Melo Returned With The Wounded Men To The Ships, And When The
Natives Were Withdrawn From The Shore, He Again Landed With A Party And
Buried Almeyda And The Others Who Had Been Slain.
This was a manifest
judgment of God, that so few unarmed savages should so easily overcome
those who had performed such heroic actions in India.
Don Francisco de Almeyda was the seventh son of Don Lope de Almeyda,
Count of Abrantes, and was a knight of the order of St Jago. He was
graceful in his person, ripe in council, continent in his actions, an
enemy to avarice, liberal and grateful for services, and obliging in his
carriage. In his ordinary dress, he wore a black coat, instead of the
cloak now used, a doublet of crimson satin of which the sleeves were
seen, and black breeches reaching from the waist to the feet. He is
represented in his portrait as carrying a truncheon in his right hand,
while the left rests on the guard of his sword, which hangs almost
directly before him[109].
[Footnote 109: De Faria uniformly gives some description, as here, of
the persons and dress of the successive viceroys and governors of
Portuguese India; which however has been generally omitted in the
sequel. - E.]
Among the ships which were dispatched from Lisbon for India in 1508,
were two squadrons under the command of Duarte de Lemos and Diego Lopez
de Sequeira, which were sent upon separate services, and which could not
be conveniently taken notice of in their proper place. After
encountering a storm, Lemos arrived at a place called Medones de Oro,
whence he went to Madagascar, and thence to Mozambique, where he was
rejoined by the rest of the squadron, except one ship commanded by
George de Aguilar, which was lost. He now assumed the government of the
coasts of Ethiopia and Arabia, according to his commission from the
king. From Mozambique he sailed for Melinda, whence he proceeded to
visit the several islands and towns along the eastern coast of Africa to
compel payment of the tribute they had been in use to pay to Quiloa, and
which was now considered as belonging of right to the crown of Portugal
by the conquest of that place. Monfia submitted. Zanzibar resisted, but
the inhabitants were driven to the mountains and the town plundered.
Pemba acted in a similar manner, the inhabitants taking refuge in
Mombaza, and leaving their houses empty; but some plunder was taken in a
small fort in which the sheikh had left such things as he had not been
able to remove. Returning to Melinda, he gave the necessary orders for
conducting the trade of Sofala.
Lemos departed from Melinda for the coast of Arabia with seven ships,
one of which was separated from the rest in the night on the coast of
Magadoxa, and carried by the current to the port of Zeyla near the mouth
of the Red Sea, and there taken by the Moors. In his progress along the
Arabian coast, Lemos managed the towns more by cunning than force. Using
the same conduct at Ormuz, he was well treated by the king and Khojah
Attar, and received from them the stipulated tribute of 15,000
xerephines. From this place he dispatched Vasco de Sylveyra to India,
who was afterwards killed at Calicut. He then went to Socotora, of which
he gave the command to Pedro Ferreira, sending Don Antonio Noronha to
India, who fell in with and took a richly laden ship belonging to the
Moors. Noronha manned the prize with some Portuguese; but she was cast
away in a storm between Dabul and Goa and the men made prisoners. His
own ship was stranded in the Bay of Cambaya, where he and some others
who attempted to get on shore in the boat were all lost, while about
thirty who remained in the ship were made prisoners by the Moors and
sent to the king of Cambaya. On his return to Melinda, Lemos took a
Moorish vessel with a rich loading. When the winter was passed, he
returned to Socotora, where he found Francisco Pantaja, who had come
from India with provisions, and had made prize of a rich ship belonging
to Cambaya; the great wealth procured in which he generously shared with
Lemos and his men, saying they had a right to it as being taken within
the limits of his government. Finding himself now too weak for any
farther enterprises, Lemos sailed for India, where he was received with
much civility by Albuquerque, who was now in possession of the
government.
Diego Lopez de Sequeira, the other captain who sailed from Lisbon at the
same time with Lemos, was entrusted with the discovery of Madagascar and
Malacca. Arriving at the port of St Sebastian in the island of
Madagascar, he run along the coast of that island, using a Portuguese as
his interpreter, who had been left there[110] and had acquired the
language. In the course of this part of his voyage he had some
intercourse with a king or prince of the natives named Diaman, by whom
he was civilly treated; but being unable to procure intelligence of any
spices or silver, the great object of his voyage, and finding much
trouble and no profit, he proceeded to India in the prosecution of the
farther orders he had received from the king. He was well received by
Almeyda, then viceroy, who gave him an additional ship commanded by
Garcia de Sousa, to assist in the discovery of Malacca. In the
prosecution of his voyage, he was well treated by the kings of Pedir and
Pacem[111], who sent him presents, and at both places he erected crosses
indicating discovery and possession. He at length cast anchor in the
port of Malacca, where he terrified the people by the thunder of his
cannon, so that every one hastened on board their ships to endeavour to
defend themselves from this new and unwelcome guest.
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