The Booty In Horses, Artillery, Arms,
Provisions, And Ships, Was Immense, And Contributed Materially To Enable
Albuquerque To Accomplish The Great Designs He Had In Contemplation.
[Footnote 122:
This person is afterwards named by Faria Melrao, and is
said to have been nephew to the king of Onore; the editor of Astley
calls him Melrau. Perhaps his real name might have been Madeo row,
and both he and Timoja may have been of the Mahrana nation. - E.]
The Portuguese who were slain in this brilliant exploit were all
honourably interred; those of the enemy were made food for the
alligators who swarmed in the river. All the surviving Moors were
expelled from the city, island, and dependencies of Goa, and all the
farms were restored to the gentiles, over whom Timoja was appointed
governor, and after him Medeorao, formerly mentioned. While employed in
settling the affairs of his conquest, ambassadors came from several of
the princes along the coast to congratulate Albuquerque on his brilliant
success. Both then and afterwards, many of the officers of Adel Khan
made inroads to the neighbourhood of Goa, but were always repelled with
loss. At this time, Diego Mendez and other two captains belonging to his
squadron, having been appointed by the king of Portugal for an
expedition to Malacca, stole away from the port of Goa under night in
direct contravention of the orders of Albuquerque, intending to proceed
for Malacca. Albuquerque sent immediately after them and had them
brought back prisoners; on which he deprived them of their commands,
ordering them to be carried to Portugal to answer to the king for their
conduct, and condemned the two pilots who had conducted their ships from
the harbour to be immediately hung at the yard-arm. Some alleged that
Albuquerque emulously detained Diego Mendez from going against Malacca,
which enterprise he designed for himself, while others said that he
prevented him from running into the same danger which had been already
met with by Sequeira at that place, the force under Mendez being
altogether inadequate to the enterprise.
To provide for the future safety of Goa, Albuquerque laid the
foundations of a fort, which he named Manuel, after the reigning king
of Portugal. On this occasion, he caused the names of all the captains
who had been engaged in the capture of Goa to be engraven on a stone,
which he meant to have put up as a monument to their honour; but as
every one was desirous of being named before the others, he turned down
the stone so as to hide all their names, leaving the following
inscription,
Lapidem quem reprobaverant aedificantes.
Thus they were all pleased, rather wishing their own individual praises
to be forgotten, than that others should partake. Albuquerque assuming
all the powers of sovereignty in his new conquest for the king of
Portugal, coined money of gold, silver, and copper, calling the first
Manuels, the second Esperas, and the third half esperas. Resolving
to establish a permanent colony at this place, he engaged several of the
Portuguese to intermarry with the women of the country, giving them
marriage portions in lands, houses, and offices as an encouragement. On
one night that some of these marriages were celebrated, the brides
became so mixed and confounded together, that some of the bridegrooms
went to bed to those who belonged to others; and when the mistake was
discovered next morning, each took back his own wife, all being equal in
regard to the point of honour. This gave occasion to some of the
gentlemen to throw ridicule on the measures pursued by Albuquerque; but
he persisted with firmness in his plans, and succeeded in establishing
Goa as the metropolis or centre of the Portuguese power in India.
The king of Portugal had earnestly recommended to Albuquerque the
capture of the city of Aden on the coast of Arabia near the entrance of
the Red Sea; and being now in possession of Goa, he thought his time
mispent when not occupied in military expeditions, and resolved upon
attempting the conquest of Malacca; but to cover his design, he
pretended that he meant to go against Aden, and even sent off some ships
in that direction the better to conceal his real intentions. Leaving Don
Rodrigo de Castel Branco in the command of Goa with a garrison of 400
Portuguese troops, while the defence of the dependencies and the
collection of the revenue was confided to Medeorao with 5000 native
soldiers, Albuquerque went to Cochin to prepare for his expedition
against Malacca.
The city of Malacca is situated on the peninsula of that name, anciently
called Aurea Chersonesus, or the Golden Peninsula, and on the coast of
the channel which separates the island of Sumatra from the continent,
being about the middle of these straits. It is in somewhat more than two
degrees of north latitude[123], stretching along the shore for about a
league, and divided in two nearly equal parts by a river over which
there is a bridge. It has a fine appearance from the sea, but all the
buildings of the city are of wood, except the mosque and palace which
are of stone. Its port was then frequented by great numbers of ships,
being the universal mart of all eastern India beyond the bay of Bengal.
It was first built by the Celates, a people who chiefly subsisted by
fishing, and who united themselves with the Malays who inhabited the
mountains. Their first chief was Paramisora, who had been a person of
high rank in the island of Java, whence he was expelled by another chief
who usurped his lordship, on which occasion he fled to Cincapura, where
he was well received by the lord of that place and raised to high
employment. But having rebelled against his benefactor, he was driven
from thence by the king of Siam, and was forced to wander about Malacca,
as a just punishment for his ingratitude. Having drawn together a number
of the before-mentioned natives, with whom he established a new colony,
he gave the name of Malacca to the rising city, signifying in the
language of the country a banished man, as a memorial of his own
fortunes.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 59 of 217
Words from 59329 to 60368
of 221361
