The Town Above Mentioned Was Plundered And Burnt By The
Portuguese; And The Discomfited King Remained Long At Bintang Unable For
Any New Enterprise Against The Portuguese.
The successes of the king of
Bintang in the beginning of this war had encouraged the kings of Pisang
and Acheen to commit some outrages against the Portuguese; for which
reason being now victorious, Garcia de Sa determined to be revenged upon
them.
Having some success, he fitted out a ship commanded by Manuel
Pacheco to take some revenge for the injuries, he had sustained; and
Pacheco had occasion to send a boat for water rowed by Malays, having
only five Portuguese on board, which fell in with three ships belonging
to Pisang each having 150 men. Finding it impossible to escape, they
boarded the commander with such resolute fury that they soon strewed the
deck with the dead bodies of the enemy, and the remainder of the crew
leapt overboard, followed by their captain, who was seen hewing them
with his cymeter in the water in revenge for their cowardice. The five
Portuguese thus obtained possession of the ship, and the other two fled,
on which Pacheco returned to Malacca with his prize in triumph, and the
captured ship was long preserved as a memorial of this signal exploit.
The king of Pisang was so much terrified by this action that he sued
for peace, and offered ample reparation of all the injuries he had done
to die Portuguese.
In this same year 1519 Diego Gomez went to erect a fort at the principal
island of the Maldives; but behaved himself with so much arrogance that
the Moors lulled ten or twelve of his men. This is the chief of a
thousand isles which lie in clusters in that sea, and such is the
signification of Male-dive. They resemble a long ridge of mountains,
the sea between being as valleys and serving for communications from
isle to isle; and about the middle of the group is the large island, in
which the king resides. The natives of these islands are gentiles, but
the government is in the hands of the Moors. They are so close together,
that in many of the channels the yard-arms of ships passing through rub
against the shores, or on the trees on both sides. Their chief product
is cocoa-nut trees, the kernel of these nuts producing a pleasant and
nutritive fruit, while the outer rhind or husk is useful for making
cables. There is another sort of these trees growing at the bottom of
the sea, having larger fruit than the land cocoa-nut, and which is a
more powerful antidote against poison than even the Bezoar stone[149].
[Footnote 149: This submarine cocoa-nut tree is utterly inexplicable.
- E.]
During this same year 1519, a fleet of 14 ships was sent from Portugal
to India, which was dispersed to several parts. Some fell in with the
coast of Brazil, where fifty men were slain; and Don Luis de Guzman, one
of the captains, turned pirate and became very rich, but afterwards met
with his deserts.
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