Storia do Mogor 116.7

116.7

Meanwhile some attend to the vessel, and others fight without intermission. The dead bodies are thrown into the sea, so that they may not hinder the fight. Nor are there wanting surgeons to aid the wounded, who are carried to a room specially set apart. As their courage grows hotter, they bring the vessels nearer, emptying all their matchlocks and pistols, until at length the fight waxing still fiercer, they grapple one with the other; then the sword-blows scatter streams of blood, reddening the sea. There being no mode of flight for the fighters, it is therefore necessary to conquer or die. Sometimes it happens that the captain who is losing, resolving not to be overcome, orders all his cannon and other pieces to be double-shotted. He then sets fire to the ship's magazine of powder; thus he destroys himself along with the others. The rajah wondered at such a mode of warfare, and it seemed to him very hard and very cruel that a man, if he did not want to defend himself, could not even run away.