When Friday was passed, the whole day being occupied in fastening the ships together with cables, as I have already said, on the following night the great Afonso Dalboquerque sent for all the captains and told them that, although it had been agreed by all that an attack should be made upon the city, the extent of the wall was so long that they had neither sufficient men nor ladders to invest the whole of it; therefore, it seemed good to him that all must unite together to make an assault upon it at one spot, so as to get a double line of men up to the wall, who could thereby succour each other; and when once they had forced their entrance into the city, they must be careful to take up such a position in respect to the Moors as to get possession of the gate of the mountain range which led towards the interior country, for if they failed to take that, they would fail to obtain any real advantage, and the Moors could place as many reinforcements as they liked inside the city, so that the Portuguese would be compelled after all to retire to their ships, and this would be a great disaster and failure for them. Therefore, it was very important for all of them to fight like cavaliers, and labour to the utmost to gain possession of the gate.