The Viceroy Behaved With Such Liberality And
Discretion, That He Soon Attracted Abundance Of Inhabitants To This New
Acquisition, And
Reduced the neighbouring island of Balzar, which he
deemed necessary for the security of Daman, of which he gave the
Command
to Don Diego de Noronha with a garrison of 1200, appointing Alvaro
Gonzales Pinto to command in Balzar with 120 men and some cannon.
In 1560, the viceroy went against Jafnapatam in the island of Ceylon,
because the king of that place, who was likewise lord of the isle of
Manar, persecuted the Christians, and had usurped the throne from his
brother, who fled to Goa, and was there baptised by the name of Alfonso.
After some considerable successes, and having even forced the king of
Jafnapatam to cede the island of Manar, and to submit to the vassalage
of Portugal, the viceroy was obliged to desist from the enterprise with
considerable loss, but retained the island of Manar, where he built a
fort. Among the treasure belonging to the king of Jafnapatam, taken in
this expedition, was an idol, or relic rather, which was held in high
estimation by all the idolaters on the coast of India, and, in
particular, by the king of Pegu, who used to send ambassadors yearly
with rich presents, merely to get a print of the precious relic. This
holy relic was nothing more than the tooth of a white monkey; and some
say that the cause of its being so much admired was owing to the rarity
of the colour, like the white elephant of Siam.
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