The King Of Bitang Died Of
Grief, And Mascarenas Restored It To The Lawful Heir Under Vassalage To
Portugal, The Former King Having Been An Usurper.
The island of Sunda is divided on the south from Java by a very narrow
channel.
It produces pale gold with abundance of pepper and provisions.
The natives are numerous but unwarlike, yet are curious in adorning
their arms. They worship idols, and often sell their children to supply
their necessities. The women are beautiful, those of the higher ranks
being chaste, contrary to what is usual in most parts of the world. They
have convents, as in Spain and Portugal, in which they reside while
virgins; and the married women kill themselves on the death of their
husbands. This were a good custom to shew their duty and affection, were
it not contrary to the law of nature, and therefore a barbarous error.
Enrique Leme happening to go there, drawn by the plenty and goodness of
its pepper, he was well received by the king of Samiam, who offered
ground for a fort, and to pay an yearly tribute of 351 quintals of
pepper, to purchase the friendship and support of the Portuguese against
the Moors, by whom he was much infested. But when Francisco de Sa came
to build the fort, he met with such opposition from the Moors that he
was obliged to return to Malacca.
In the same year 1526, Martin Iniguez de Carchisano arrived in the port
of Kamafo in Tidore with a Spanish ship, one of six which had been sent
the year before from Spain to those parts which belonged of right to the
Portuguese.
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