The Five
Portuguese Thus Obtained Possession Of The Ship, And The Other Two Fled,
On Which Pacheco Returned To Malacca
With his prize in triumph, and the
captured ship was long preserved as a memorial of this signal exploit.
The
King of Pisang was so much terrified by this action that he sued
for peace, and offered ample reparation of all the injuries he had done
to die Portuguese.
In this same year 1519 Diego Gomez went to erect a fort at the principal
island of the Maldives; but behaved himself with so much arrogance that
the Moors lulled ten or twelve of his men. This is the chief of a
thousand isles which lie in clusters in that sea, and such is the
signification of Male-dive. They resemble a long ridge of mountains,
the sea between being as valleys and serving for communications from
isle to isle; and about the middle of the group is the large island, in
which the king resides. The natives of these islands are gentiles, but
the government is in the hands of the Moors. They are so close together,
that in many of the channels the yard-arms of ships passing through rub
against the shores, or on the trees on both sides. Their chief product
is cocoa-nut trees, the kernel of these nuts producing a pleasant and
nutritive fruit, while the outer rhind or husk is useful for making
cables. There is another sort of these trees growing at the bottom of
the sea, having larger fruit than the land cocoa-nut, and which is a
more powerful antidote against poison than even the Bezoar stone[149].
[Footnote 149:
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