Ximilixa Afterwards Besieged Siriam In Conjunction
With The King Of Tangu, Who Brought A Great Army Against The Town By
Land, While Ximilixa Shut It Up By Sea With 800 Sail, In Which He Had
10,000 Men.
Paul del Rego went against him with 80 small vessels; and
failing of his former success, set fire to the powder and blew up his
ship, rather than fall into the hands of the enemy.
The siege continued
so long, that the garrison was reduced to extremity, and on the point of
surrendering, when the king of Tangu retired one night with his army
upon some sudden suspicion, on which Ximilixa was likewise obliged to
draw off with his fleet. Several of the neighbouring princes were now so
much alarmed by the success of Nicote, that they solicited his
friendship, and to be admitted into alliance with the king of Portugal.
The first of these was the king of Tangu, and afterwards the king of
Martavan, who gave one of his daughters as a wife to Simon the son of
Nicote. Soon after, the king of Tangu being overcome in battle by the
king of Ova, and rendered tributary, Nicote united with the king of
Martavan, and invaded the dominions of Tangu, though in alliance with
that prince, took him prisoner and plundered him of above a million in
gold, although he protested that he was a faithful vassal to the king of
Portugal.
About this time another low adventurer, Sebastian Gonzalez Tibao, raised
himself by similar arts to great power in Aracan. In the year 1605,
Gonzalez embarked from Portugal for India, and going to Bengal, listed
as a soldier. By dealing in salt, which is an important article of trade
in that country, he soon gained a sufficient sum to purchase a Jalia,
or small vessel, in which he went with salt to Dianga, a great port in
Aracan. At this period, Nicote, who had possessed himself of Siriam, as
before related, wishing to acquire Dianga likewise, sent his son with
several small vessels thither on an embassy to the king of Aracan, to
endeavour to procure a grant of that port. Some Portuguese who then
resided at the court of Aracan, persuaded the king that the object of
Nicote in this demand; was to enable him to usurp the kingdom; upon
which insinuation the son of Nicote; and all his attendants were slain,
after which the same was done with the crews of his vessels, and all the
Portuguese inhabitants at Dianga, to the number of about 600 were put to
death, except a few who escaped on board nine or ten small vessels and
put out to sea. Among these was the vessel belonging to Sebastian
Gonzalez, who assumed the command; and as the fugitives were reduced to
great distress, they subsisted by plunder on the coasts of Aracan,
carrying their booty to the ports of the king of Bacala, who was in
friendship with the Portuguese.
Not long before this had died Emanuel de Mattos, who had been commander
of Bandel of Dianga, and lord of Sundiva[426], an island about 70
leagues in compass, the subordinate command of which he had confided to
a valiant Moor named Fate Khan.
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