No. 60. — 1908.] couto : history of cbylon. 



325 



their matchlocks and arms ; the father Frei Luis da Con- 

 ceicao, guardian, and the father Frei Manoel de Jesus re- 

 mained free in order to hasten to all parts to assist in spiritual 

 and bodily needs. At the gate 1 of Sao Lourenco was the 

 father Francisco Vieira, vicar of the country 2 , with thirty- 

 two matchlocks that he mustered from friends and kinsmen ; 

 from the bastion of Sao Miguel to that of Sao Joao, which 

 was the most perilous part, the father Pero Dias went to and 

 fro with some companions and slaves. 



All having been got ready, they let themselves remain in 

 such silence that throughout the whole city nothing was 

 heard but the bell of the watches ; and in the watch before 

 daylight, on the appearance of the moon, they heard a great 

 hubbub in the enemy's quarters, and immediately were given 

 the five strokes on the kettledrums, the signal of attack, 

 whereupon there arose throughout the whole army loud 

 alarums and cries which they call coquiadas 3 , because the 

 most part of the heathens of India fight as much with the 

 tongue as with the hands 4 . The enemy's armada, which was 

 quite ready, on hearing the signal began to put out from the 

 river; and at Matual, the Quarry, Mapano, and Capelete 

 appeared much people, and the armada came in great silence 

 to attack a small bay that there is on the iron-bound coast 

 at the back of Sao Francisco 5 , where are the magazines of 

 munitions 6 ; for as we have said there was there no wall 

 save the rugged rocks and the waves that break upon them, 

 because their intention was to see if they could disembark 

 on the top of the rocks in order to set fire to the magazines. 



1 Perhaps porta is an error for ponta (cf. supra, p. 296, and see 

 below). 



2 I do not know when he was appointed. As vicar of Columbo, it 

 was natural that he should take his station at the point where stood the 

 parish church of St. Lawrence, erected by the exertions of the first 

 vicar, Joao Monteiro (see C. A. S. Jl. xviii. 365). 



3 See Hob.-Job. s.vv. " Cucuya, Cucuyada." 



4 The manuscript has " arms " (armas) in place of " hands." 



5 The plan of Columbo in Le Grand's translation of Ribeiro shows 

 this church, but places it too far north. In Ressende's plan it is shown 

 close to the shore at a point west by north of the present Gordon 

 Gardens. The shore makes a slight incurve there. 



6 These are shown in Ressende's plan as a large quadrilateral range 

 with a garden in the centre. It was still standing when Heydt saw it 

 in 1734, being then used by the Dutch as a workshop (see Allern. Geog. 

 und Topog. Schauplatz 143 ; and compare Daalmans, in C. A. S. Jl. x. 

 163). The site was probably that now occupied by the commissariat 

 stores. 



