_ 221 _ The chroniclers take pleasure in recounting that the city was saved by the intervention of the native Christians who emerged from the burning houses all over the city and came to beg the commander-in-chief for mercy(A). The author of the Anonymous Account from Florence who doesn't breathe word of this episode, confirms however that Lopo Soares ordered the suspension of the pillage and burning(B). But he gives this gesture a quite different motive than the sparing of the sanctuaries "of Our lady and the Holy Apostles"(C). Lopo Soares would have yielded to the request of the Prince of Cochin, who was troubled at seeing the possessions of the Nayars of Cranganor reduced to ashes and the resultant drying up of the source of the tribute of forty thousand fanam that these Nayar should pay the sovereign of Cochin as they had done not long before(D). The prince had a coconut palm cut down as a sign of victory(E), while Lopo Soares was arming several horsemen (A) Castanheda, I/94, p. 198; Barros, I/7-10, p. 293; Gois, I/97, p. 235; Correia, I/2, p. 508-509. (B) In Teixeira da Mota, o.c., p. 48. (C) Castanheda, I/94, p. 198. (D) Anonymous Account from Florence, 1.c., p. 48. (E) BM Anonymous, p. 123; Barros, I/7-10, p. 293, adds that the Prince of Cochin brought back this coconut palm as a trophy. Lopo Soares
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