Exactly at the same time when Adel Khan invested Goa, Nizam al Mulk sat down before Chaul. Being suspicious of each other, the two sovereigns kept time exactly in their preparations, in the commencement of their march, and in all their subsequent operations. Farete Khan the general of Nizam al Mulk sat down before Chaul with 8000 horse, 20 elephants and 20,000 foot, on the last day of November 1570, breaking ground with a prodigious noise of warlike instruments of music. At this time Chaul was under the command of Luis Fereiyra de Andrada, an officer well deserving of such a charge, who long laboured under great want of almost every necessary for conducting the defence, supplying these defects by his own genius and the valour of his men, till reinforced by Don Francisco Mascarenhas, who brought him 500 men in four gallies and provisions. Desirous of distinguishing himself before the arrival of Nizam his sovereign, Farete Khan resolved upon giving an assault, in which he employed his elephants with castles on their backs, and with scythes tied to their trunks. The fight lasted three hours; but the Moors were repulsed with great slaughter, both by sea and land, and forced to retire to the church of Madre de Dios. Nothing remarkable happened after this till the commencement of the year 1571, when some Moors were observed gathering fruit in an orchard at a short distance from the garrison, on which Nuno Vello went out against them with only five soldiers and killed one of the Moors.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454   455  
456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

elephants

 

weather

 
operations
 

commencement

 

Farete

 

partly

 

giving

 

valour

 

genius

 

defects


reinforced

 
Mascarenhas
 
gallies
 

provisions

 
Desirous
 

Francisco

 

supplying

 

brought

 

invade

 

Andrada


princes

 

officer

 

Fereiyra

 

dominions

 
command
 

deserving

 
distinguishing
 

conducting

 

charge

 

laboured


defence

 
arrival
 

gathering

 

observed

 

orchard

 
Nothing
 

remarkable

 
happened
 

distance

 

garrison


soldiers

 

killed

 
church
 

castles

 

scythes

 
trunks
 

employed

 
assault
 

instruments

 

sovereign