The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541–1543/Chapter XIV

by Miguel de Castanhoso

Of how D. Christovão fought the first Battle with the King of Zeila, in which the Moor was defeated and wounded by a matchlock Bullet.

After the artillery had been mounted on the carriages, and the tents and all the baggage loaded on mules, D. Christovão arranged his forces: the Captains with their men were in advance, the Queen with her women and all the transport in the centre, and the royal standard, with the rest of the force, in the rear; thus we made a circle as we were surrounded on all sides; the arrangements were completed before dawn without our being discovered. At break of day, on Tuesday, April 4, 1542, we began to march towards the enemy. D. Christovão, with eight mounted Portuguese and four or five Abyssinians, visited every part of the force, arranging the men. When the Moors saw us advancing towards them, they raised such a noise of shouting, trumpets, and kettledrums, that it seemed as if the world were dissolving; they showed great joy, thinking they had us already in their net. At this we began to do our duty with matchlocks and artillery, which played continually on all sides, so that we cleared the plain as we advanced. [46] The Turks, who were in our front, seeing the damage we caused, advanced close to us, and the battle began to rage. When the Moor found that the Turks were those who helped him most, he came in person against us with more than five hundred horse, and with the three standards that were always with him. Here we found ourselves in great trouble; but our artillery stood us in good stead, for those in charge behaved like valiant men without fear, and fired so rapidly that the horse could never get near us, because the horses feared the fire; still the Moors did us much harm, especially the Turks with their matchlocks. D. Christovão, seeing this, halted the force, ordering us not to fight save with the artillery, with which we did them much hurt; and as one hundred Turks advanced very close to us, D. Christovão sent Manuel da Cunha to attack them with his men, that is, about fifty Portuguese. He obeyed, and the engagement waxed so fierce that the Turks seized the banner and slew the ensign and three other Portuguese; they also killed and wounded many of the Turks; Manuel da Cunha retired, wounded in the leg with a matchlock bullet. All this while D. Christovão was encouraging our people, always present where danger was greatest, many of ours being wounded; he himself was wounded by another bullet in the other leg, which was a great disaster for all, but for him an honour, for, wounded as he was, he behaved himself and acted as we find no example of any notable Captain in ancient or modern histories. The battle going thus, as I say, and it being now midday, it pleased the Lord God to remember His servants, as He always does in times of such dire distress, when He is merciful. It [47] appeared to us that we had the worst of the battle, and it appeared to the King of Zeila, who saw it from the outside, the opposite. He therefore advanced to encourage his men, and came so close to us that he was wounded in the thigh by a matchlock bullet, that pierced his horse, which fell dead under him. When they saw him fall, his ensigns lowered the three banners which accompanied him: this was the signal of retreat; they lowered them three times, and then took him up in their arms and bore him away. When D. Christovão saw this he knew that the Moor had been wounded; then sounding the trumpets and kettle-drums, we shouted "St. James!" and charged, with the Abyssinians who were with us, in number about two hundred. We slew many and followed them a space, where the Abyssinians avenged themselves on the Moors, slaying them as if they had been sheep. D. Christovão, as he had no horse to pursue, and as we were all very weary, and as we feared lest the Moorish horse should turn on us, contented himself with the victory our Lord had given him that day, which was not a small one. While we were in pursuit, the Queen had had a tent pitched and placed the wounded in it; she and her women went about binding up the wounded with their own head-gear, and weeping with pleasure at the great mercy our Lord God had done them that day, for truly she had found herself in great fear and tribulation. Meanwhile, D. Christovão returned to where the tent was pitched, and had all the others pitched also. The dead on the battle-field were examined, to bury the Portuguese who had fallen. There were eleven, and among them Luiz Rodriguez de Carvalho, with a musket-ball through the head, the first man killed, Lopo da Cunha fidalgo, and a foster-brother of D. Christovão; there were [48] over fifty wounded, chiefly by matchlock bullets; but the enemy paid heavily, for the field was full of them; among them the Abyssinians recognised four of the principal Captains of the King of Zeila; there lay dead on the field forty horses and thirty Turks. After we had buried the dead we wanted to rest; but the Captain of that country said to D. Christovão that we should not stay on that spot, as water was scarce, and there was little grass for the mules; that we should approach the skirts of a range of hills two matchlock shots away, where water was plentiful, and where we should be lords of the country, through which abundant supplies could come from his territory, and the enemy unable to interfere. This was agreed to, and, after eating, we left that spot and went there. This day D. Christovão laboured much, for he attended to all the wounded himself; for the surgeon we had with us was wounded in the right hand. After attending to all the others, he tended his own wound last of all. When night fell, he sent a man very secretly, to travel night and day until he came up with the Portuguese who were in Massowa, to tell them of the victory and of the King's wound, and to direct them to hasten, as he hoped in God to be able, on their arrival, to finish the conquest. We stayed here, curing the wounded and resting, until the first Sunday after Easter, both because the wounded could not carry arms, and in order to see if the Portuguese came. After Easter and its octave had passed, D. Christovão, seeing that there was delay, and that the enemy would meanwhile be enabled to recruit their army, determined to fight a second battle on the Sunday, for we were in sight of each other. It was [49] in this battle that the patriarch and others first saw the blessed St. James help us, in the shape in which he always does; there can be no doubt but that without his help, and chiefly that of our Lord, we should never have been victorious.