{69} The Portuguese vanguard under the Marshal managed to reach the Zamorin's palace, but the men soon scattered to plunder and got into disorder. They burnt the palace, but were hotly attacked by the Nairs when they endeavoured to retreat. More than eighty of the Portuguese were killed as they retired, including the Marshal and ten or twelve of the principal officers. Albuquerque himself was wounded, and all the invaders would probably have been cut to pieces but for the gallant conduct of the reserve under the command of Dom Antonio de Noronha. After this repulse, which was the most serious the Portuguese had sustained in India, Albuquerque returned to Cochin. It is interesting to compare the account of this attack on Calicut, as given by Sheikh Zín-ud-dín in his historical work called the _Tohfut-ul-mujahideen_, which was written in the sixteenth century:-- 'Now on Thursday, the 22nd day of the month of Ramzan, in the year of the Hejira 915, the Franks made a descent upon Calicut, committing great devastation and burning the Jama Mosque which was built by Nakuz Miscal; and they attacked also the palace of the Zamorin, hoping to obtain possession of it, as that prince was absent, being engaged in war in a distant part of his dominions. But the Nairs that had been left behind at Calicut, having united against these invaders, made an assault upon them, and succeeded in ejecting them from the palace, killing at the same time nearly 500 of their party; a great number also were drowned, and the few that escaped were saved by flying on board their vessels; having been entirely defeated in their designs by the permission of God Most High. Now, both {70} before this time and after it, they made various descents upon the dominions of the Zamorin, burning in these attacks in all nearly fifty vessels that were lying near his shores, and conferring martyrdom upon upwards of seventy of the faithful.'[4] [Footnote 4: _Tohfut-ul-mujahideen_, translated by Lieut. M. J. Rowlandson for the Oriental Translation Fund, 1833; pp. 97-99.]