1. King Vijayabahu got the armies he requested from the Zamorin. It was named the Malabar army. The king's army too joined them. Together they besieged the Colombo Fort. The Portuguese faced a food shortage. They did not have enough forces to defeat the enemy. General Sylvaria got frightened and began to contemplate.

2. He wanted somehow to overcome this difficulty. He selected an army unit and started a surprise attack at midnight. This was quite unexpected. The army that had besieged the Fort was simply shocked. The Portuguese army that was chosen for the task was powerful. Without giving them time even to plan, they started the attack. The Sinhala and the Malabar army, were not strong enough to fight them. They had to retreat and flee.

3. After this loss, King Vijayabahu thought of building up a fake friendship with the Portuguese. Meanwhile, Sylvaria, who was jubilant over their victory, was having grand celebrations. When King Vijayabahu heard this, he wanted to make use of this opportunity. He made a declaration to the effect that the Fort had been besieged without his knowledge.

4. He said he was sad that he could not help in this attack and wished good luck to the Portuguese who had won. Sylvaria was a crafty general. He knew that the Fort was besieged on the orders of the king. But, hiding this from the king, he too pretended to be friendly. He thanked the king for wishing them well.

5. In the year 1520 A.D., a new governor was appointed to India. He was Diogo de Lopes de Sicuvera. This new governor thought of expanding the Fort of Colombo and making it stronger. To get this done, he appointed Lopes de Brito as captain and sent him to Colombo. This was somewhere between
1520 –1522 AD.

6. He started on the work assigned to him. Then the citizens stopped supplying food to the Portuguese. Brito thought that this was done on the instigation of the Muslims.

He got furious and burnt the stores of the Muslims and caused damage to the city. Some more soldiers came suddenly. They attacked the Portuguese who were destroying the city, defeated and chased them away.

Brito started work on the fort again. Then he had to face another attack, as King Vijayabahu too openly opposed this. Then Brito sent envoys to Cochin, asking for help. Two of the envoys were caught by the king and he got to know of the food shortage in the fort.

8. One envoy managed to sneak his way into Cochin. He explained matters to the governor. He then sent an envoy, who had returned from the Red Sea. Fifty more men were to accompany him. A stock of food was also sent. Brito got their assistance too and attacked the enemy, from both land and sea.