These
actions of Barreto and Homem took place during the time when Luis de
Ataide, Antonio de Noronha, and Antonio Moniz Barreto[401], were
governors of India; but we have never been able to ascertain when the
former died and the latter abandoned the projected conquest of the
mines.
[Footnote 401: The commencement of the government of Barreto has been
already stated as having taken place in 1569. Antonio Moniz Barreto
governed India from 1573 to 1576: Hence the consecutive governments of
Francisco Barreto and Vasco Fernandez Homem in Monomotapa could not be
less than four or more than seven years. - E.]
SECTION IX.
Continuation of the Portuguese Transactions in India, from 1576 to
1581; when the Crown of Portugal was usurped by Philip II. of Spain, on
the Death of the Cardinal King Henry.
In 1576 Ruy Lorenzo de Tavora went out as viceroy of Portuguese India;
but dying on the voyage, at Mozambique, Don Diego de Menezes assumed the
government in virtue of a royal patent of succession. Nothing
extraordinary happened during his government of nearly two years, when
he was superseded by the arrival of Don Luis de Ataide count of Atougaia
as viceroy of India for the second time. Ataide had been appointed
general in chief of the Portuguese forces by king Sebastian, who had
resolved to bury the glory of his kingdom in the burning sands of
Africa; and finding his own youthful impetuosity unable to conform with
the prudent councils of the count, he constituted him viceroy of India
as a plausible means of removing him.
