_ 432 _ and took thirty of them, killing many men and setting fire to the galleons, letting them drift blazing out to sea. We had decided to land and burn the whole waterfront, and we set fire to more than 130 ships which were in dry dock and therefore in the arsenal on land. Returning to my ship, I sent men to disarm many of the moors’ ships and had them set on fire, so that they drifted away from our ships, and went burning out to sea. But the wind turned them back amongst our ships, and I had no choice but to sink them. At this point, the people in the city hoisted a flag on a pole at the king’s house and sent me an almadia, that is a large boat, with two of the foremost citizens of the town. But, I went by boat to direct the bombardment of the harbour area of the town, felling all the men who stood there, with the intention of entering the city the following day with my few men, once again putting my trust in the grace of God and in the operation of our victory, for I wanted to win once more, although we were not strong enough to succeed in such an enterprises. But, I do not want to forget the great miracle which God had performed in that place, which was witnessed by many of our people – that is, that three days after the battle, a good 900 moors came floating past, the majority of them stuck with arrows in their backs and legs, None of our men had shot them, for there were no arrows of any sort on our
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