Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/62

 *

so many sail" that the Portuguese did not see the end of them. In the van there might be as many as "twenty large ships, with many fustas and sambacks." These Dom Gama ordered his caravels, each of which carried thirty men with four heavy guns below, and six falconets, and ten swivel-guns on deck, to attack, which they did with great vigour, and soon brought down the mast of the flag-ship of the Moors, killing many of the crew, and sinking three of the large vessels. Amid this havoc, Dom Gama himself bore down with the rest of his fleet, and, as the wind freshened, he came with great force through the midst of his opponents, "doing wonders" with his artillery, and firing both broadsides as he passed, shattering them both in hull and rigging, and leaving the Calicut fleet almost a helpless mass.

But conquest and submission were not enough for this Portuguese marauder. His fiendish spirit of revenge seems to have had no limits. He "sent the boats with falconets and swivel-guns, and in each boat twenty armed men, with crossbow-men, to go to the ships which were becalmed, and shoot at them above, and kill the crews. This they did, so that the Moors threw themselves into the sea, and went swimming round the ships." Gama then "sent his boat to the ships and caravels, to tell the crews to flock to the Moorish ships and plunder them, and set them on fire." After which he proceeded on his course for Cananore, "giving the Lord great praise and thanks for the great favour which He had shown him."

Having finished his work of colonization and horrible cruelty, Dom Gama, concluding that his