_ 217 _ encouraged by Duarte Pacheco's feats of arms to make the Portuguese very welcome(A). By other means Tristão da Silva, who had fought against the enemy paraos under cover from the branched rivers of Cranganor, had succeeded in seizing a large sambuco filled with pepper(B). Gaspar Correia adds that to this prize the King of Cochin had added four hundred quintals from his personal reserves(C), contributing in this way to the richest cargo that had ever been put together by a Portuguese fleet. Pero de Mendonca and Vasco de Carvalho had been charged with keeping watch on the coast so that no enemy ship should gain the open sea(D). It fell to Lopo Soares to consolidate the victories of Duarte Pacheco by destroying the fleet from Calicut that the Portuguese patrola were blockading in the estuaries. Definitively (A) Castanheda, I/89, p. 189-191, I/93, p. 196; Correia, I/2, p. 505; Góis, I/92, p. 221. (B) Castanheda, I/92, p. 196, Correia, I/2, p. 505. (C) Of which half was exempt from duty according to Correia, I/2, P. 506. (D) Castanheda, 1/92, p. 196; Góis, 1/97, p. 234. We know from a mandado that Pero de Mendonca, commander-in-chief of this expedition, pushed on as far as Cannanore to take on provisions, on 13th October 1504 (rice and fish for the "Leitoa Nova", TdT, CC. II-9-II).
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