ABSTRACT
Although the captains were not very well pleased at the reply sent by Afonso Dalboquerque to the king, yet having returned to their ships, they made ready their artillery and apparatus for assault, waiting for the signal which he had appointed. At the same time, the Moors, being alarmed at the consultations held in our ships, kept on hauling their cables, which were laid out in the direction of the city, to get further off from us. But as Afonso Dalboquerque perceived all that they did, he at once sent a message to the captains to go into their boats with armed men and splice their cables together, and lay them out with buoys close along the Moorish ships which were crowding away. The captains, though they were dismayed at the peril in which they found themselves, like brave and spirited cavaliers, set to work, and the master of the flag-ship, with fifty armed men, proceeded to place a grapnel upon the cutwater of the ship Meri. 1 The ship’s captain, well aware of 112the reason for the king’s delay, perceived the changed position of our ships, and called out from the quarterdeck to Afonso Dalboquerque not to he angered, for the reply would be sent very soon. And no less praise is due to the masters, pilots, and seamen, for, though fighting was not their profession, yet, being armed at all points, with great spirit and assiduity they carried out all the instructions given by the captains.
