Leaving Don
Rodrigo De Castel Branco In The Command Of Goa With A Garrison Of 400
Portuguese Troops, While The Defence Of The Dependencies And The
Collection Of The Revenue Was Confided To Medeorao With 5000 Native
Soldiers, Albuquerque Went To Cochin To Prepare For His Expedition
Against Malacca.
The city of Malacca is situated on the peninsula of that name, anciently
called Aurea Chersonesus, or the Golden Peninsula, and on the coast of
the channel which separates the island of Sumatra from the continent,
being about the middle of these straits.
It is in somewhat more than two
degrees of north latitude[123], stretching along the shore for about a
league, and divided in two nearly equal parts by a river over which
there is a bridge. It has a fine appearance from the sea, but all the
buildings of the city are of wood, except the mosque and palace which
are of stone. Its port was then frequented by great numbers of ships,
being the universal mart of all eastern India beyond the bay of Bengal.
It was first built by the Celates, a people who chiefly subsisted by
fishing, and who united themselves with the Malays who inhabited the
mountains. Their first chief was Paramisora, who had been a person of
high rank in the island of Java, whence he was expelled by another chief
who usurped his lordship, on which occasion he fled to Cincapura, where
he was well received by the lord of that place and raised to high
employment.
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