iceroy Almeyda receiving notice of the preparations at Calicut, he sent
his son Don Lorenzo thither with a squadron of ten ships. At this time
Gonzalo Vaz was in Cananor with his ship, taking in water; and on his
voyage to join Don Lorenzo he fell in with a ship belonging to Cananor
having a Portuguese pass, which he sunk with all her moorish crew sewed
up in a sail that they might never be seen. But this wicked action was
afterwards discovered, for which Vaz was broke; a very incompetent
punishment for so great a crime, owing to which the Portuguese
afterwards suffered severe calamities, as will appear in the sequel.

On his way towards Dabul in search of the Calicut fleet, Don Lorenzo
cast anchor at the entrance of the port of Chaul, into which seven
vessels belonging to the Moors entered without making any return to his
salute. On this Lorenzo followed them in his boats, and the Moors leaped
overboard to escape on shore, but many of them were slain by the
Portuguese in the water. Lorenzo then took possession of the ships,
which were laden with horses and other goods; and as the Moors
endeavoured to overreach him with regard to ransoming their vessels,
greatly underrating their cargoes, he ordered them all to be burnt.
Going thence to Dabul, where he found the Calicut fleet, he anchored off
the mouth of the river, and called a council of his officers to consult
on the proper measures for an attack; but owing to the narrowness of the
river it was carried in the council not to attack, contrary to the
opinion of Lorenzo, who was eager to destroy the enemies ships. Passing
on therefore to a river four leagues beyond Dabul, a brigantine and
parao which led the van saw a ship sailing up the river, and pursued the
vessel till it came to anchor over against a town, where there were many
other vessels. Seeing the two vessels in pursuit of the ship Lorenzo
sent a galley after them, and the three began to clear the shore with
their shot of many Moors who flocked thither to defend their ships.
Supposing from the noise of firing that his assistance was necessary,
Lorenzo made all possible haste up the river; but before his arrival the
others had taken all the vessels in the harbour, and had burnt a house
on shore full of valuable commodities. All the ships in this harbour
were burnt, except two from Ormuz having very rich cargoes, which were
carried away. On his return to Cochin with victory and rich spoil,
expecting to be received