The Portuguese flotilla of 6 galleys was beached due to the weather, but nevertheless Brito sent a small craft over the sea to Goa with a distress call. Knowing of Colombo's defences, which included a lagoon serving as a moat by its southern side, Rajasinha began the siege by having entrenchments dug around the walls and the lagoon drained, which took a month. With the digging complete, Rajasinha rallied his entire army outside Colombo in a display of force, shouting war-cries to intimidate the besieged. Undaunted, Brito ordered a sally against the troops closest to the city, throwing them into great confusion. On the night of 3 August, the Rajasinha ordered the first mass assault. Thousands of Sinhalese attempted to scale Colombo's earthen walls, while sappers (aided by hundreds of elephants) tried to breach them. They were met with superior Portuguese firepower. Some Sinhalese were able to climb onto the bastions São Lourenço and São Gonçalo, but were repelled by a swift Portuguese counter attack. By the following morning, the Sinhalese had been driven off, having suffered 400 dead and 2,000 wounded. Over the following months Rajasinha attempted three more assaults on Colombo, along with attempts to undermine the walls, while the Portuguese conducted sorties against Sinhalese positions. With the end of the monsoon, the first Portuguese reinforcements from Goa arrived on 11 September. Further ships carrying reinforcements arrived on 4 October, 23 October, 4 November, and 15 February. Finally, on 18 February a large fleet of eighteen galleys commanded by Manuel de Sousa Coutinho arrived, after raiding Sitawakan shores in northwestern Sri Lanka. The fleet sailed in battle formation and sounded its guns; the Portuguese defenders greeted it by ringing their church bells and firing a general salvo from the fortress' cannon. With the arrival of the reinforcements, there were now 2,000 Portuguese soldiers inside the fortress, in addition to the lascarins and civilian defenders. Rajasinha realised that the opportunity to take Colombo had been lost and lifted the siege shortly afterwards. Over the eight-month campaign, the Sinhalese had lost 5,000 men. Portuguese campaigns against Jaffna, Sitawaka and Kandy In 1588 Kandy rebelled against its new Sitawaka rulers. However, the heirs of the Kandyan royal family had fallen under Portuguese influence and were held in Colombo. In 1592 the Portuguese intervened in Kandy, placing their protégé Yamasinghe Bandara on the throne. However, the new ruler died in suspicious circumstances