[Footnote 184:

Corruptly called by the British in India running a muck.

- E.]

Departing from Beth, Nuno appeared with his powerful armament before Diu. This city is built upon rocks, and is entirely encompassed by rocks and water. The entrance into the river or haven was shut up by massy chains suspended upon vessels, behind which eighty vessels were drawn up full of archers and musqueteers to defend the passage. The garrison consisted of 10,000 men, with a prodigious number of cannon. On the 16th of February, the signal was given for the attack, but after fighting the whole day without gaining any advantage, and having suffered some loss, it was determined in a council of war to desist from the enterprise as. impracticable. It was agreed by all, that if so much time had not been fruitlessly employed in the capture of Beth, Diu must have fallen; as it had been reinforced only three, days before the arrival of the Portuguese by a Turk named Mustapha, who was the principal cause of its brave and effectual resistance. Nuno returned with the principal part of his fleet and army to Goa, where he arrived on the 15th of March, leaving Antonio de Saldanna with 60 vessels in the Bay of Cambaya to annoy the enemy.

After the departure of the Portuguese fleet, Mustapha presented himself before Badur king of Cambaya, who received him honourably, giving him the command of Baroach in the Bay of Cambaya, with the title of Rumi-khan. He was called Kami, as having been born in Greece; as the Moors of India, being ignorant of the divisions of the European provinces, call the whole of Thrace, Greece, Sclavonia, and the adjacent countries by the general name of Rum, and the inhabitants Rumi though that term ought only to be applied to Thrace, the modern Romania. The Turks and Rumes are different nations; the former being originally from Turkistan, and the natives of Greece and Thrace consider themselves as of more honourable descent than the Turks[185]. The tide of Khan now bestowed on Mustapha is a dignity among the Tartars equivalent to that of Duke in Europe, and is bestowed in the east on persons of distinguished merit.

[Footnote 185: On a former occasion, the name of Kami has been mentioned as universally given in India to the Turks as coming in place of the Romans. DeFaria therefore was mistaken in deriving it from the province of Romania or Thrace. - E.]

Antonio de Saldanna, who was left in command of the sea of Cambaya, with 60 vessels and 1500 men, took and burnt the town of Madrefavat,[186] five leagues from Diu towards Beth. He then went against Gogo, twenty-four leagues farther, formerly a strong and populous place of great trade. There were fifteen of the largest paraos belonging to Calicut at that time in the port laden with spice, which took shelter in a creek, and were followed by Saldanna with 800 men in the smaller vessels.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 185 of 423
Words from 96637 to 97140 of 221361