_ 77 _ came within range of artillery fire, he gave orders to fire and moved straight towards Dom Lourenco’s ship. When he reached it, his men started to shoot so many arrows that they seemed to rain on our ships. Our men responded with crossbows, rifles and lances and a fierce battle followed, during which both sides fought very hard, although neither succeeded in accosting the other’s ship. This didn’t last very long however, because Mirocem met much greater resistance than he had expected and so passed on, as did his other ships each of which had also been engaged in fighting our other vessel’s, during the combat with Dom Lourenco’s men. Mirocem’s ships went up to our fleet before the city, and sustained much damage from our artillery in the process, whilst our men suffered from their arrows which wounded a good thirty men in Dom Lourenco’s ship, and the same number in that of Pero Barreto, these two ships carried our best men. Some were also wounded in the other ships, among them a nobleman called Rui Pereira who was deck-captain in Duarte de Melo’s ship. The enemy galleys were not damaged at all, because they sailed along the other side of the river very close to the bank. Although many of his men had been wounded Dom Lourenco wanted to board Mirocem’s ship, and to this effect he gave orders for the anchor to be lifted, as did the
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