Having carefully examined the dispositions of the enemy, and naturally considering the means he possessed for defence, now somewhat increased by the arrival of reinforcements from different quarters, the viceroy made a new distribution of his force to various posts, his force in all amounting to 1600 men; besides several small armed vessels, which were directed to guard the river, and to relieve the several posts as occasion offered or required376. The enemy spent their first efforts against the fort at the pass of Benastarim, where they did considerable damage by the constant fire of their heavy guns; but whatever injury they did during the day was repaired in the ensuing night. Such was the extent of their cannonade, that only in one small post, occupied by Alvaro de Mendoza with ten men, 600 bullets were picked up, some of which were two spans diameter. The Portuguese were unable to answer with any thing like a correspondent fire, but, being well directed, their shot did great execution, and the small armed vessels plied from place to place with much diligence, doing great injury with their small guns. One night an officer of the enemy was seen with a great number of torches passing a height opposite the fort of Benastarim, having a number of young women dancing before him. On this occasion, Ferdinand de Sousa caused a cannon to be so exactly pointed among them, that the officer, with several of his torch-bearers and two couple of the dancers were seen to fly into the air. As this was the time for dispatching the homeward-bound trade to Portugal, the governor was anxiously advised to stop that fleet, as it would deprive him of 400 men, who might be of great use in defending Goa; but ambitions of acquiring greater glory by conquering every difficulty, he ordered the ships to sail at their usual time, alleging that their cargoes were much wanted in Portugal, and that he trusted he should have a sufficient force remaining to defend the seat of government.
The Portuguese had often the boldness to cross over and attack the enemy in their posts in the main-land, whence they brought away many prisoners and many heads of those they slew, with various arms and standards. On one occasion, Don George de Menezes who commanded the armed vessels, and Don Pedro de Castro who landed with 200 Portuguese, made so great slaughter that the viceroy sent two carts loaded with heads to the city, to animate the inhabitants with this barbarous proof of the energy of the defence. One night Gaspar and Lancelot Diaz penetrated four or five miles up the country with eighty men, burnt two villages with many detached houses, and brought away many prisoners, many heads of the slain enemy, and much cattle. At another time these two brothers, with one hundred and thirty men, attacked the quarters of Coger Khan and Rumer Khan, where they made great havock, and destroyed all the preparations they had made for passing over into the island of Juan Lopez. The enemy were astonished at the exploits performed by such small numbers, and still more so when they learnt that the viceroy had sent off Don Diego de Menezes with his squadron to the Malabar coast, and Don Ferdinand de Vasconcellos with four gallies and two small vessels, on an expedition to destroy Dabul.
Don Ferdinand burnt two large ships belonging to Mecca at that place, where he likewise landed and destroyed several villages, and would even have done the same to Dabul if he had not been opposed by his officers. On his return to Goa he attacked the quarters of Anjoz Khan, which were three miles from the post of the viceroy. He forced an entrance with great slaughter of the enemy; but his men falling into confusion for the sake of plunder, the enemy rallied and fell upon them, so that they were constrained to seek their safety in flight, with some loss, while Don Ferdinand was weakened with loss of blood and wearied by the weight of his armour, so that he was surrounded and slain. On this occasion 40 of the Portuguese were slain, and the ship of Don Ferdinand was taken by the enemy; but the viceroy sent Don George de Menezes with 100 men, who set the ship on fire, and brought away her guns.
At this time the zamorin made proposals for renewing the peace, either in hopes of deriving some advantage during the present state of affairs, or of covering his real designs of hostility; but the viceroy replied, that he would not yield a single point of difference, and even persisted in that resolution, although the queen of Quarcopa declared war at Onor. Even under all the difficulties of his situation, the viceroy sent succours to Onor to oppose this new enemy, to the great astonishment of Adel Khan, who thought the force in Goa had been already too small for defence against his numerous army. At this time likewise, the viceroy sent reinforcements to the Moluccas and Mozambique, both of which places were much straitened by the enemy. The grand object of the enemy was to get across into the island of Goa, for which purpose the great general Nori Khan began to construct a bridge, in which he employed a vast number of workmen; but the viceroy fell upon them and made great havock, destroying all their preparations and materials. It was reported that Adel Khan designed to go over into the island in person, and that he was extremely desirous to get possession of a fine horse belonging to the viceroy, for which he had formerly offered a large sum of money. On this being made known to the viceroy, he sent the horse as a present to Adel Khan, with a complimentary message, saying "that it would give him much satisfaction to see his majesty on the island." Adel Khan accepted the horse, and caused him to be bedded with silken quilts, under a canopy of cloth of gold, to be covered with embroidered damask, and all his caparisons to be ornamented with massy gold, while his provender was mixed with preserves and other dainties. But the horse was soon afterwards killed by a cannon-ball.
After the siege had continued above two months to the beginning of March, during which time many of the buildings in the island had been beaten down by the cannon of the enemy, who had lost numbers of their men, Adel Khan began to despair of success, especially as the Portuguese were now considerably increased in strength by the arrival of several squadrons from different places. He wished, therefore, for peace, yet was loath to propose it himself; but the viceroy was acquainted with his most secret councils, as he used all possible means to procure intelligence from the hostile camp, where he had in his pay several renegado Portuguese who served under Adel khan, and had even corrupted the favourite wife of Adel Khan. He so converted these secret advices to advantage, that he contrived to get a treaty of pacification begun without its appearing who was its author, and at length even Adel Khan stooped to make proposals. Still, however, the siege was continued unto the month of April, at which time considerable reinforcements arrived at Goa, under Don George de Menezes, who brought back 1500 men from the Moluccas, and Lorenzo de Barbuda from Cochin. At one time, 3000 of the enemy began to enter the island of Juan Lopez, but were repulsed with great slaughter by 120 men under two Portuguese commanders. In many expeditions from the island, the Portuguese attacked the various posts of the enemy on the main-land, mostly by night, ruining the works they had thrown up, burning the villages, and destroying great numbers of their men. Yet though Adel Khan had hardly any hopes of ultimate success, he caused gardens to be laid out at his quarters, and made such other demonstrations as if he had resolved to dwell in his present camp till Goa were reduced.
376
In the original, there is along enumeration of twenty-four several posts, with the names of the officers commanding each, and the numbers in their respective detachments; all here omitted as uninteresting. –E.