Your Highness, the mere dross of India is so great, that if the Portuguese possessions be properly farmed by your officers, the revenue from them alone would suffice to repay a great part of these expenses to which we are put, and if they say that the reason why I desire to keep possession of Goa is because it was I who took it, Your Lordship may rest assured that if I were a Portuguese of such a character as they are, I would be the first, if you ordered me to destroy it, to put the pickaxe into the walls, and to fire the barrel of gunpowder under the keep,1 if only for the pleasure of seeing the cards of the game of India shuffled for a new deal; but as long as I live, and while it remains my duty to send an account to Your Highness of Indian affairs, Goa must not be dismantled, for I would not that my enemies should exult in the contemplation of any serious disaster to this estate; and I must sustain it at my own cost, until they get their wishes and another Governor be sent to rule over it.

"If this that I say does not agree with the ideas of some of those who are half-hearted about this matter of Goa, Your Highness may know for certain that as yet there is one man who is governing it: and old and weak as I am, I will accept the government of this conquered territory at Your Highness's hands, if it may be permitted me to confer the lands of the Moors upon the Cavaliers and Fidalgoes who have assisted me to gain them. But do not require of me every year an account of what I am doing as if I were a taxgatherer, because four ill-mannered fellows, who sit at home like idols in their pagodas, have borne false witness against me; but honour me, and thank me, for I shall be happy to complete this enterprise, and spend what little I have upon it: and, in conclusion, all that I have to say is, that if Your Highness either now or at any other

1 Torre de menagem.

2 Por tal que este jogo da India se tornasse a baralha.

time surrender Goa to the Turks, then plainly Our Lord desires that the Portuguese dominion in India should come to an end; and, as for me, Your Highness may be sure that, so long as I am Governor, although I be put to much. trouble, I shall not at any rate send you painted pictures of fictitious places, but rather kingdoms taken by force of arms from their masters, and fortified by me in such a manner that they may give a good account of themselves in all time.

"This is my opinion concerning this question of Goa, which Your Highness commanded me to discuss with its captains and officers."

ARTICLES WHICH THE KING SENT TO AFONSO DALBOQUERQUE CONCERNING GOA.

"That Goa was very unhealthy, and was the cause of unnecessary expense, of no use except to give trouble to the soldiers.

"That therein there must always be a continued war, for the Hidalcão was so powerful, that he would be sure to try his utmost to recover it, because it was the capital of his dominions.

"That the revenues of the mainland, upon which Afonso Dalboquerque laid great importance, were impossible to be

1 Compare these sentiments with the peculiar ideas of a writer who has lately visited Goa :-"Portuguese India is, thank Heaven, only a strip of about seventy miles long which they would do much better to sell to the British Government; for of all the God-forgotten, deserted holes, one thousand years behind the rest of Creation, I have never seen anything to equal Goa. Do not let the residents who read this fancy that I am touching them in any way. I only remember them as charming, kindly, gentle, hospitable people, whom I pitied for having to live there. I have lived in sandy deserts, and in primæval forests, and have suffered hunger and thirst, cold and heat, fatigue, privations, and danger, and thought it charming; but I hated the life at Goa. It is dead, and nothing rewards one."-Arabia, Egypt, India, by Isabel Burton. London, 1879, p. 300.

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COMMENTARIES OF AFONSO DALBOQUERQUE.

collected, except by maintaining a great number of people with heavy expenses for collection of this revenue, because the Hidalcão himself could not collect them without the assistance of a large army.

"That the Hidalcão would be glad to agree to any proposal, and become tributary to His Highness, provided that Goa were restored to him."

After all had examined these articles, they wrote to the king that they were amazed at His Highness desiring to surrender, in pursuance of the advice of men who had never donned a suit of armour for the sake of experiencing the trouble it would involve, a place so commodious and so important to his cause as Goa, which had been acquired at the cost of so much Portuguese blood. When the king read the letter of Afonso Dalboquerque, and the opinion of the captains, he wrote in reply that he considered it of great importance to retain Goa, and thanked him very much for the way in which he had conducted this matter. And as soon as the Turks had been cast out of Benestarij, a feeling of relief gradually came over Goa, and the city began to flourish, and those who had written to the king advising its demolition became very much ashamed of ever having written such a thing. And it was on this account that Afonso Dalboquerque often used to say that he deserved more thanks from the King D. Manuel for defending Goa for him against the Portuguese, than he did for capturing it on two occasions from the Turks.

END OF THE THIRD PART.

APPENDIX.

DESCRIPTION OF MALACCA, FROM PEDRO BARRETTO DE RESENDE'S "LIVRO DO ESTADO DA INDIA ORIENTAL".

Sloane Manuscript, 197.

MALLAQUA.

DESCRIPSAM DA FORTALLEZA DE MALLAQUA.

A FORTALLEZA de Mallaqua esta plantada na costa oriental F. 383. de Iuntana entre ho rio Panagim, e Muar em altura de dous graos e vinte menutos da Banda do Norte foy conquistada e fundada pello insigne Afonso de Albuquerque em quinze de Agosto de mil quinhetos e onze esta oje feyta Çidade que tem a fortalleza dentro, e a Çidade sercada de hum muro de pedra e cal de altura de vinte pés e a largura comessa embayxo em doze e arremata emsima em sete palmos. Tem seis balluartes em que entra ho que chama Courassa cada hum chamado com o nome que nelles estam escritos. Todos os muros com seus parapeytos; e cada balluarte tem de prassa vinte passos. E o que chama Madre de D[eo]s a tem dobrada de man[ei]ra que apenas pode ser defendido e lauado dos mais Balluartes: o sircuyto de todo este muro he de quinhentos e doze passos entrando tambem ho lugar que ocupam os Balluartes: do Balluarte do Ospital athe Sam Domingos ha contramuro e do de Sanctiago athe Madre de Deos com entulho no meo ficando tudo de largura de catorze palmos, a artilharia que ha nestes Balluartes sam quarenta e huma pessas de doze athe quarenta e quatro liuras de pillouro de ferro. Todas sam de bronze, tirado noue que sam de ferro pera a qual hâ bastante poluora

VOL. III.

T

e monisõis nos almazeis de sua Magde, destas, estam lansadas no chã doze das grossas, sem repayros dedicadas pera ho forte da ilha das naos que se esta fazendo, e tambem estam algumas das outras pessas rebentadas

=

Os cazados branquos que hâ nesta Çidade sam duzentos sinquenta, os quaes teram dous mil negros catiuos de diferentes nasõis, que todos sam de armas, e as tem bastantes pera elles porque raro he ho cazado que nam tem seu cabide de lansas, e sete, oyto, e des mosquetes ou espingardas de pederneyra com monisõis bastantes para ellas: porem destes duzentos e sinquenta cazados branquos, os çento viuem da outra bando do rio que chamã a banda de Mallaqua. A respey to de ho piqueno sircuyto qua fica dentro nos muros estarem tres Conuentos que ho ocupam quazi todo; o de Sam Paulo, Sam Domingos, e Sancto Agostinho e viuem os ditos cazados em cazas de palha arriscados a hum jnsendio He esta banda muy fresca de pumares, e ortas de diuersos fruytos Viuem fora de Mallaqua muytos todos muy boa gente de armas e as tem de toda sorte particullarmente espingardas porque tira com ellas muyto bem. Estes em toda ocazia de gerra sam muy prestes e dellegentes: os mais delles andă buscando sua vida: sam tam arriscados que por muy pouco dão com hum cris pella barriga ferida que tem pouco, ou nenhuma cura porque alem de serem estas armas pella mayor parte de pessonha, o modo de seu feytio acollebrinado mostra bem o dano que fara, alem de que a pesonha basta so tirar sange para matar.

cazados Christãos da terra

A fortalleza que esta dentro nesta Çidade onde viue o Capitam he huma torre de sinquo sobrados, e no segundo viue o Capitã em huma caza de quadro como ho he a torre que tem cada pano de parede vinte passos. Nos outros F. 3838. agazalha o Capitã ospedes e se tem a poluora. No primeiro se guardaua quatro mil candis de arroz que agora nã hâ. Tem huma serca de muro da mesma altura do da çidade e largura.