intended to
set upon them with all his force, that the rajah or king of Cananore
might be a witness of the valour of the Christians. When the trumpeter
of the admiral sounded the charge as a signal of battle, the admiral
immediately assaulted two of the largest ships of the enemy, casting his
grappling irons and chains, that he might fight them hand to hand. After
throwing our grapplings three times in vain, they caught hold the fourth
time, on which the Christians boarded the greatest ship, and made such
havoc that the whole crew of 600 Mahometans were slain, not one escaping
or being made prisoner. Encouraged by this success, the admiral
immediately grappled another large ship which had chained itself to one
of the Christian foists; this ship was likewise taken and sunk, with the
loss of 500 Mahometans. Discouraged by this defeat, the Mahometans
assailed our twelve foists with all their force, _and carried them
away_. On this emergency the captain of the galley, Joam Serano, shewed
the utmost gallantry, as he fiercely assaulted in his single galley
those ships of the enemy which had _carried away_ our foists, and made
such prodigious slaughter among the Mahometans as seemed quite
incredible, so that he recovered all the foists, and sunk two other
Mahometan ships. The conflict continued with unabated fury from morning
till the darkness of the night parted the combatants, and God so
favoured the Christians that few of them were slain, though many were
wounded.

I must not omit to notice the zeal and courage displayed by Simon
Martin, the captain of one of our ships, on the following occasion in
this battle. It so happened that the brigantine in which I was, was at
one time somewhat parted from the rest of our ships, on which four ships
of the enemy assailed us all at once; and 150 of the Mahometans having
boarded our vessel, constrained us to flee to the poop for safety. While
we were in this extreme danger, Simon Martin leapt on board our vessel,
invoking the name of Jesus to aid him, and fought with such desperate
valour that he slew six of the enemy with his own bond. Encouraged by
his gallantry, we came down from the poop to his assistance, and so
handled the Mahometans that they leapt overboard for safety, when some
of them were drowned and others escaped by swimming. Upon this our
success, the enemy sent down four other foists to help those who were
already engaged against us. But our captain took several empty c