In This Deplorable Situation, Incessantly
Battered By The Enemy, Cut Off From All Supplies Of Provisions, Malacca
Had No Adequate Means And, Hardly Any Hopes Of Defence.
In this
extremity Tristan Vaz accidentally entered the port with a single ship,
in which he had been to Sunda for a cargo of pepper.
Being earnestly
intreated by the besieged to assist them, he agreed to do every thing in
his power, though it seemed a rash attempt to engage a fleet of 100 sail
with only ten vessels, nine of which were almost rotten and destitute of
rigging. Among these he distributed 300 naked and hungry wretches; and
though confident in his own valour, he trusted only in the mercy of God,
and caused all his men to prepare for battle by confession, of which he
set them the example.
He sailed from Malacca with this armament about the end of November
1571, and soon discovered the formidable fleet of the enemy in the river
Fermoso. Giving the command of his own ship to Emanuel Ferreyra,
Tristam Vaz de Vega went sword in hand into a galliot, to encourage his
men to behave valiantly by exposing himself to the brunt of battle along
with them. On the signal being given by a furious discharge of cannon,
Tristan instantly boarded the admiral ship of the enemy, making great
havock in her crew of 200 men and even carried away her ensign.
Ferdinand Perez with only 13 men in a small vessel took a galley of the
enemy. Ferdinand de Lemos ran down and sunk one of the enemies ships.
Francisco de Lima having taken another set her on fire, that he might be
at liberty to continue the fight. Emanuel Ferreyra sank three vessels,
unrigged several others, and slew great numbers of the enemy. In short,
every one fought admirably, and the whole hostile fleet fled, except
four gallies and seven smaller vessels that were burnt or sunk. Seven
hundred of the enemy were taken or slain, with the loss only of five
men on the side of the victors. The Portuguese ships waited three days
in the river to see if the enemy would return, and then carried the
joyful news to Malacca, where it could hardly be believed[382].
[Footnote 382: Though not mentioned by De Faria, the king of Acheen
appears to Jave raised the siege of Malacca after this naval
victory. - E.]
Sometime in the year 1578, four ships arrived at Goa from Portugal,
under the command of Francisco de Sousa, who immediately on landing went
to the archbishop Don Gaspar, to whom he delivered a packet from the
king. The royal orders contained in this packet were read by a cryer in
the archiepiscopal church, and announced that Don Antonio de Noronha was
deposed from the dignity of viceroy, to whom Antonio Moniz Barreto was
immediately to succeed with the title of governor. By another order,
Gonzalo Pereyra was appointed to the government of Malacca, in default
of whom Don Leonis Pereyra was substituted, and accordingly succeeded as
the other was dead.
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