Sundiva Or Sundeep Is A Considerable
Island To The South-East Of The Mouth Of The Burrampooter, Near The
Coast Of Chittagong, And To The East Of The Sunderbunds Or Delta Of The
Ganges.
- E.]
Gonzalez having now a considerable revenue at his command, raised a
respectable military force of 1000 Portuguese, 2000 well armed natives,
and 200 horse, with above 80 sail of small vessels well provided with
cannon. He erected a custom-house, and encouraged the resort of
merchants to his dominions, and became so formidable that the
neighbouring princes courted his alliance. Insolent and ungrateful in
the progress of his power, he not only refused to give half the revenue
of the island to the king of Bacala according to agreement, but made war
upon his benefactor, from whom he conquered the islands of
Xavaspur[427] and Patelabanga, and other lands from other
neighbouring princes; so that he became suddenly possessed of vast
riches and great power, and acted as an independent sovereign, having
many brave men at his command. But such monsters are like comets that
threaten extensive ruin, yet last only for a short time, or like the
lightning, which no sooner expends its flash but it is gone for ever.
[Footnote 427: Shabapour is an island to the west of Sundeep, at the
principal mouth of the Barrampooter. - E.]
Soon after the elevation of Gonzalez to the sovereignty of Sundiva, a
civil war broke out between the king of Aracan and his brother Anaporam,
because the latter refused to resign a remarkable elephant, to which all
the other elephants of the country were said to allow a kind of
superiority. Being unsuccessful in the contest, Anaporam fled to
Gonzalez for assistance and protection, who demanded his sister as an
hostage. Gonzalez and Anaporam endeavoured, in conjunction, to fight the
king of Aracan, who had an army of 80,000 men, and 700 war elephants;
but being unsuccessful, were obliged to retreat to Sundiva, into which
Anaporam brought his wife and family, with all his treasure, and became
a subject of Gonzalez, who soon afterwards had the sister of Anaporam
baptized, and took her to wife. Anaporam soon died, not without
suspicion of poison; and Gonzalez immediately seized all his treasures
and effects, though he had left a wife and son. To stop the mouths of
the people on this violent and unjust procedure, he wished to have
married the widow of Anaporam to his brother Antonio Tibao, who was
admiral of his fleet, but she refused to become a Christian. Sebastian
continued the war against the king of Aracan with considerable success;
insomuch that on one occasion his brother Antonio, with only five sail,
defeated and captured 100 sail belonging to Aracan. At length the king
of Aracan concluded peace, and procured the restoration of his brother's
widow, whom he married to the rajah of Chittigong.
At this time, the Moguls undertook the conquest of the kingdom of
Balua[428], and as Gonzalez considered this conquest might prove
dangerous to his ill-got power, Balua being adjoining to his own
territories, he entered into a league with the king of Aracan for the
defence of that country. Accordingly, the king of Aracan took the field
with an immense army, having 80,000 of his own native subjects, mostly
armed with firelocks, 10,000 Peguers who fought with sword and bucklers,
and 700 elephants with castles carrying armed men. Besides these, he
sent 200 sail of vessels to sea, carrying 4000 men, ordering this fleet
to join that of Gonzalez, and to be under his command. According to the
treaty, Gonzalez, with the combined fleet, was to prevent the Moguls
from passing to the kingdom of Balua, till the king of Aracan could
march there with his army for its protection; besides which it was
agreed, when the Moguls were expelled from Balua, that half the kingdom
was to be given up to Gonzalez; who, on this occasion, gave as hostages,
for the safety of the Aracan fleet, and the faithful performance of his
part of the treaty, a nephew of his own, and the sons of some of the
Portuguese inhabitants of Sundiva.
[Footnote 428: There still is a town named Bulloah, to the east of the
Barrampooter and directly north of Sundeep, which may then have given
name to a province or small principality, of which Comillah is now the
chief town. - E.]
According to treaty, the king of Aracan entered the kingdom of Balua
with his army, and expelled the Moguls; but Gonzalez did not perform his
part of the agreement in preventing the Moguls from penetrating into
that kingdom, some alleging that he had been bribed by the Moguls to
allow them a free passage, while, according to others, he did so from
revenge against the king of Aracan, for the Portuguese who had been
slain by that king in Bangael of Dianga[429]. However this may have
been, Gonzalez was guilty of a most execrable treachery, as, by leaving
open the mouth of the river Dangatiar, he left a free passage to the
Moguls. After this he went with his fleet into a creek of the island
Desierta[430], and assembling all the captains of the Aracan vessels on
board his ship, he murdered them all, seized all their vessels, and
killed or made slaves of all their men, after which he returned to
Sundiva. Soon afterwards the Moguls returned in great force to the
kingdom of Balua, where they reduced the king of Aracan to such straits
that he made his escape with great difficulty on an elephant, and came
almost alone to Chittigong. Immediately upon this discomfiture of the
Aracan army, which was utterly destroyed by the Moguls in Balua,
Gonzalez plundered and destroyed all the forts on the coast of Aracan,
which were then unprovided for defence, as depending on the peace and
alliance between their king and Gonzalez; he even went against the city
of Aracan, where he burnt many merchant vessels, and acquired great
plunder, and destroyed a vessel of great size, richly adorned, and
containing several splendid apartments like a palace, all covered with
gold and ivory, which the king kept as a pleasure-yacht for his own use.
Exasperated against Gonzalez for his treachery, the king ordered the
nephew of that lawless ruffian, who was in his power as a hostage, to be
be impaled.
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