_ 212 _ the shore, while he positioned himself in one of the armed shallops which glided up to the beach by night(A). At dawn, a berço fired a warning shot to which the port redoubt replied with two shots(B). At this signal all the guns of the fleet were trained on the town, which they bombarded throughout the day. The next day, the persistent silence of the authorities of Calicut having been taken as an offence the city was once more subjected to artillery fire until mid-day. The King's cerame and the walls of a mosque were destroyed; more than three hundred dead lay in the ruined port when Lopo Soares gave the order to head for Cochin(C). The pitiless harshness of Lopo Soares, which a reading of the chronicles makes clear, finds an explanation in the text of his instructions; his intransigence was only the effect of scrupulous obedience. Dom Manuel had dictated this requirement for him: "If by chance" he wrote "the King of Calicut sends to say that he is seeking our friendship and wishes to repair the damage that we had sustained, listen to him; but your reply must not be other than that; (A) BM Anonymous, p. 120. (B) Correia, I/2, p. 499. (C) Castanheda, I/92, p. 195; Barros, I/7-9, p.291; Góis, I/96, p. 233; Correia, I/2, p. 499; BM Anonymous gives the figure as 370 dead (p. 120).
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