King Fernando, as you have heard, on his return from his journey to Guimarães, dispatched his officers of the marches to the places which had declared for him. Among these officers, he ordered that Gomes Lourenço do Avelar be sent to Ciudad Rodrigo and that Afonso Gomes da Silva should come back after being there till then. Gomes Lourenço was accompanied by Afonso Furtado, Estêvão Vasques Filipe, João Rodrigues Portocarreiro and other valiant men, as we have already said, with up to 200 lances. The king commanded him to fashion a most beautiful banner displaying his arms, and this they took with them when they left Lisbon in the month of April.

Gomes Lourenço arrived in Ciudad Rodrigo and, after settling in, he journeyed all over the surrounding territory and captured a number of villages, namely San Felices de los Gallegos, Barruecopardo, Hinojosa and Serralvo; moreover, he dispatched João Rodrigues Portocarreiro, along with twentyfour horsemen, to act as officer of the marches in San Felices. While João Rodrigues was there, he was attacked by a troop of some eighty horsemen from the village of Ledesma. He [and his men] rode out from the village and did battle with them. The troop from Ledesma was defeated, and many of them were killed and taken prisoner, including foot soldiers who were still approaching at some distance. News of this engagement spread far and wide, since it was one in which the many were vanquished by the few. These achievements by the Portuguese lead us to ponder whether the Castilians too might have carried out similar actions, but owing to the fact that we can find no written report of what they did, we were unable to record it.

You should be aware, however, that at this time, on a Tuesday evening in Lisbon, a fire broke out in the ironworks on the waterfront, and all the houses in that street were consumed by fire, as well as much of the Rua Nova. It was a mighty conflagration, with much property being destroyed and looted, and it lasted for many hours. Likewise, in the following year, 1370, on 23 February, from midnight until the end of Mass, there raged a very great storm.