_ 42 _ the beach with shields, spears, scimitars and bows, and slings with which they fired stones at us. We replied with the bombards to such effect that they decided to abandon the beach and take refuge in the stockade that they had built. This did them more harm than good. After we had been engaged in this exchange for about three hours, we left two men dead there, one killed on the beach and the other inside the stockade. When we had had enough, we returned to the ships to eat. They at once began to flee carrying their belongings in almadias to a village on the other shore. After supper, we went in the boats to see if we could take a few of them prisoner, to use as a ransom for the two Christian Indians they had captured and the negro who had deserted to them. We thus went in pursuit of an almadia belonging to the sharif, which was loaded with clothes, and another that had four negroes, that Paulo da Gama captured. When they reached land, they all took to their heels abandoning the almadia loaded with clothes on the seashore, and we found both craft on the beach. We took the negroes that we captured there to the ships. In the almadias we found many bolts of fine cotton, palm baskets, a glazed pot of butter, bell jars with water, books of their
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