The Story Of Majorca And Minorca Author:Clements R. Markham Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 16 LANDING OF THE CATALANS CHAPTER II Tells how King Jaymo won a victory over the Moors of Majorca ; and gives some account of the Moorish capital The l... more »ittle bay of Santa Ponza was alive with boats from the ships, pulling to the shore. The first to land was a young Catalan ensign named Bernardo de Riudemeya, who waved his pennon as a sign for the others to follow him. As a reward the King granted him the estate of Santa Ponza in fee-simple. He was followed by 700 men and the chief officers, including En Nuno, En Ramon de Moncada, En Bernardo de Santa Eugenia de Torrella, Bernardo de Champans, the Master of the Temple, and his knights, making about 150 horse. A reconnaissance by Ramon de Moncada found an advanced guard of Moors about a mile away, which was attacked and put to flight. When the King landed, he heard that this encounter was proceeding, so he galloped off to the scene of action with forty attendant knights. Seeing a body of 400 Moorish infantry on a spur of the PEEPAEATIONS FOE BATTLE 17 hills, he attacked them furiously, put them to flight, and returned well pleased. He found his nobles in some alarm for his safety, and he was seriously taken to task for running such risks when so much depended on his life. Guillem de Moncada told him that he ought to recollect that the lives of all of them depended upon his safety. The rest of the cavalry had arrived in the rear squadron and had been landed at Porrasa, where it was ascertained that the Moorish Amir with a large army was at Porto Pi, a small harbour between Porrasa and the capital of the island. This news was brought to the King at midnight, and he called a council of war, when it was determined to give the troops a good night's rest before the expected battle. At dawn Jayme and his nobles heard Mass...« less