Only 150 men now remained in.
Malacca, of whom 100 were sick or aged. Being in want both of men and
ammunition Tristan Vaz was under the necessity of remaining very quiet;
but the enemy fearing he was preparing some stratagem against them,
raised the siege in a panic of terror when they might easily have
carried the city, after remaining before it from the beginning to the
end of January 1575. The priests, women and children of the distressed
city had implored the mercy of God with sighs and tears; and next to
God, the city owed its safety to the courage of Tristan Vaz, and to his
generosity likewise, as he spent above 20,000 ducats in its defence.
At this period Juan de Costa cruised upon the Malabar coast with two
gallies and twenty-four other vessels. The town of Guipar near Bracalore
being in rebellion, he landed there and set the town on fire after
killing 1500 of the inhabitants. He likewise cut down the woods[383] in
revenge for the rebellion of the natives. After this he destroyed an
island belonging to the zamorin in the river of Chale, and ruined the
city of Parapangulem belonging to the same sovereign, where the heir of
the kingdom was slain with 200 of his followers. At Capocate 300 of
the natives were slain with the loss of two only of the Portuguese. The
town of Nilacharim near mount Dely was destroyed by fire. In the
intervals between these exploits on the land, several vessels belonging
to the enemy were taken, by which the fleet was supplied with slaves and
provisions.
[Footnote 383: Probably the groves of cocoa-nut trees are here alluded
to. - E.]
At this period, after long petty wars occasioned by the injustice and
tyranny of the Portuguese, they were expelled from the Molucca islands,
and their fort in the island of Ternate was forced to surrender to the
king, who protested in presence of the Portuguese that he took
possession of it in trust for the king of Portugal, and would deliver it
up to any one having authority for that purpose as soon as the murder of
his father was punished[384].
[Footnote 384: A great number of trifling incidents in the misgovernment
and tyranny of the Portuguese in the Moluccas, have been omitted at this
and other parts the history of Portuguese Asia in our version. - E.]
In the year 1576, Antonio Moniz Barreto was succeeded in the government
of India by Don Diego de Menezes; but it may be proper to suspend for a
time our account of the affairs of India, to give some account of the
transactions in Monomotapa under the government of Francisco Barreto and
his successor Vasco Fernandez Homeiri.
