_ 41 _ We engaged in this search till morning, then we returned to our ships. During the afternoon we again went ashore with the same pilot. As we approached the watering hole, about twenty of the natives came charging along the beach brandishing spears to defend the water from us. The captain-major ordered three bombards to be fired at them, so as to afford us room to jump ashore. Having made our landing, these men hid in the jungle and we took all the water we wanted. When we withdrew it was nearly sunset, and we discovered a negro who had run away from the pilot João de Coimbra. On Saturday morning, 24 March, the eve of the feast of Our Lady, a Moor approached the ships and said that if we wanted water we should go and get it, thereby giving us to understand that there were people there who would force us to turn back. When the captain-major heard this he was determined that we should go there, so as to show them that we could inflict injury on them if we so wished. Accordingly, with the longboats armed and with bombards in their sterns, we went to the village. The Moors had built strong stockades of thick planks, lashed together in such a way that it was impossible to see those who were behind them. Then they marched along
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