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himself as best he might to repel an attack, arrived at the comfortable conclusion that "this was a judgment that had come upon the king, and that Our Lord desired to make an end of him for good and all, and to cast the Moors and the very name of Mafamede, out of the land, and to have his Gospel preached in these regions, and their mosques transformed into houses of God's praise by means of the King D. Manuel and by the labours of his subjects, so he gave orders for an attack with armed boats and two large barges with heavy bombards, with the object of viewing the men who rallied at the alarm, and seeing where they had stationed their artillery, and how they managed their defence." For your Portuguese filibuster of the sixteenth century, while he recognised the awful finger of God guiding him in even his most unjustifiable actions, took care that it should lose nothing of its force through any neglect on his part to "keep his powder dry."

All being now ready, and the mind of the great Al- fonso determined upon war, councils were held, plans laid, the scheme of attack explained, and two hours be- fore daybreak on the feast of St. James, July 25th, 1511, a trumpet on board the viceroy's ship called the men of Portugal to arms. The force which consisted, according to the chroniclers, of only 800 Portuguese and 200 na- tives of Malabar armed with swords and shields, was di- vided into three bodies which delivered a simultaneous assault upon the northern and southern quarters of the city, and upon the bridge by which they were connected. Sounding their trumpets, and shouting their war-cry of