He at first determined to hang the ring-leader in this treachery, but the King declared that, should he do so, the rest would rise in mutiny, and he accordingly assembled the “honest merchants,” and addressed them in a speech of such vigour that for the moment he had no further trouble from the Moors. Purple with rage and speaking so loud that he seemed to be actually fighting, he offered them his friendship, but should they thwart him he promised to be a crueller enemy to them than any King of Calicut. Their respect for Pacheco was further increased by his astonishing energy, for, after working all day at preparations against the coming invasion, he spent the nights in forays into the Repelim country. Pacheco’s task was to defend the city of Cochin, and the Portuguese fort recently built by the Albuquerques. The territory of Cochin was separated from that of Repelim by salt-water channels, and the preparations of the Portuguese were directed to the defence of the principal ford, which was only passable at low tide, with deeper water at each end. With this object stakes were made ready to be driven in all along the ford in a serried stockade. By the time the King of Calicut reached Repelim, Pacheco had put a salutary fear into the hearts of the citizens of Cochin, so that when the news of his arrival came their first impulse to abandon the city was immediately checked. The better to inspire them with his own fearlessness, he made his usual night expedition into Repelim and set fire to one of the villages. He experienced some difficulty in returning, and five of his men were wounded, but when the King of Cochin expostulated against this foolhardiness he merely laughed and said that all he wished for was that the King of Calicut should advance to attack him. The first attack at the ford occurred on the last day of March 1504 (Palm Sunday), and the period that followed may well claim to be one of the most brilliant Hundred Days in history. The enemy on this Palm Sunday, relying on their overwhelming numbers, crowded down to the ford at low tide, but the sharp stockade confronted them and the artillery from the boats stationed in the deep water on both sides of the stockade cut them down. Their own “cannon” were not very formidable, for we are told that they did not propel their projectiles with greater violence than that with which one might throw a stone, and at the end of the day the Portuguese had but a few injured and none killed. Their danger was nevertheless great, for although the enemy had suffered considerably in this first assault they were so numerous that they could continually renew the attack, and sleepless vigilance, with intervals of terrific exertion, was necessary to defeat them.