43 them to do this for the present and he wanted to incite or oblige the enemy to fight or lose face, he sent a challenge by a letter signed with his seal, which on his orders Captain Simao de Quintal fastened to the gates of the fortress of Surat(1). Still the enemy would not come out to fight, but three very powerful carracks arrived from England, and in view of the five of their company which were in the deeps he raised anchor and attacked them, putting them to flight in disarray, fighting them the whole afternoon with his flagship alone, and two nights more with the galleons. They grappled with them, setting fire to them and capturing two flags, drums, launches and many other spoils, until at the end of three days the English disappeared in flight, with one(2) probably lost because it was so badly damaged. The others never returned to Surat, where all their contracts were, and so they had that additional distress. Three months after these enemy carracks had been put to flight in such disorder, when the commander had gone to make repairs in the port of Bombay with the four remaining galleons, an enemy carrack came to that coast to lie in wait for the ships coming from Mombasa, Mozambique, Pate, Muscat, Basra and other parts which gather at this time in Bassein and Chaul and then proceed to Goa. It hoped to capture them, which has happened in past years because they 1- See Appendix A (Letter of challenge) and note. 2- The “Lion”, which was boarded by the “Sao Pedro”. The “Lion” was not lost here but was burned by Rui Freire de Andrade in Gombroon on 8 November of the same year.
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