Being Come
Into The Presence Of The King Of The Birmans, He Cast Himself At His
Feet; And Being Unable
To speak owing to grief, the _Raolim_ of
_Mounay_, _Talaypor_, or chief priest of Martavan, who was esteemed a
saint,
Made a harangue in his behalf, which had been sufficient to have
moved compassion from any other than the obdurate tyrant to whom it was
addressed, who immediately ordered the miserable king, with his wife,
children, and attendant ladies, into confinement. For the two following
days, a number of men were employed to remove the public treasure of
Martavan, amounting to 100 millions in gold; and on the third day, the
army was allowed indiscriminate plunder, which lasted for four days, and
was estimated at 12 millions. Then the city was burnt, and above 60,000
persons were supposed to have perished by fire and sword, an equal
number being reduced to slavery. On this occasion, 2000 temples and
40,000 houses were destroyed.
On the morning after the destruction of the city, 21 gibbets were
erected on a neighbouring hill called Beydao, which were surrounded by a
strong guard of cavalry, and on which the queen, with her children and
attendants, to the number in all of 140 persons, were all hung up by the
feet. The king of Martavan, with 50 men of the highest quality, were
flung into the sea with stones about their necks. At this barbarous
spectacle, the army of the Birmans mutinied, and for some time the king
was in imminent danger. Leaving a sufficient number of people to rebuild
the ruined city, the Birman king returned to Pegu with the rest of his
army, accompanied by Juan Cayero, and his 700 Portuguese. Four
Portuguese remained at Martavan, among whom was Juan Falcam; who,
instead of assisting _Fernan Mendez Pinta_, sent by Pedro de Faria, the
commander of Malacca, to confirm the peace which subsisted with the late
king of Martavan, accused him to the governor of the town as an enemy to
the king of the Birmans. On this false accusation, the governor seized
the vessel commanded by Pinto, in which were goods to the value of
100,000 ducats, killed the master and some others, and sent the rest
prisoners to Pegu. This false dealing was not new in Falcam, who had
deserted from the late unfortunate king of Martavan, after having
received many benefits from him.
Instead of being allowed to enjoy the fruits of his victories in peace,
the king of the Birmans was obliged to engage in a new war with the king
of Siam, who endeavoured to recover the kingdom of Tangu, which had been
wrested from him. For this purpose, in March 1546, he embarked with
900,000 men in 12,000 vessels, on the river _Ansedaa_, out of which he
passed in the month of April into the river _Pichau Malacoa_, and
invested the city of _Prom_. The king of this territory was recently
dead, leaving his successor, only thirteen years of age, who was married
to a daughter of the king of Ava, from whom he looked for the assistance
of 60,000 men.
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