Menezes Then Assaulted And Took The City Of Tidore, Which He
Plundered And Burnt; After Which He Invested The Spanish
Fort, and
summoned Ferdinando de la Torre the Spanish commander to surrender.
Being unable to resist, the Spanish captain agreed
To evacuate Tidore,
retiring to the city of Comafo, and engaging to commit no hostilities
upon the Portuguese or their allies, and not to trade to any of the
islands producing cloves. After this the king of Tidore was made
tributary to the Portuguese, and Menezes returned victorious to Ternate.
During his absence, Bohaat king of Tidore had died, not without
suspicion of having been poisoned by Cachil Daroez, and was succeeded
by his brother Cachil Daialo. The new king being suspicious of Cachil
Vaiaco, fled to the fort; but afraid that Menezes might give him up to
his enemy, threw himself from a window. All Ternate now mutinied against
Menezes; and as he imagined that Cachil Vaideca, a noble of Tidore,
had caused the death of a Chinese sow belonging to him, he imprisoned
that nobleman, after which he set him free, having first anointed his
face with bacon, which among that people is reckoned a most heinous
affront. Not contented with this violence, he sent to rob the houses of
the Moors of their provisions, and became suddenly most outrageous and
tyrannical. The Moors stood upon their defence, and treated some of
the Portuguese as they now deserved. Menezes seized the chief magistrate
of the town of Tabona and two other persons of note. These two he set
at liberty after cutting off their hands; but he let loose two fierce
dogs against the magistrate, which tore him in pieces. Becoming odious
to all by these cruelties, Cachil Daroez stirred up the natives to
expel the Portuguese; but being made prisoner, Menezes caused him to be
beheaded. Terrified by this tyranny, the inhabitants of Ternate fled to
other places, the city becoming entirely deserted. Don George de Menezes
was afterwards sent a prisoner to India for these enormities, whence he
was sent to Portugal, where he was condemned to banishment. Any reward
was too small for his former services, and this punishment was too
slight for his present offences.
Nuno de Cuna, appointed governor-general of India, arrived in May 1529
at Ormuz. Setting out too late from Lisbon in the year before with
eleven ships, he had a tedious voyage. One of his ships was lost near
Cape Verd, when 150 men perished. After passing the line, the fleet was
dispersed in a violent storm. Nuno put in at the port of St Jago in
Madagascar, where he found a naked Portuguese soldier, who had belonged
to one of two ships commanded by Lacerda and Abreu, which were cast away
in 1527 at this place. The people fortified themselves there, in hopes
that some ships passing that way might take them up. After waiting a
year, one ship passed but could not come to their assistance; and being
no longer able to subsist at that place, they marched up the country in
two bodies to seek their fortunes, leaving this man behind sick.
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