_ 118 _ He asked him to have mercy on him, and Afonso de Albuquerque told him that even if he bore the whole blame for the incident, he would still forgive him. And he told him to believe what he said, because he had given his word and would fulfil his promise. He then detained the Arabs and told his men to go into the barges, so that they might go ashore as soon as the ships came before the city, giving the governor no time to prepare to defend it. For his part, when the governor learnt that the catual had gone aboard the pinnace and proceeded to the ships, he relaxed, thinking that there would be no need to fight. He came to the beach accompanied only by the archers of his guard and went into a large mosque which lay by the sea. This was at about midday, when the ships came before the city the commander-in-chief ordered his men to row ashore at once. It was only then that the Arabs saw that our men were armed, but there was so little time before they reached the shore that nobody else could get there apart from the governor’s bodyguard. The Governor fled at once, whilst his guards tried to prevent our men from landing, without success. Instead, our men forced them to retreat into the mosque, which they attacked as soon as they disembarked. They expelled everyone from there by force, killing, some of the enemy
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