THE Third Part of the COMMENTARIES OF THE GREAT AFONSO DALBOQUERQUE, a translation of which is given in this volume, maintains the interest in the Portuguese hero which was awakened by the previous

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volumes. To the conquest of Ormuz and Goa, already published, we have here in continuation the second conquest of Goa, and the extension of the Portuguese empire to the Malay peninsula.

The volume opens with the return of Afonso Dalboquerque to Cananor, from which port he set sail with twenty ships, and put into Onor for supplies and water. Here he learned the imposing strength of the Hidalcão (about eight thousand Turks, Rumes, and Moors against seventeen hundred Portuguese), from Timoja and the friendly king of Garçopa, and then proceeded by way of Anjadiva to the river of Goa. A council was hereupon held, which resulted in an unanimous determination to attack the city at once, without relying upon the aid promised by the native chiefs. The forces were divided, but not without much opposition on the part of the captains, into three companies: one, commanded by Manuel da Cunha and Manuel de Lacerda, to attack the stockades near the citadel; another, under the leadership of Diogo Mendez de Vasconcelos, to storm the palisades near the sea; and a third, under the command of the Viceroy himself, to take the stockades in flank.

On the following morning, the 25th of November, 1510, with an effigy of their national patron, St. James the greater, carried in the van, a general assault was carried out, the stockades entered, and all who resisted the onward progress of the besiegers put to the sword; while of those who fled away in their panic over the numerous fords and passes an immense number were drowned. In this brilliant en

gagement seven of the Portuguese officers were killed, among whom the author of the Commentaries especially signalises D. Jeronymo de Lima, André de Afonseca, Antonio Graces, and Alvaro Gomez, while on the side of the enemy not less than two thousand, about one-fourth of the whole native strength, were estimated to have perished.

In the sack which ensued, besides the miscellaneous plunder, none of which Afonso Dalboquerque cared to appropriate, a considerable quantity of artillery, munitions, and horses were taken, and in accordance with the bloodthirsty laws which appear to have regulated such occasions, not only in India, but in other countries claiming to be far more civilised at the period, no quarter was given; none of the hated sect of Mahomet were spared; men, women, and children were mercilessly put to death; and as a punishment for the treachery of which the Moors had been guilty when Afonso Dalboquerque took the city for the first time, for four days incessantly the Portuguese and Hindoos poured out the blood of the Moors who were found therein; and it was ascertained that of men, women, and children the number killed exceeded six thousand.1 On this occasion the Viceroy is stated to have perpetrated a very horrible act of vengeance against the enemy; a mosque was filled with Moors taken captive by the Hindoos and then set on fire; and among the people who thus perished was a deserter who had gone over to the Hidalcão and turned Mahometan when Goa was taken for the first time.

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No time was lost by Afonso Dalboquerque in fortifying the city, every one, from the highest to the lowest, had to take his share of duty, and the walls, towers, and ditches were completed in a marvellously short space of time," where it now stands", for the plan of which the reader is referred to vol. ii, p. 88. During the excavations a bronze crucifix was dug up in the course of demolishing some old foundations. Curiously enough, Correa2 mentions a similar discovery in November 1512 in these terms: "Tambem o Gouernador n'estas naos mandou a ElRey huma caixinha de prata, e dentro metido hum corpo de crucificio, que foy achado per hum homem cauando pera fazer hum poço, e o achou tendo feito coua de tres braças, que se achou no inuerno, que foy d'esta maneyra: que cauando hum pobre homem pera fazer hum poço, tendo altura de tres braças, achou hum corpo de crucificio de grandura menos de hum palmo, aberto por detrás, muyto gastado, e o rostro bom e barbas, e o braço direito polo cotouello sómente, e o esquerdo inteiro e o corpo e pernas e pés enteiros, e feito de hum metal que ouriues e lapidairos nunqua souberão conhecer, nem com o buril o poderão descobrir, que nada entrava n'elle: o que fez grande espanto no Gouernador e todos os fidalgos, que caso podia ser em tal lugar terra de mouros de tantos annos,

1 One of the most exhaustive works on Portuguese Goa is that entitled, "An Historical and Archæological Sketch of the City of Goa, preceded by a short Statistical Account of the Territory of Goa, written by authorisation of the Government, by José Nicolau da Fonseca, President of the 'Sociedade dos Amigos das Letras'." Bombay, 1878, 8vo. 2 Lendas da India, 1, ii, p. 328.

sem auer memoria que nunqua n'ella ouvesse christãos." "The governor, Afonso Dalboquerque, also sent to the king in these ships a small casket of silver, and within it the figure of our Saviour from a crucifix, which had been found by a poor man who was digging the foundation for a well. This man found it when he had dug down as deep as three fathoms, and it was in the winter under the following circumstances. There was a poor man digging the foundation for a well, and at the depth of three fathoms he found the figure from a crucifix of the height of less than a palm, hollow behind, very worn, but the countenance and beard well preserved; the right arm broken off at the elbow, the left whole, the body, legs, and feet uninjured, made of a metal unknown to the goldsmiths and lapidaries, for it could not be scratched with the point of a graver. This excited great wonder in the governor and Fidalgoes how it could have chanced to get into such a place, for so many years the country of Moors, in which there was no remembrance of there ever having been any Christian inhabitants."

In return for this victory Afonso Dalboquerque made several presents to the convent of Palmela, the head of the military order of Santiago, and to the church of the same saint in Gallicia a lamp, and money to be invested for the supply of oil for the lamp. A similar gift of a lamp and provision for its oil was made by the viceroy on a later occasion, when he narrowly escaped death from a cannon ball.

The news of the fall of Goa effected a rapid change in the attitude of the Indian princes towards the Portu