_ 121 _ after having failed to break through the gates, as he had been assigned to do; when he had reached them he had found them tightly shut, although they were not very strong, there were two cracks, through which one could see what lay behind them there were not many men inside, not even in the two towers which were used to guard the gates on either side. Dom Garcia's captains had then called for the battering ram which he had brought to break the gates; but our men had put so little effort into their task, that while they rammed the gates. The enemy had reinforced them with stone and clay from the inside, without our men being able to stop them. Besides this, the Arabs had thrown many large stones down from the walls and towers, one of which had hit Simao de Andrade; and in the meantime, they had finished reinforcing the gates. Seeing this, Dom Garcia had thought it would be a waste of time to stay there any longer; in order to avoid any loss of life he had gone to join the Governor. The governor was asking the captains and the men, all of whom had gathered there, to go in through the artillery opening which he had uncovered. Dom Garcia also helped the Governor to try and make them go in, but none of the captains wanted to do so; the reason for this was that Dom Garcia stayed outside, as if
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