A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 06: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 06: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
Hearing that the Turkish fleet was approaching, Sylveira sent immediate
notice of it to Nuno de Cuna, who prepared with great diligence to go in
person to relieve Diu. Michael Vaz was sent to sea by Sylveira to look
out for the enemy, and falling in with their fleet came so near on
purpose to examine their force that several of their shot reached his
vessel. He got off however, and carried the news to the governor of Goa.
The Turkish fleet came at length to anchor in the port of Diu, where it
was formidable not only to the small Portuguese garrison in the fort,
but to the Moors even who had long expected their arrival. Next day
Solyman landed 600 well armed janizaries, who immediately entered the
city and behaved with much insolence. Drawing near the fort, they killed
six Portuguese; but 300 musqueteers attacked them from the fort and
drove them away with the loss of fifty men. In consequence of a storm,
Solyman was obliged to remove his fleet to _Madrefavat_, as a safer
harbour, where he remained twenty days, during which time Sylveira was
diligently occupied in strengthening the fortifications of the castle,
planting his artillery on the ramparts, and assigning every one his
proper post for the ensuing siege. At the same time, the Turks assisted
by Zofar commenced operations against the fort, by constructing
batteries, and endeavouring to ruin the defences of a bulwark at the
entrance of the harbour, which they battered with their cannon. With
this view likewise, they built a wooden castle on a large bark, which,
they filled with combustibles, meaning to send it against the bulwark
to set it on fire. But Francisco de Gouvea, who commanded the small
naval force then at Diu, went against this floating castle under night,
and contrived to destroy it by fire. At this time likewise some relief
was sent to the fort by Nuno de Cuna, and the garrison was much elated
by the assurance of his intention of coming speedily in person to raise
the siege.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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