Yet These Reinforcements Were Insufficient To Induce The Enemy To Retire, Though They Had Lost Above 4000 Men During The Siege, While 60 Were Slain On The Side Of The Defenders.

Although the bishop of Cochin was informed in June of the intended attack on Malacca and the weak state of its garrison, he postponed sending any reinforcement, as it was then the dead of winter on the Malabar coast, proposing to dispatch succours in September.

He died however about the end of July 1629, after having governed India for nineteen or twenty months. Upon his death the next patent of succession was opened, which named Don Lorenzo de Cunna, the commander of Goa, to the civil government of India, and Nunno Alvarez Pereyra to the military command. Of this last name there happened to be two in India, or none. If Don Nunno Alvarez Pereyra, a gentleman well known, were meant, the title of _Don_ was omitted in the patent; if Nunno Alvarez Botello, the sirname teemed wrong. It was thought unlikely that the title of Don could be omitted through mistake, as that in Portugal is peculiar to certain families. The mistake of name in regard to Nunno Alvarez Botello was more probable, as he had long gone by the name of _Pereyra_, in memory of his grandfather Alvarez Pereyra, and had dropped that name for _Botello_ when he inherited the estate of his father, whose name was Botello; yet some continued to call him by the old name, and others gave him the new one. The council of Goa, and the Count de Linnares after his arrival in India, allowed the pretensions of Botello.

In the meantime, considering how dangerous delay might prove to Malacca in its distress, Nunno Alvarez Botello undertook the relief of that place, saying that he would postpone the decision of the dispute till his return. By general consent however, he went by the title of governor; and by direction of the council of Goa, the Chancellor Gonzalo Pinto de Fonseca assumed the administration of justice, so that the government was divided between him, De Cunna, and Botello, who used such diligence in preparing for his expedition to relieve Malacca, that, from the 2d of August, when the charge of governor was awarded to him, to the beginning of September, he had collected 900 Portuguese troops, a good train of artillery, a large supply of arms and ammunition, and 30 vessels, and was ready to put to sea as soon as the weather would allow. He set sail on the 22d of September, rather too early, and encountered four several storms during his voyage, two of which were so terrible that every one expected to be lost. He at length reached _Pulobutum_, whence he sent two vessels to give notice at Malacca of his approach, yet arrived himself before them. At Pulobutum he found a vessel belonging to Cochin and two from Negapatnam, being some addition to his fleet He arrived at Malacca on the afternoon of the 22d October 1629, to the great surprise of _Lacsamana_, as his fleet was then in the river _Pongor_, a league from Malacca, and so situated as to be unable to escape.

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