He protested at
his death that he had nothing belonging to the king except five gold
medals found among the treasure of the late king Badur, which he had
selected for their beauty and meant to have presented to the king in
person.
Being asked by a chaplain what he would have done with his body
after his death; he said, that since it had pleased God he was to die at
sea, he desired that the sea might be his grave. Nuno de Cuna, who was
an excellent governor of India, died at fifty-two years of age. He was
of large stature and well proportioned, but wanted an eye. Though of
stately manners, he was extremely courteous, not subject to passion,
easily reconciled, a strict observer of justice, loved to do good to all
around him, free from covetousness, prudent in council, and affable in
discourse. He governed for ten years, all but two months, and died in
the beginning of the year 1539.
Don Garcia de Noronha assumed the government of India as viceroy in
November 1538, having arrived from Lisbon with 3000 soldiers, many of
whom were men of note. Although this great armament had been principally
intended for opposing the Turks who besieged the castle of Diu, yet the
viceroy permitted them to continue their operations before that place,
and merely sent hopes of relief to the oppressed garrison. At length
however he sent a second reinforcement under Antonio de Menezes in 24
small vessels.
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