When
Received By The Midwife, It Cried With A Loud Voice, And Stood Up On Its
Feet.
The father put it into a hencoop, whence it got out and flew upon
its mother; on which the father killed it by pouring scalding water on
its head, and could scarcely cut off the head it was so hard.
He burnt
it. But when the story came to be known, he was punished for the murder,
and the body was exposed to public view[371].
[Footnote 371: This silly story has been retained, perhaps very
unnecessarily. It is perhaps an instance of embellishment founded on the
love of the marvellous, and the whole truth may lie in a very narrow
compass "an infant coming into the world covered with hair," while all
the rest is fiction. - E.]
Don Alfonso de Noronha was promoted to the viceroyalty of India from
being governor of Ceuta, but was subjected to the control of a council,
by whose advice he was ordered to conduct the government of India. He
had orders from court to send back to Portugal all the new Christians
or converted Jews, many of whom had gone out to India with their
families. It had been better to have banished them from both countries.
The new viceroy was received at Goa with universal joy, more owing
perhaps to the general dislike towards him who lays down authority than
from love for him who takes it up. The Arabs of Catifa in the Persian
Gulf had admitted the Turks to take possession of the fort in that city,
to the great displeasure of the King of Ormuz, on whom it had been
dependent, and who therefore applied for aid to the viceroy to reduce
the refractory or revolted vassals. The king of Basrah had also been
expelled from his kingdom by the Turks, yet kept the field with an army
of 30,000 men, and sent for assistance from the viceroy, to whom he
offered leave to erect a fort at his capital, and to grant many valuable
privileges to the Portuguese. The viceroy accordingly sent his nephew,
Antonio de Norenha, to the assistance of these two kings with 1200 men
in nineteen vessels. Antonio was joined at Ormuz by 3000 native troops,
in conjunction with whom he besieged Catifa, which was defended by 400
Turks. After a brave but unavailing resistance, the garrison fled by
night, but were pursued and routed. As the general of the troops of
Ormuz was unwilling to engage for the future defence of this fort, it
was undermined for the purpose of destroying it; but being unskilfully
managed, the mine exploded unexpectedly, and forty of the Portuguese
were buried under its ruins. Noronha then sailed to the mouth of the
Euphrates, on purpose to assist the king of Basrah; but he was induced
to believe, by a cunning Turkish pacha, that the king of Basrah meant to
betray him, on which he ingloriously returned to Ormuz, where he learnt
the deceit when too late.
The sultan of the Turks was so much displeased with the Portuguese for
what they had done at Catifa and attempted at Basrah, that he sent an
expedition against Ormuz of 16,000 men, commanded by an old pirate named
Pirbec. The Turk in the first place besieged Muscat for near a month,
and at length obliged the garrison to capitulate; but broke the articles
and chained the captain and sixty men to the oars. He afterwards
proceeded against Ormuz, where Don Alvaro de Noronha commanded with
nine-hundred men in the fort, where he had provided ammunition and
provisions for a long siege, and into which the king with his wife and
children and some of the chief people of the court had gone for shelter.
The Turk landed his men and raised batteries against the fort, which he
cannonaded incessantly for a whole month; but finding that he lost many
of his men and had no prospect of success, he plundered the city, and
went over to the island of Kishom, to which many of the principal people
of Ormuz had withdrawn, where he got a considerable booty and then
retired to Basrah. The viceroy had been informed of the danger to which
Ormuz was exposed, and fitted out a fleet in which he embarked in person
for its relief; but hearing at Diu, on his way to the Persian Gulf, that
Ormuz was out of danger, he sailed back to Goa. On his return
unsuccessful from Ormuz, Pirbec was beheaded for having acted beyond
his instructions, and Morad-beg was sent in 1553 with fifteen gallies
to cruise in the Persian Gulf against the Portuguese. An encounter took
place between this Turkish squadron and one belonging to the Portuguese
under Don Diego de Noronha, which ended without material loss on either
side; but the Turks were forced to take shelter in the Euphrates, where
the water was too shallow to admit the Portuguese galleons. In the
course of this year 1553, Luis Camoens, the admirable Portuguese poet,
went out to India, to endeavour to advance his fortune by the sword,
which had been so little favoured by his pen.
About this time new troubles took place at Diu in consequence of the
death of Sultan Mahmud, king of Guzerat or Cambaya. Like Mithridates, he
had accustomed himself to the use of poison, to guard against being
poisoned. When any of his women happened to be near their delivery, he
used to open them to take out their children. Being one day out hunting
accompanied by some of his women, he fell from his horse and was dragged
by the stirrup, when one of his women boldly made up to his horse and
cut the girth with a cymeter; in requital for this service he killed
her, saying "that a woman of such courage had enough to kill him." He
was at length murdered by a page in whom he had great confidence.
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