The body of one of the Moors who had been basely destroyed by Vaz, as formerly mentioned, was washed on shore, and discovered to be the nephew of Mamale, a rich merchant of Malabar. Founding on this circumstance, the zamorin prevailed upon the rajah of Cananor to break with the Portuguese; and as it was not known who had been guilty of that barbarous act, the blame fell upon Lorenzo de Brito, captain of the fort at Cananor, who got notice of his danger, and not being in sufficient force to defend himself, sent intelligence to the viceroy. This message was delivered to Almeyda while in church assisting at the service on Maunday Thursday; and was of so pressing a nature that he immediately left the church, to give orders for the immediate shipment of provisions and men to succour Brito; and these orders were executed with such speed, that those who had lent their arms to others to watch the sepulchre, as the custom is, had to go to the church to get them back. Don Lorenzo was appointed to command this relief of Cananor, with orders on his arrival at that place to put himself under the command of Brito, who insisted that as son to the viceroy and an officer of reputation and experience he should take the command: But Lorenzo was positive that he would not take the command over Brito, pursuant to the orders of his father; and being unable to prevail, he left the relief at Cananor, and returned to Cochin.

By this time the rajah of Cananor had drawn together a force of 20,000 men, with which he besieged the Portuguese fort, which Brito determined to defend to the last extremity, and used every possible means to strengthen the place. Much blood was spilt about the possession of a well, which the Portuguese at length made themselves masters of by means of a mine. After this loss, the enemy retired to a wood of palm-trees, meaning to prepare engines to batter the fort, of which circumstance intelligence was conveyed to Brito by a nephew to the rajah of Cananor, who wished to acquire the friendship of the Portuguese, so that Brito was prepared to receive the intended assault. Having completed their preparations, the enemy moved on to fill up the ditch and assault the fort; but were opposed with so much energy, at first by incessant discharges of cannon, and afterwards by means of a sally, that the ditch was filled with dead bodies instead of fascines. After losing a prodigious number of men, the enemy retreated to the wood; and next night, which was cold and rainy, Brito sent out eighty men to beat up their quarters under the command of a Spanish officer named Guadalaxara, who was next in command. This enterprise was so vigorously executed, that after the discharge of a few small pieces of artillery, the enemy fled in every direction to save themselves, leaving 300 of their men slain. The joy for this victory on the side of the Portuguese was soon miserably abated in consequence of the destruction of their entire magazine of provisions by fire, by which they were reduced to the extremity of famine, and under the necessity of feeding on all kinds of vermin that could be procured. In this extreme distress, they were providentially relieved by a rough sea throwing up vast quantities of crabs or lobsters on the point of land where the chapel of the Virgin stands, which was the only food which could be procured by the garrison for a long while. While in this situation, in consequence of powerful assistance from the zamorin, the rajah of Cananor made a fresh assault upon Brito with 50,000 men, and was again repulsed with prodigious slaughter, without the loss of one man on the side of the Portuguese. Immediately after this exploit, Tristan de Cunna arrived at Cananor with a reinforcement and a supply of provisions, by which and the noble defence made by Brito the rajah of Cananor was so much intimidated that he sued for peace, which was granted upon conditions highly honourable and advantageous to the Portuguese.

As Tristan de Cunna was now ready to depart for Portugal with the homeward bound ships, the viceroy went along with him to Paniani, a town belonging to Calicut which he proposed to destroy, as it was much frequented by the Moors, who took in loadings of spices at that place under the protection of four ships belonging to the zamorin commanded by a valiant Moor named Cutiale96. The viceroy and Tristan, having anchored off the bar, held a council of war to deliberate upon a plan of attack, when it was determined to send their two sons in two barks and several boats to attack the place, while the viceroy and admiral should follow in a galley. When the foremost of the Portuguese assailants were attacking the trenches, on which some of them had mounted, Pedro Cam having even planted the colours of Lorenzo Almeyda on the summit, the viceroy on coming up observed his son climbing up with some difficulty. He immediately called out, "How comes it Lorenzo that you are so backward?" When the young man answered, "I have given way, Sir, to him who has gained the honour of the day." At this moment a gigantic Moor assailed Lorenzo and even wounded him; but in return he cleft the head of the Moor down to the breast. The town was now carried by storm, and all its defenders put to the sword, after which all the ships in the port were burnt. In this exploit the Portuguese lost only eighteen men, none of whom were of any note; but above 500 of the enemy were slain. Though the plunder of this place was of great value, it was all burnt along with the town and ships, the artillery only being carried off.

After this the fleet and army returned to Cananor where De Cunna completed his lading, and then set sail for Portugal. At Mozambique, on his way home, he met several ships belonging to a squadron of twelve sail sent from Lisbon in the former year; seven of which were to return with goods, and the other five to cruise on the eastern coast of Africa, under the command of Vasco Gomez de Abreu, who was likewise to command in the fort of Sofala. There were also two other ships in this fleet, destined to reinforce the squadron of Albuquerque on the coast of Arabia. Of this fleet, the ship commanded by Juan Chanoca was lost in the river Zanaga, that of Juan Gomez in another place, and Abreu was lost with four vessels while going to Mozambique. Other vessels of this fleet were driven to various parts, after enduring terrible storms and imminent dangers; yet these dire misfortunes were insufficient to damp the boldness of our nation in quest of riches, so prevalent is covetousness over every consideration of difficulty or danger.

We must now return to Alfonso de Albuquerque, who parted from De Cunna, after the taking of Socotora on the 20th of August, as formerly related, being bound for the coasts of Arabia and Persia, pursuant to the commands of the king, having with him seven ships and 460 soldiers. He came first to Calayate, a beautiful and strong place in the kingdom of Ormuz, built after the manner usual in Spain, but which had once been more populous. Sending a message to the governor, he received supplies of water and provisions, and entered into a treaty of peace. Proceeding to Curiate, ten leagues farther on, he was very ill received, in revenge for which he took the place by storm, losing only three of his own men, while eighty of the defenders were slain. After plundering this place, it was destroyed by fire along with fourteen vessels which were in the harbour. From thence he sailed for Muscat, eight leagues farther, which was stronger than the two former, and well filled with people, who had resorted there from all quarters on hearing of the destruction of Curiate. Being afraid of a similar disaster, the governor sent great supplies of provisions to Albuquerque, and entered into a treaty of peace; but while the boats were ashore for water, the cannon of the town began unexpectedly to play upon the ships, doing, considerable damage, and obliged them hastily to haul farther off, not knowing the cause of these hostilities; but it was soon learnt that 2000 men had arrived to defend the town, sent by the king of Ormuz, and that their commander refused to concur in the peace which had been entered into by the governor. Although Albuquerque had received considerable damage from the smart cannonade, he landed his men early next morning, and attacked the place with such resolution that the Moors fled at one gate, while the Portuguese entered at another. The town was given up to plunder, all except the residence of the governor, who had received the Portuguese in a friendly manner, and had very honourably given them notice to retire, when the troops of Ormuz arrived; but he was slain during the first confusion, without being known.