_ 399 _ Dilamisha, his tax collector, who went in front in the fashion of a scout, it was so dangerous that Afonso d’ Albuquerque was on the point of losing it, with all the men he had brought. They had withdrawn so much from the beach that when he wanted to seek refuge, although he had ordered Afonso Lopes da Costa and Antonio do Campo to have the ships safe and ready for them, he found that the place from which he would have to embark from almost taken by the enemy. In descending to the beach, where the boats were, there was a small hill, As our men were confronted by the archers and were anxious to regain their breath inside the boats, they did not run round the hill to go to them, but took shorter route over it. They threw themselves down, and fell on top of each other at the bottom on the beach. It was remarkable that they did not run each other through on their lances. They were not all down when many Moors began to fire arrows at them, part of whom were in ambush, covered by the boats and others who were on the hilltop, where they were impeded from descending by the steepness. Nevertheless from there they shot their arrows on our men, who were so bunched together that even the staffs of their lances that they had raised were split by them,
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