But If These Proposals Were Rejected, His Orders
Were To Subdue Ormuz By Force Of Arms.
It was assuredly no small
presumption to offer such degrading terms to a king who was at the head
Of above 30,000 fighting men, and 400 ships, while all the force he had
against such prodigious force, was only 460 soldiers and seven ships.
The Moorish captain, who was from Cambaya, went on shore and delivered
this insolent message to the king and his governor Attar; who
immediately sent Khojah Beyram with a message to Albuquerque, excusing
them for not having sent to inquire what the Portuguese wanted in their
port, and promising that the governor should wait upon him next day.
Attar however did not perform this promise, but endeavoured to spin out
the time by a repetition of messages, in order to strengthen the
fortifications of the city, and to receive farther supplies. Albuquerque
immediately perceived the purport of these messages, and told Beyram
that he would listen only to the acceptation of peace on the terms
proposed, or an immediate declaration of war. To this insolent demand,
Beyram brought back for answer, that Ormuz was accustomed to receive,
and not to pay tribute.
During the night, the noise of warlike instruments, and the shouts of
the troops collected in Ormuz were heard from all parts of the city; and
when morning came, the whole walls, the shore, and the vessels in the
harbour were seen crowded with armed men, while the windows and flat
tops of all the houses were filled with people of both sexes and all
ages, anxious to behold the expected events. Albuquerque immediately
began to cannonade the city and the large Moorish ships, and was
spiritedly answered by the enemy, who took advantage of the obscurity
occasioned by the smoke to send a large party of armed men in 130 boats
to attack the ships, and did some damage among the Portuguese by
incessant and prodigious discharges of arrows and stones. But as many of
the boats were sunk by the Portuguese artillery, and numbers of the men
slain and drowned, they were forced to retire. They returned again to
the charge with fresh numbers; but after a severe conflict were again
obliged to retreat with prodigious loss, the sea being dyed with blood,
and great numbers of them slain. By this time, Albuquerque had sunk two
of the largest ships in the port and taken a third, not without
considerable opposition on the part of the enemy, forcing the surviving
Moors to leap into the sea; and the other captains of his squadron had
captured three ships, and had set above thirty more on fire. The crews
of these cut their cables and drifted over to the Persian shore to
enable themselves to escape; but by this means communicated the
conflagration to other vessels that were lying aground. These disasters
struck such terror into the people of Ormuz that they all fled in dismay
within their walls, and Khojah Attar sent a message to Albuquerque
offering to submit to his proposals; on which he put a stop to farther
hostilities, yet suspecting the governor of treachery, he threatened to
inflict still heavier calamities on the city unless the terms were
performed with good faith. Thus, with the loss only of ten men on the
side of the Portuguese, most of the numerous vessels belonging to the
enemy, full of various rich commodities, were taken, burnt, sunk, or
torn to pieces, and above seventeen hundred of the Moors were slain,
numbers of whose bodies were seen floating in the harbour. Many of these
were seen to have ornaments of gold, which the Portuguese anxiously
sought after, and on this occasion it was noticed that several of the
enemy had been slain by their own arrows, none being used by the
Portuguese.
Khojah Attar, dismayed by the prodigious injury sustained in the
conflict, and afraid of still heavier calamities, called a council of
the chief officers of the kingdom to deliberate on what was best to be
done, when it was agreed to submit for the present to the demands of
Albuquerque; after which articles of pacification were drawn up and
sworn to between the parties. The two principal articles were, that the
king of Ormuz submitted to pay a tribute to the king of Portugal of
15,000 Xerephines yearly[101], and that ground should be allowed for
the Portuguese on which to build a fort. The fort was accordingly
immediately commenced, and considerable progress was made in its
construction in a few days. On purpose to avoid the payment of the
tribute, Khojah Attar dressed up a pretended embassy from the king of
Persia demanding payment of the usual tribute, and required that
Albuquerque should give them an answer, as the king of Ormuz was now
subject to the crown of Portugal. Albuquerque penetrated into this
design, and desired Attar to send some one to him to receive the answer.
The pretended Persian ambassador accordingly waited upon him, to whom he
gave some spears and bullets, saying such was the coin in which the
tribute should be paid in future. Finding this contrivance fail, Attar
endeavoured to corrupt some of the Portuguese, and actually prevailed on
five seamen to desert, one of whom had been bred a founder, who cast
some cannon like those belonging to the Portuguese. Being informed by
these deserters that Albuquerque had only about 450 soldiers, Attar
began to pick up fresh courage, and entered into contrivances for
breaking the peace, pretending at the same time to lay the blame on
Albuquerque, and refused to deliver up the deserters.
[Footnote 101: A Xerephine being worth about half a crown, this tribute
amounted to about L. 1875 sterling. - Astl. I. 66. a. - According to
Purchas a Xerephine is worth 3s. 9d; so that the yearly tribute in the
text is equal to L. 2812 20s. sterling. - E.]
The high spirit of Albuquerque could not brook this conduct, and
determined upon taking vengeance, but had little success in the attempt
being badly seconded by the officers serving under him.
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