During His Absence, Bohaat King Of Tidore Had Died, Not Without
Suspicion Of Having Been Poisoned By Cachil Daroez, And Was Succeeded
By His Brother Cachil Daialo.
The new king being suspicious of Cachil
Vaiaco, fled to the fort; but afraid that Menezes might give him up to
his enemy, threw himself from a window.
All Ternate now mutinied against
Menezes; and as he imagined that Cachil Vaideca, a noble of Tidore,
had caused the death of a Chinese sow belonging to him, he imprisoned
that nobleman, after which he set him free, having first anointed his
face with bacon, which among that people is reckoned a most heinous
affront. Not contented with this violence, he sent to rob the houses of
the Moors of their provisions, and became suddenly most outrageous and
tyrannical. The Moors stood upon their defence, and treated some of
the Portuguese as they now deserved. Menezes seized the chief magistrate
of the town of Tabona and two other persons of note. These two he set
at liberty after cutting off their hands; but he let loose two fierce
dogs against the magistrate, which tore him in pieces. Becoming odious
to all by these cruelties, Cachil Daroez stirred up the natives to
expel the Portuguese; but being made prisoner, Menezes caused him to be
beheaded. Terrified by this tyranny, the inhabitants of Ternate fled to
other places, the city becoming entirely deserted. Don George de Menezes
was afterwards sent a prisoner to India for these enormities, whence he
was sent to Portugal, where he was condemned to banishment. Any reward
was too small for his former services, and this punishment was too
slight for his present offences.
Nuno de Cuna, appointed governor-general of India, arrived in May 1529
at Ormuz. Setting out too late from Lisbon in the year before with
eleven ships, he had a tedious voyage. One of his ships was lost near
Cape Verd, when 150 men perished. After passing the line, the fleet was
dispersed in a violent storm. Nuno put in at the port of St Jago in
Madagascar, where he found a naked Portuguese soldier, who had belonged
to one of two ships commanded by Lacerda and Abreu, which were cast away
in 1527 at this place. The people fortified themselves there, in hopes
that some ships passing that way might take them up. After waiting a
year, one ship passed but could not come to their assistance; and being
no longer able to subsist at that place, they marched up the country in
two bodies to seek their fortunes, leaving this man behind sick. In
consequence of intelligence of these events sent home to Portugal by
Nuno, Duarte and Diego de Fonseca were sent out in search of these men.
Duarte perished in Madagascar; and Diego found only four Portuguese and
one Frenchman, who had belonged to three French ships that were cast
away on that island. These men said that many of their companions were
still alive in the interior, but they could not be got at. From these it
was thought had sprung a people that wore found in Madagascar about
eighty years afterwards. This people alleged that a Portuguese captain,
having suffered shipwreck on the coast, had conquered a district of the
island over which he became sovereign; and all his men taking wives from
among the natives, had left numerous issue, who had erred much in
matters of faith. Great indeed must have been their errors, to have
been discovered by the atheistical Hollanders! Doubtless these people
did not descend from that shipwreck only, but might have sprung likewise
from the first discoverers, who were never heard of, and among others
from three ships that sailed from Cochin in 1530 along with Francisco de
Albuquerque.
While Nuno was at Madagascar, his own ship perished in a storm. The men
were saved in the other two ships, but much goods and arms were lost.
Sailing thence to Zanzibar, he landed 200 of his men who were sick,
under the care of Alexius de Sousa Chichorro, with orders to go to
Melinda when the people were recovered. Being unable to continue his
voyage to India, on account of the trade wind being adverse, he
determined upon taking revenge upon the king of Mombaza, who infested
those of Melinda and Zanzibar from hatred to the Portuguese. If
successful, he proposed to have raised Munho Mahomet to the throne,
who was son to him who had received De Gama on his first voyage with so
much kindness. Mahomet however objected to this honour, saying, "That he
was not deserving of the crown, being born of a Kafr slave: But if Nuno
wished to reward the friendship of his father, he might confer the crown
on his brother Cide Bubac, a younger son of his father by a legitimate
wife, and who was therefore of the royal blood of the kings of Quiloa."
Nuno set off on this expedition with 800 men, accompanied by Mahomet and
Bubac, each of whom had sixty followers. On the way he was joined by the
sheikh of Otonda, a neighbouring town, who offered to accompany him
with a well appointed vessel. This prince had silver chains on his legs,
which he wore as a memorial of having been wrongfully imprisoned by the
king of Mombaza, and had sworn never to take them off till revenged,
having been so used merely because he had shewn friendship to the
Portuguese.
Having been apprized of the intended attack, the king of Mombaza had
provided for his defence, by planting cannons on a fort or bulwark at
the mouth of the river, and brought 600 expert archers into the city.
Though opposed by a heavy cannonade from the bulwark, Nuno forced his
way up the river and anchored in the evening close to the city, whence
the archers shot continual flights of arrows into the ships, and were
answered by the Portuguese cannon. Next morning early the troops were
landed under Pedro Vaz, brother to Nuno, who carried all before him, and
planted the Portuguese colours, after killing many of the Moors and
driving the rest from the city, without losing a single Portuguese
soldier.
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