Khojah Zofar, Who Was Now Chief Minister And Favourite To The King Of
Cambaya, Though He Continued To Keep Up
A fair correspondence with the
Portuguese, yet, with the perfidy so natural to a Moor, never ceased
persuading his sovereign
To endeavour to shake off the yoke by a second
attempt to reduce the castle of Diu. For this purpose he collected a
powerful army, yet endeavoured in the first place to attain his ends by
the most infamous means of secret policy. With this view he gained over
a Portuguese of a base character, named Ruy Freire, to poison the
great cistern or reservoir of water, to set the magazine of the castle
on fire, and to admit him by a concerted signal into the place. But this
treacherous design was frustrated by the information of an Ethiopian, a
Turk and a female slave, who revealed the plot to the commander, Don
Juan Mascarenhas, who had succeeded Emanuel de Sousa. As Mascarenhas
became aware of the storm that was gathering against him, he prepared to
meet it as well as possible, and sent notice of his danger to the
governor-general, Don Juan de Castro, and to all the neighbouring
Portuguese commanders. The garrison in the castle of Diu at this time
amounted only to 210 men: Of these Mascarenhas assigned 30 for the
defence of each of the four bastions; his lieutenant had charge of a
tower or bulwark over the gate with 20 men; other 20 were placed in a
small detached work; and he retained 50 men as a body of reserve under
his own immediate command, to act wherever the greatest danger might
call for his presence.
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