digging entrenchments, erecting a protective timber palisade and laying cannon along the harbor shore. November 1, 1502 – At noon, having received no reply, Gama orders that his Malabari prisoners be strung up by their necks from the shipmasts, allocating a few to each ship. Calicut crowds approach the beach to watch the grisly spectacle. Then the armada advances into the harbor and opens fire. The bombardment is principally aimed at clearing the beach and trenches. The Malabari shore cannons are too few, their range and power too weak, to provide an effective reply. The bombardment continues until nightfall. That night, the corpses of the hung Malabaris are taken from masts, their feet and hands severed off and sent by a small boat to the beach, with an insulting message to the Zamorin, including a demand that the Zamorin reimburse the Portuguese for the powder and shot expended on destroying his city. November 2, 1502 – The city bombardment resumes the next morning. The mostly poor dwellings on the shore having been razed the previous day, the Portuguese cannons now have a clear view of central city and the statelier homes of the richer citizens of Calicut and bring their larger ordnance to bear. The city is relentlessly bombarded all morning – some 400 large rounds and an indeterminate number from the smaller caliber guns At noon, when the Portuguese pause for lunch, a small group of Malabari vessels tries to attack the idling squad, but are quickly seen off. November 3, 1502 – Barros reports that the two-day bombardment had sufficiently crippled the city that several of the captains urge Gama to authorize a landing of troops to sack Calicut. But Gama, still hopeful the Zamorin might come to terms, turns down their request, believing a sack would only escalate matters to the point of no return. So, the next morning, vengeance satisfied, Gama sets sail out of Calicut harbor. [In his somewhat different account, Gaspar Correia does not report the hanging of the prisoners; instead, after the bombardment, while still anchored before the harbor of the smoldering city, the 4th Armada captures a Coromandel merchant convoy of 2 large ships and 27 small boats unlucky enough to turn up at Calicut at that very moment. Seizing the convoy, Gama orders the cargoes transferred, the crews tied, their teeth beaten out, their noses and hands cut off and the