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A50610 The voyages and adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto, a Portugal, during his travels for the space of one and twenty years in the Kingdoms of Ethiopia, China, Tartaria, Cauchinchina, Calaminham, Siam, Pegu, Japan, and a great part of the East-Indiaes with a relation and description of most of the places thereof, their religion, laws, riches, customs, and government in time of peace and war : where he five times suffered shipwrack, was sixteen times sold, and thirteen times made a slave / written originally by himself in the Portugal tongue and dedicated to the Majesty of Philip King of Spain ; done into English by H.C. Gent.; Peregrina cam. English Pinto, Fernão Mendes, d. 1583.; Cogan, Henry. 1653 (1653) Wing M1705; ESTC R18200 581,181 334

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foaming with poyson make horrible cries and be delivered into the burning jawes of the dragon of discord whom the true Lord of all the Gods hath cursed for ever whereas contrarily to those that shall be so happy as to obey this Proclamation as his holy brethren and allies shall be granted in this life a perpetuall peace accompanied with a great deale of wealth and riches and after their death their souls shall be no lesse pure and agreeable to God then those of the Saints which goe dancing amidst the beams of the Sun in the celestiall repose of the Lord Almighty This publication made the musick began to play again with a great noise as before which made such an impression in the hearts of them that heard it as in seven nights that it contin●ed above threescore thousand persons went and rendred themselves to the Xemindoo for most of them which heard those words gave as much credit thereunto as if an Angell from heaven had spoken them In the meane time the besieged Tyrant seeing that these secret Proclamations of the enemy were so prejudiciall unto him as they could not chuse but turn to his utter ruine brake the truce at twelve dayes end and deliberated with his Councell what he should do who advised him by no means to suffer h mself to remaine any longer besieged for feare left the inhabitants should mutinie and fall from him to the enemy and that the best and surest way was to fight with the Xemindoo in the open field before he grew to any further strength This resolution being approved of by Zenim de Satan he prepared himself for the execution of it to which effect he two dayes after before it was day sallied out at five gates of the city with fourscore thousand men which then he had and charged the enemies with strange fury They then in the meane time who alwayes stood upon their guard received them with a great deale of courage whereupon insued so cruell a conflict between them that in lesse then halfe an houre for so long lasted the heat of the fight there fell on both sides above forty thousand men but at the end of that time the new King Zenim was born from his Elephant by an harquebuze shot discharged at him by a Portugall named Gonçalo N●to which caused all the rest to render themselves and the city likewise upon condition that the inhabitants should have their goods and lives saved By this means the Xemindoo entred peaceably into it and the very same day which was a Saturday the three and twentieth of February a thousand five hundred fifty and one he caused himself to be crowned King of Pegu in the greatest Temple of the city As for Gonçalo N●to he gave him in recompence for killing the Tyrant twenty Bisses of gold which are ten thousand Duckats and to the other Portugalls being eighty in number he gave five thousand Duckats besides the honors and prsviledges which they had in the country he also exempted them for three years from paying any custome for their merchandize which was afterwards very exactly observed CHAP. LXXIII That which the Xemindoo did after he was Crowned King of Pegu with the Chaumigrems the King of Bramaaes Foster-Brothers coming against him with a great Army and divers other memorable things THe Xemindoo seeing himself Crowned King of Pegu and peaceable Lord of all the kingdome began to have thoughts far different from those which Xemin de Satan had had being raised to the same dignity of King for the first and principal thing wherein he imployed himself with all his endeavour was to maintain his Kingdome in peace and to cause Justice to flourish as indeed he established it with so much integritie as no man how great so ever he was durst wrong a lesser then himself withall in that which concerned the government of the Kingdome he proceeded with so much vertue and equity as it filled the strangers that were there with admiration so that one could not without marvel consider the peace the quiet and union of the wills of the people during the happy and peaceable estate of this Kingdome which continued the space of a year and better at the end whereof the Chaumigrem foster-brother to the same King of Bramaa whom Xemin de Satan had slaine as I have before declared having received advertisement that by reason of the rebellions and warres which since his departure from thence had happened in the Kingdome of Pegu the principall men of the State there had lost their lives and the Xemindoo who then raigned was unprovided of all things necessary for his defence he resolved once again to adventure upon the same enterprise which had formerly been undertaken by his late King With this design he entertained into his pay a mighty Army of strangers unto whom he gave a Tincall of gold by the month which is five dackets of our mony when as he had prepared all things in a readinesse he departed from Tanguu the place of his birth On the ninth day of March a thousand five hundred fifty and two with an Army of three hundred thousand men whereof only fifty thousand were Bramaas and all the rest Mons Chaleus Calaminhams Sau●nis Pam●rus and Auaas In the mean time the Xemindoo the new King of Pegu having certain intelligence of these great forces which were coming to fall upon him made preparation to go and meet them with a design to give them battle for which effect he assembled in the same City where he was a huge Army of nine hundred thousand men which were all Pegues by nation and consequently of a weake constitution and lesse warlick then all the others whereof I have spoken and on Tueseday the fourth of April about noone having received advice that the enemies Army was incamped all along the river of Meleytay some twelve leagues from thence he used such expedition as the same day and the next night all his Souldiers were put into battle array for whereas they had prepared every thing long before and had also been trayned by their Capt. there needed no great ado to bring them into order The day ensueing all these men of warre begun about nine of the clock in the morning to march at the sound of an infinite company of warlick instruments and went and lodged that night some two leagues from thence neer to the river Potar●u The next day an hour before Sun-set the Bramaa Chaumigrem appeared with so great a body of men as it took up the extent of a league and an half of ground his Army being composed of seaventy thousand horse of two hundred and thirty thousand foot and six thousand fighting elephants besides as many more which carried the baggage and victuals and in regard it was almost night he thought fit to lodge himself all along by the mountain that he might be in the greater safety Thus the night past with a good guard and a strange noise that was made on
divided his Army into four Squadrons and passing along by a little hill when he came to the end thereof he discovered a great Plain sowed with Rice where the Enemy stood ranged in two Battalions As soon as the two Armies descryed one another and that at the sound of their Trumpets Drums and Bells the Soldiers had set up a terrible cry they encountred very valiantly together and after the discharge of their shot on both sides they came to fight hand to hand with such courage that I trembled with fear to behold their fury The Battel continued in this manner above an hour and yet could it not possibly be discerned which party had the better At last the Tyrant foreseeing that if he persisted in the fight he should lose the day because he perceived his men to grow faint and weary he retreated to a rising ground that lay South of the Bataes and about a Faulcons shot distant from them There his intention was to fortifie himself in certain Trenches which before he had caused to be cast up against a Rock in form of a garden or tilth of Rice But a brother to the King of Andraguire interrupted his design for stepping before him with two thousand men he cut off his way and stopt him from passing further in so much that the medly grew to be the same it was before and the fight was renewed between them with such fury as cruelly wounding one another they testified sufficiently how they came but little short of other Nations in courage By this means the Tyrant before he could recover his Trenches lost fifteen hundred of his men of which number were the hundred and threescore Turks that a little before were come to him from the Straight of Mecqua with two hundred Sarrazins Malabars and some Abissins which were the best men he had Now because it was about mid-day and therefore very hot the King of Batas retired towards the Mountain where he spent the rest of the day in causing those that were wounded to be looked unto and the dead to be buried Hereupon not being well resolved what to do in regard he was altogether ignorant of the Enemies design he took care to have good watch kept all that night in every part The next morning no sooner began the Sun to appear but he perceived the Valley wherein the Achems had been the day before to be quite abandoned and not one of them to be seen there which made him think the Enemy was defeated In this opinion the better to pursue the first point of his Victory he dismissed all the hurt men as being unfit for service and followed the Tyrant to the City where arriving two hours before Sun-set to shew that he had strength and courage enough to combat his Enemies he resolved to give them proof of it by some remarkable action before he would encamp himself To which effect he fired two of the Suburbs of the Town as also four Ships and two Gallions which were drawn on Land and were those that had brought the Turks from the Straight of Mecqua And indeed the fire took with such violence on those six Vessels as they were quite consumed in a very little time the Enemy not daring to issue forth for to quench it After this the King of Batas seeing himself favored by Fortune to lose no opportunity began to assault a Fort called Penacao which with twelve Pieces of Ordnance defended the entry of the River to the Scalado of this he went in person his whole Army looking on and having caused some seventy or eighty ladders to be planted he behaved himself so well that with the loss only of seven and thirty men he entred the place and put all to the sword that he found in it to the number of seven hundred persons without sparing so much as one of them Thus did he on the day of his arrival perform three memorable things whereby his Soldiers were so heartned as they would fain have assaulted the City the very same night if he would have permitted them but in regard it was very dark and his men weary he gave thanks to God and contented himself with that which he had done The King of Batas held the City besieged by the space of three and twenty days during the which two sallies were made wherein nothing past of any reckoning for there were but ten men slain on either part Now as victories and good success in War do ordinarily encourage the victorious so oftentimes it happens that the weak become strong and cowards so hardy as laying aside all fear they dare undertake most difficile and dangerous things whence also it as often falls out that the one prospers and the other is ruined which appeared but too evidently in that which I observed of these two Princes For the King of Batas seeing that the Tyrant had shut himself up in his City thereby as it were confessing that he was vanquished grew to such an height of confidence that both he and his people beleeving it was impossible for them to be resisted and trusting in this vain opinion that blinded them were twice in hazard to be lost by the rash and inconsiderate actions which they entred into In the third sally made by the inhabitants the King of Batas people encountred them very lustily in two places which those of Achem perceiving they made as though they were the weaker and so retreated to the same Fort that was taken from them by the Bataes the first day of their arrival being closely followed by one of the Kings Captains who taking hold of the opportunity entred pell-mell with the Achems being perswaded that the Victory was sure his own But when they were all together in the Trenches the Achems turned about and making head afresh defended themselves very couragiously At length in the heat of their medley the one side endeavoring to go on and the other to withstand them those of Achem gave fire to a Myne they had made which wrought so effectually as it blew up the Captain of the Bataes and above three hundred of his Soldiers with so great a noise and so thick a smoak as the place seemed to be the very portraiture of Hell In the mean time the Enemies giving a great shout the Tyrant sallied forth in person accompanied with five thousand resolute men and charged the Bataes very furiously Now for that neither of them could see one another by reason of the smoak proceeding from the Myne there was a most confused and cruel conflict between them but to speak the truth I am not able to deliver the manner of it sufficeth it that in a quarter of an hours space the time this fight endured four thousand were slain in the place on both sides whereof the King of Batas lost the better part which made him retire with the remainder of his Army to a Rock called Minacaleu where causing his hurt men to be drest he found them
down a pane of the wall and besides those pieces of battery there were above three hundred Falcons that shot incessantly with an intention only to kill those that were in the streets as indeed they made a great havock which was the cause that seeing themselves so ill-intreated and their people slain in that manner they resolved like valiant men as they were to sell their lives as dearly as they could so that one morning having sallied forth by the same breach of the wall which the Canon had made they gave so valiantly upon those of the Camp that in lesse then an hour they almost routed the Bramaas whole Army Now because it began to be day the Savadis thought it fit to re-enter into the Town leaving eight thousand of their enemies dead on the place After this they repaired the breach in a very little time by the means of a rampire of earth which they made up with bavins and other materialls that was strong enough to resist the Canon Hereupon the Chaumigrem seeing the bad successe he had had resolved to make war both upon the places neer about as also upon the frontiers that were furthest off from the Town for which purpose he sent Diosa●ay high Treasurer of the Kingdome whose Slaves we Portugals were Colonel of five thousand men to spoil a certain Borough called Valentay which furnished the besieged Town with provisions but this voyage was so infortunate unto him that before his arrivall at the designed place his forces were by two thousand Savadis whom he incountred by the way all cut in pieces in lesse then half an hour not one escaping with life that fell into the enemies hands Neverthelesse it pleased our Lord that amidst this defeat we saved our selves by the favour of the night and without knowing whither we went we took the way of a very craggy mountain where we marched in exceeding great pain three daies and an half at the end whereof we entred into certain Moorish Plains where we could meet with no path or way nor having other company then Tygers Serpents and other savage beasts which put us into a mighty fear But as our God whom incessantly we invoked with tears in our eys is the true guide of travellers he out of his infinite mercy permitted that at length we perceived one evening a certain fire towards the East so that continuing our course towards that place where we saw this light we found our selves the next morning neer to a great Lake where there were some Cottages which in all likelyhood were inhabited by very poor people howbeit not daring to discover our selves as yet we hid us all that day in certain hanging precipices that were very boggy and full of Horsle●ches which made us all gore blood As soon as it was night we fell to marching again untill the next morning whenas we arrived neer to a great river all alongst the which we continued going for five daies together At last with much pain we got to another Lake that was far greater then the former upon the bank whereof was a little Temple in the form of an Hermitage and there we found an old Hermite who gave us the best entertainment that possibly he could This old man permitted us to repose our selves two daies with him during which time we demanded many things of him that made for our purpose whereunto he alwaies answered according to the truth and told us that we were still within the Territories of the King of Savady that this Lake was called Oreg●ant●r that is to say the opening of the night and the Hermitage the God of succour Whereupon being desirous to know of him the signification of this abuse he laid his hand on an horse of brasse that stood for the Idoll upon the Altar and said that he often read in a book which intreated of the foundation of the Kingdome that some two hundred thirty and seven years before this Lake being a great Town called O●umhaleu a King that was named Ava● had taken it in war that in acknowledgement of this victory his Priests by whom he was wholly governed counselled him to sacrifice unto Quiay Gua●or the God of war all the young male children which had been made captives and in case he did not so they would when they became men regain the Kingdome from him The King apprehending the event of this threatning caused all these children being fourscore and five thousand in number to be brought all into one place and so upon a day that was kept very solemn amongst them he made them to be put most inhumanely to the edge of the sword with an intent to have them burned the next morning in Sacrifice but the night following there came a great earthquake and such lightning and fire fell from heaven upon the Town as within lesse then half an hour it was quite demolished and all that was in it reduced to nothing so that by this just judgement of God the King together with all his were strucken dead not so much as one escaping and besides them thirty thousand Priests in like manner who ever since during all the New Moons are heard to cry and roar so dreadfully that all the inhabitants thereabouts were ready to go besides themselves with fear by reason whereof the Country was utterly depopulated no other habitation remaining therein save only fourscore and five Hermitages which were erected in memory of the fourscore and five thousand children whom the King had caused to be butchered through the evill counsell of his Priests CHAP. LXIIII. A continuation of the successe which we had in this voyage with my departure from Goa to Zunda and what passed during my abode there WE past two daies in this Hermitage where as I declared before we were very well entertained by the Hermite the third day after betimes in the morning we took our leave of him and departed from thence not a little afflicted with that which we had heard and so all the same day and the night following we continued on our way along by the river the next morning we arrived at a place where were a great many of sugar canes of which we took some for that we had nothing els to nourish us withall In this manner we marched still along by this river which we kept for a guide of our voyage because we judged that how long soever it were yet would it at last ingulfe it self in the Sea where we hoped that our Lord would raise us up some remedy for our miseries The day ensuing we arrived at a village called Pommiseray where we hid our selves in a very thick wood from being descried by passengers and two hours within night we continued our design in following the current of this river being resolved to take our death in good part if it should please God to send it us for to put an end to so many sufferings as we had undergone day and night and without lying
neer a moneth in this Port of Zunda where a good number of Portugals were assembled together so soon as the season to go to China was come the three Vessells set sail for Chincheo no more Portugals remaining ashore but only two who went to Siam in a Junck of Patana with their Merchandise I bethought me then to lay hold on this occasion and put my self into their company because they offered to bear my charges in this voyage yea and to lend me some money for to try fortune once more and see whether by the force of importuning her she would not use me b●tter then formerly she had done Being departed then from this place in six and twenty daies we arrived at the City of Odiaa the Capitall of this Empire of Sarnau which they of this country do ordinarily call Siam where we were wonderfully well received and intreated by the Portugals which we found there Now having been a moneth and better in this City attending the season for the voyage to China that so I might passe to Iapon in the company of six or seven Portugals who had imbarqued themselves for that purpose I made account to imploy in commodities some hundred duckats which those two with whom I came from Zunda had lent me In the mean time very certain news came to the King of Siam who was at that time with all his Court at the said City of Odiaa that the King of Chiammay allied with the Timocouhos Laaos and Gueos people which on the North East hold the most part of that country above Capimp●r and Passil●●o and are all Soveraignes exceeding rich and mighty in Estates had laid siege to the Town of Quiteruan with the death of above thirty thousand men and of Oyaa Capimper Governor and Lievtenant Generall of all that Frontire The King remained so much appalled with this news that without further temporising he passed over the very same day to the other side of the river and never standing to lodge in houses he went and incamped under Tents in the open field thereby to draw others to do the like in imitation of him Withall he caused Proclamation to be made over all the City That all such as were neither old nor lame and so could not be dispensed with for going to this war should be ready to march within twelve daies at the uttermost upon pain of being burned alive with perpetuall infamy for themselves and their descendants and confiscation of their Estates to the Crown To the which he added many other such great and dreadfull penalties as the only recitall of them struck terror not into them of the country but into the very strangers whom the King would not exempt from this war of what Nation soever they vvere for if they would not serve they were very expresly enjoyned to depart out of his Kingdome within three daies In the mean time so rigorous an Edict terrified every one in such sort as they knew not what counsell to take or what resolution to follow As for us Portugals in regard that more respect had alwayes been carried in that country to them then to all other Nations this King sent to desire them that they would accompany him in this voyage wherein they should do him a pleasure because he would trust them onely with the guard of his person as judgi●g them more proper for it then any other that he could make choice of and to oblige them the more thereunto the message was accompanied with many fair promises and very great hopes of pensions graces benefits favours and honors but above all with a permission which should be granted them to build Churches in his Kingdome which so obliged us that of an hundred and thirty Portugals which we were there were sixscore of us that agreed together to go to this war The twelve daies limited being past the King put himself into the field with an Army of four hundred thousand men whereof seventy thousand were strangers of divers Nations They imbarqued all in three hundred S●roos Lauleas and Iang●s so that on the nineth day of this voyage the King arrived at a Frontire Town named Suropis●● some twelve or thirteen leagues from Quitiruan which the enemies had besieged There he abode above seven daies to attend four thousand Elephants which came to him by Land During that time he was certified that the Town was greatly prest both on the rivers side which the enemies had seized upon with two thousand Vessels as also towards the Land where there were so many men as the number of them was not truly known but as it was judged by conjecture they might be some three hundred thousand whereof forty thousand were horse but no Elephants at all This news made the King h●sten the more so that instantly he made a review of his forces and found that he had five hundred thousand men for since his coming forth many had joyned with him by the way as also four thousand Elephants and two hundred carts with field pieces With this Army he parted from Suropisem and drew towards Quitiruan marching not above four or five leagues a day At the end of the the third then he arrived at a valley called Siputay a league and an half from the place where the enemies lay Then all these men of War with the Elephants being set in battell array by the three Masters of the Camp whereof two were Turks by Nation and the third a Portugal named Doming●s de S●ixas they proceeded on in their way towards Quitiruan where they arrived before the Sun appeared Now whereas the enemies were already prepared in regard they had been advertised by their Spies of the King of Sia●s forces and of the design vvhich he had they attended him resolutely in the plain field relying much on their forty thousand horse As soon as they discovered him they presently advanced and with their vant-guard which were the said forty thousand horse they so charged the King of Siams rearward composed of threescore thousand foot as they defeated them in lesse then a quarter of an hour with the losse of three Princes that were slaine upon the place The King of Siam seeing his men thus routed resolved not to follow the order which he had formerly appointed but to fall on with the whole body of his Army and the four thousand Elephants joyned together With these forces he gave upon the battalion of the enemies with so much impetuosity as at this first shock they were wholly discomfited from whence ensued the death of an infinite company of men for whereas their prin●●s ●ll strength consisted in their horse as soone as the Elephants sustained by the harque●uses and the field pieces fell upon them they were defeated in lesse then an half hour so that after the routing of these same all the rest began instantly to retreat In the meane time the King of Siam following the honor of the victory pursued them to the rivers side
which the enemies perceiving they formed a new Squadron of all those that remained of them wherein there were above an hundred thousand men as well sound as hurt and so past all the same day there joyned together in one entire body of an Army the King not daring to fight with them by reason he saw them fortified with two thousand ships wherein there were great numbers of men Neverthelesse as soon as it was dark night the enemies began to march away with all speed all along by the river wherewith the King was nothing displeased because the most part of his souldiers being hurt they were necessarily to be drest as indeed that was presently executed and the most part of the day and the night following imployed therein After the King of Siam had obtained so happy a victory the first thing that he did was to provide with all diligence for the fortifications of the town and whatsoever els he thought to be necessary for the security thereof After that he commanded a generall muster to be made of all his men of war that he might know how many he had lost in this battell whereupon he found that some fifty thousand were wanting all men of little reckoning whom the rigor of the Kings Edict had compelled to serve in this war ill provided and without defensive arms As for the enemies it was known the next day that an hundred and thirty thousand of them had been slain As soon as the hurt men were recovered the King having put into the principall places of this frontier such guards as seemed requisite to him was counselled by his Lords to make war upon the Kingdom of Guibem which was not above fifteen leagues from thence on the North side to be revenged on the Queen of Guibem for having given free passage thorough her dominions to those of Chiammay in regard whereof he attributed to her the losse of Oyaa Capimper and the thirty thousand men that had been killed with him The King approving of this advice parted from this town with an army of foure hundred thousand men and went and fell upon one of this Queens towns called Fumbacor which was easily taken and all the inhabitants put to the sword not one excepted This done he continued his voyage till he came to Guitor the capitall town of the Kingdom of Guibem where the Queen then was who being a widdow governed the State under the title of Regent during the minority of her son that was about the age of nine years At his arrivall he laid siege to the Town and forasmuch a● the Queen found not her self strong enough to resist the King of Siams power she fell to accord with him to pay him an annuall tribute of five thousand Turmes of silver which are threescore thousand Duckats of our money whereof she paid him five years advance in hand Besides that the young Prince her son did him homage as his vassall and the King led him away with him to Siam Hereupon he raised his siege from before the Town and passed on towards the North-East to the Town of Taysiran where he had news that the King of Chiammay was fallen off from the league aforesaid In the mean time whereas he had been six daies march in the enemies territories he sacked as many places as he met withall not permitting the life of any male whatsoever to be saved So proceeding onward he arrived at the Lake of Singipamor which ordinarily is called Chiammay where he stayed six and twenty daies during the which he took twelve goodly places invironed with ditches and bullworks after our fashion all of brick and mortar without any stone or lime in them because in the country it is not the custome to build so but they had no other Artillery then some Faulconets and certain muskets of brasse Now forasmuch as winter began to approach and that it was very rainy weather the King too feeling himself not very well he retired back again to the Town of Quitiruan where he tarried three and twenty daies and better in which space he made an end of fortifying it with walls and many broad and deep ditches so that having put this Town into an estate of being able to defend it self against any attempt he imbarqued his Army in the three thousand vessells which brought him thither and so returned towards Siam Nine daies after he arrived at Odiaa the chiefe City of his whole Kingdome where for the most part he kept his Court. At his arrivall the inhabitants gave him a stately reception wherein they bestowed a 〈◊〉 of money upon divers inventions which were made against his entry Now whereas during the six moneths of the Kings absence the Queen his wife had committed adultery with a Purveyor of her house named Vquu●che●iraa and that at the Kings return she found her selfe gone four moneths with-child by him the fear she was in left it should be discovered made her for the saving of her self from the danger that threatned her resolve to poyson the King her husband as indeed without further delaying her pernitious intention she gave him in a messe of milk which wrought that effect as he died of it within five daies after during which time he took order by his Testament for the most important affairs of his Kingdome and discharged himself of the obligation wherein he stood ingaged to the strangers which had served him in this war of Chiammay In this Testament whenas he came to make mention of us Portugals he would needs have this clause added thereunto It is my intent that the sixscore Portugals which have alwayes so faithfully watched upon the gu●rd ●f my person shall ●eceive for a recompence of their good services half a years tribute which the Queen of Gu●bem gives me and that in my custome houses their Merchandise shall pay no custome fo● the space of three years Moreover my intent is that their Priests may throughout all the Townes of my Kingdome publish the Law whereof they m●ke prof●ssion namely of a God made man for the salvation of mankind as they have many times assured me To these things he added many others such like which well deserve to be reported here though I passe them under silence because I hope to make a more ample mention of them hereafter Furthermore he desired all the Grandees of his Court which were present with him that they would give him the consolation before he died to make his eldest Son be declared King which was incontinently executed For which effect after that all the Oyaas Conchalis and Mont●os which are Soveraign dignities over all the rest of the Kingdome had taken the oath of Allegeance to this young Prince they shewed him out at a window to all the people who were in a great place below and they set upon his head a rich Crovvn of gold in the form of a Miter and put a svvord into his right hand and a pair of balances into
of his Pontifall History the eighteenth Chapter In vita Sexti Quinti Fernand makes a narration of certain men whom he calls Caloges and Fingaos which have their feet r●und like unto those of Cows and hands all over hairy for the clearing of the truth whereof read Galvan in his discoveries folio 32. and 72. Gaspar de la Cruz the s●venth Chapter Touching the tryumphant Arches which they have in their streets together with their manner of accommo●ating and inriching them when as they solemnised certain Feasts read de la Cruz the seventh chapter Of the Universities which they have in China see Trigault in the third and fifth Chapters of his first Book De Artibus apud Sinas liberalibus ac Scientiis c. And in another entituled De Artibus apud Sinas mechanicis For a Confirmation of that which our Author says of the strange Ceremonies and Complements used by them at their saluting one another when they meet together by chance in the streets and in their visits read Mafeus in the sixth Book of his Indian History folio 134. beginning with these words Salutandi ritus miter plebeios c. And Mendoza in divers places of his Book declares the same Trigault in the seventh Chapter of his first Book at the title De Sinarum ritibus non nullis describes their manner of Salutations Babia in the third Part of his Pontifical History in the life of Gregory the thirteenth The History of the King of Bramaa together with his Victories and Conquests may be found in the Relations of Boterus De la Cruz in the second and fourth Chapters Mafeus and S t Romain Of the entrance of the Tartars into China and their besieging of Pequin Boterus in his Relations De la Cruz the fourth Chapter Paulus Jovius Antonius Armenius and Mathias de Micuy discourse at large That which is written of the subversion of the Provinces of Cuy and Sansii and of the d●leful and dreadful events ensuing thereupon Gaspar de la Cruz hath spoken of sufficiently in the 29 th Chapter of his Book As for that which Fernand says of their Gods Fatoquis Amida Xaca Gizon and Canom as also of the fooleries dreams and leasings which they recount of them and of their original and the respests and reverences they bear unto them it may be all seen in the twelfth Book of Mafeus his Indian History and in the first and fourth Chapters of his Epistles Trigault in his first and second Book Boterus in his Rela●ions S t Romain and many others By all this now is my Author throughly vindicated from all aspersions of falshood that may be cast upon this his Work which were it otherwise and meerly devised yet is it so full of variety and of such strange both Comick and Tragick Events as cannot chuse but delight far more then any Romance or other of that kind But being accompanyed with the truth as I have sufficiently proved it will no doubt give all the satisfaction and content that can be desired of the Reader The Contents CHAP. I. IN what manner I past my youth in the Kingdom of Portugal until my going to the Indiaes Fol. 1. CHAP. II. My Departure from Portugal for the East-Idiaes and my imbarquing there for the Straight of Mecqua 3 CHAP. III. Our travelling from Mazua by Land to the Mother of Prester John as also our re-imbarquing at the Port of Arquico and that which befell us by the encounter of three Turkish Vessels 5 CHAP. IV. A Mutiny happening in the Town of Mocaa the occasion thereof that which befell thereupon and by what means I was carryed to Ormuz as also my sailing from thence to Goa and what success I had in that Voyage 8. CHAP. V. Goncalo vas Co●inhoes Treaty with the Queen of Onor his assaulting of a Turkish 〈◊〉 and that which happened unto us as we were upon our return to Goa 11 CHAP. VI. What passed till such time as Pedro de Faria arrived at Malaca his receiving an Embassador from the King of Batas with his sending me to that King and that which arrived unto me in that Voyage 14 CHAP. VII What happened to me at Panaiu with the King of Batas expedition against the Tyrant of Achem and what he did after his Victory over him 18 CHAP. VIII That which past between the King of Batas and me until such time as I imbarqued for Malaca my arrival in the Kingdom of Queda and my return from thence to Malaca 21 CHAP. IX The arrival of an Embassador at the Fortress of Malaca from the King of Aaru to the Captain thereof his sending me to the said King my coming to Aaru and that which happened unto me after my departure from thence 26 CHAP. X. By what means I was carryed to the Town of Siaca and that which befell me there my going to Malaca with a Mahometan Merchant and the Tyrant of Achems Army marching against the King of Aaru CHAP. XI The death of the King of Aaru and the cruel justice that was executed on him by his Enemies the going of his Queen to Malaca and her reception there 33 CHAP. XII The Queen of Aaru's departure from Malaca her going to the King of Jantana his summoning the Tyrant of Achem to restore the Kingdom of Aaru and that which past between them thereupon 36 CHAP. XIII My departure to go to Pan that which fortuned after my arrival there with the murther of the King of Pan and the cause thereof 39 CHAP. XIV The misfortune that befell us at our entry into the River of Lugor our hiding our selves in a Wood with that which happened unto us afterwards and our return unto Malaca 42 CHAP. XV. Antonio de Faria his setting forth for the Isle of Anyan his arrival at the River of Tinacoreu and that which befell us in this Voyage 46 CHAP. XVI Antonio de Faria's arrival at the Bay of Camoy where was the fishing of Pearls for the King of China the relation made to him of the Isle of Aynan with that which happened to him by the means of a renegado Pirate and other ways 52 CHAP. XVII The information that Antonio de Faria had of the Country some passages betwixt him and the Nautarel of the Town his going to the River of Madel with his encountering a Pirate there and that which passed between them 58 CHAP. XVIII What Antonio de Faria did with the Captain of the Pirates Iunck that which past between him and the people of the Country with our casting away upon the Island of Thieves 61 CHAP. XIX In what sort we escaped miraculously out of this Island our passage from thence to the River of Xingrau our encountering with a Chinese Pirate and the agreement we made with him 65 CHAP. XX. Our encounter at Sea with eight Portugals very sorely hurt and Antonio de Faria's meeting and fighting with Coia Acem the Pirate 69 CHAP. XXI What Antonio de Faria did after his Victory his departure
answer Certainly you might do better for the Salvation of your Soul to distribute some part of the excessive riches you possess amongst these poor Soldiers then seek with feigned speeches full of hypocrisie and deceit to rob them of these slaves which have cost the lives of so many brave men their fellows in arms and have been dearly bought by us that survive even with our dearest blood as the wounds we have upon us can but two well witness so can it not be said of your Cabayage a Sacerdotal Robe after their fashion which for all it sits so trim and neat upon you covers a pernicious habit you have of purloyning other mens estates from them Wherefore I would wish you to desist from the damnable plot you have layd against the absolute Masters of this Prize whereof you shall not have so much as a token and seek out some other Present for the Cacis of Mecqua to the end he may conceal your theeveties and impiety provided it be not done with the expence of our lives and blood but rather with the goods you have so lewdly gotten by your wicked and cunning devices This Cacis Moulana having received so bold an answer from this Captain found it very rude and hard of digestion which made him in bitter terms and voyd of all respects exceedingly to blame the Captain and the Soldiers that were there present who as well Turks as Saracens being much offended with his ill language combined together and mutined against him and the rest of the people in whose favor he had spoken so insolently nor could this mutiny be appeased by any kind of means though the Governor of the Town Father-in-law to the said Solyman Dragut together with the Officers of Justice did all that possibly they could In a word that I may not stand longer upon the particulars of this affair I say that from this small mutiny did arise so cruel and enraged a contention as it ended not but with the death of six hundred persons of the one and the other side But at length the Soldiers party prevailing they pillaged the most part of the Town especially the said Cacis Moulana's house killing seven wives and nine children that he had whose bodies together with his own were dismembered and cast into the Sea with a great deal of cruelty In the same manner they intreated all that belonged unto him not so much as giving life to one that was known to be his As for us seven Portugals which were exposed to sale in the publique place we could find out no better expedient to save our lives then to return into the same hole from whence we came and that too without any Officer of Justice to carry us thither neither did we take it for a small favor that the Jaylor would receive us into the prison Now this Mutiny had not ceased but by the authority of Solyman Dragut General of the Gallies aforesaid For this man with very gentle words gave an end to the sedition of the people and pacified the Mutiners which shews of what power courtesie is even with such as are altogether ignorant of it In the mean time Heredrin Sopho Governor of the Town came off but ill from this hurly burly by reason that in the very first incounter he had one of his arms almost cut off Three days after this disorder was quieted we were led all seven again to the Market place there to be sold with the rest of the booty which consisted of our Stuff and Ordnance that they had taken in our Foists and were sold at a very easie rate For my self miserable that I was and the most wretched of them all Fortune my sworn enemy made me fall into the hands of a Greek renegado whom I shall detest as long as I have a day to live because that in the space of three Months I was with him he used me so cruelly that becoming even desparate for that I was not able to endure the evil he did me I was seven or eight times upon the point to have poysoned my self which questionless I had done if God of his infinite mercy and goodness had not diverted me from it whereunto I was the rather induced to make him lose the mony he payd for me because he was the most covetous man in the world and the most inhumane and cruellest enemy to the name of a Christian. But at the end of three Months it pleased the Almighty to deliver me out of the hands of this Tyrant who for fear of losing the mony I cost him if I should chance to make my self away as one of his neighbors perswaded him I would telling him that he had discovered so much by my countenance and manner of behavior wherefore in pity of me he counselled him to sell me away as he did ●ot long after unto a Jew named Abraham Muça Natif● of a Town called in those quarters Toro not above a league and an half distan● from Mount Sinay This man gave for me 〈◊〉 value of three hundred Reals in Dates which was the Merchandise that this Jew did ordinarily trade in with my late Master and so I parted with him in the company of divers Merchants for to go from Babylon to Cayxem whence he carried me to Ormuz and there presented me to Don Fernand de Lima who was at that time Captain of the Fort and to Doctor Pedro Fernandez Commissary General of the Indiaes that was then resid●ng at Ormuz for the service of the King by order from the Governor Nunho de Cunha These two namely Fernandez and de Lima gave the Jew in recompence for me two hundred Pardaos which are worth three shillings and nine pence a piece of our coyn whereof part was their own mony and the rest was raised of the alms which they caused to be gathered for me in the Town so we both remained contented the Jew for the satisfaction he had received from them and I to find my self at full liberty as before Seeing my self by Gods mercy delivered from the miseries I had endured after I had been seventeen days at Ormuz I imba●qued my self for the Indiaes in a ship that belonged to one Iorge Fernandez Taborda who was to carry Horses to Goa In the course that we held we sailed with so prosperous a gale that in seventeen days we arrived in view of the Fort of Diu There by the advice of the Captains coasting along by the Land for to learn some news we descryed a great number of fires all that night also at times we heard divers Pieces of Ordnance discharged which very much troubled us by reason we could not imagine what those fires o● that shooting in the night should mean in so much that we were divided into several opinions During this incertainty our best advice was to sail the rest of the night with as little cloth as might be until that on the next morning by the favor of day light we
and that which arrived to me in that Voyage THe next day our General Gonçallo vaz Coutinho arrived at Goa with so many of us as remained alive There he was exceedingly welcomed by the Vice-roy unto whom he rendred an accompt of his Voyage as also of that which he had concluded with the Queen of Onor who had promised to burn the Galley within four days and to chace the Turks out of all the Confines of her Kingdom wherewith the Vice-roy was very well satisfied In the mean time after I had remained three and twenty days in the said Town of Goa where I was cured of two hurts which I had received in fight at the Turks Trenches the necessity whereunto I saw my self reduced and the counsel of a Fryer my Friend perswaded me to offer my service unto a Gentleman named Pedro de Faria that was then newly preferred to the Charge of Captain of Malaca who upon the first motion was very willing to entertain me for a Soldier and promised me withall to give me something over and above the rest of his Company during the Voyage which he was going to make with the Vice-roy For it was at that very time when as the Vice-roy Dom Garcia de Noronha was preparing to go to the succor of the Fortress of Diu which he certainly knew was besieged and in great danger to be taken by reason of the great Forces wherewithall it was invested by the Turk and to relieve it the Vice-roy had assembled a mighty Fleet at Goa consisting of about two hundred and twenty five Vessels whereof fourscore and three were great ones namely Ships Gallions Carvels and the rest Brigantins Foists and Galleys wherein it was said there were ten thousand Land-men and thirty thousand Mariners besides a great number of Slaves The time of setting sail being come and the Foists provided of all things necessary the Vice-roy imbarqued himself on Saturday the fourteenth of November 1538. Howbeit five days past away before he put out of the Haven in regard he stayed for his men that were not all ready to imbarque the mean while a Catur arrived from the Town of Diu with a Letter from Antonio de Silveyra Captain of the Fortress whereby he advertised the Vice-roy that the Turks had raised the siege and were retired Now though these were good news yet was the whole Fleet grieved thereat for the great desire every one had to fight with the Enemies of our Faith Hereupon the Vice-roy abode there five days longer during the which he took order for all things necessary to the conservation of his Government of the Indiaes and then commanding to hoist sail he departed from Goa on a Thursday morning the sixteenth of December The four●eenth of his Navigation he went and cast anchor at Chaul where he remained three days during the which he entred into conference with Inezamuluco a Mahometan Prince and took order for certain affairs very much importing the surety of the Fortress After that he cau●ed some of the Vessels of the Fleet to be rigged which he furnished with Soldiers and Victuals and then d●parted for to go to Diu But it was his ill fortune as he was crossing the Gulph to be suddenly overtaken by such a furious Tempest that it not only separated his Fleet but was the loss of many Vessels chiefly of the Bastard Galley which was cast away at the mouth of the River Dabul whereof Dom Alvaro de Noronha the Vice-roys son and General of the Sea-forces was Captain In the same Gulph also perished the Galley named Espinheyro commanded by Iovan de Sousa howbeit the most part of their men were saved by Christophilo de Gama who came most opportunely to their succor During this Tempest there were seven other ships likewise cast away the names of which I have forgotten in so much that it was a month before the Vice-roy could recover himself of the loss he had sustained and re-assemble his Fleet again which this storm had scattered in divers places At length the sixteenth of Ianuary 1539. he arrived at the Town of Diu where he caused the Fortress to be re-built the greater part whereof had been demolished by the Turks so as it seemed that it had been defended by the besieged rather by miracle then force Now to effect it the better he made proclamation that all the Captains with their Soldiers should each of them take in charge to re-build that quarter which should be allotted them and because never a Commander there had more then Pedro de Faria he thought fit to appoint him the Bulwark which looked to the Sea for his quarter together with the out-wall that was on the Lands side wherein he bestowed such care and diligence that in six and twenty days space both the one and the other were restored to a better state then before by the means of three hundred Soldiers that were employed about it This done for that it was the fourteenth of March and a fit time for Navigation to Malaca Pedro de Faria set sail for Goa where by vertue of a Pattent granted him by the Vice-roy he furnished himself with all things necessary for his Voyage Departing then from Goa on the thirteenth of April with a Fleet of eight Ships four Foists and one Galley wherein there were five hundred men he had so favorable a wind that he arrived at Malaca the fifth day of Iune in the same year 1539. Pedro de Faria succeeding Dons Estevano de Gama in the Charge of Captain of Malaca arrived there safely with his Fleet nothing hapning in his Voyage worthy of writing Now because at his arrival Estevan de Gama had not yet ended the time of his Commission he was not put into the possession of that Government until the day that he was to enter upon his Charge Howbeit in regard Pedro de Faria was ere long to be Governor of the Fortress the neighboring Kings sent their Embassadors to congratulate with him and to make a tender of their amity and of a mutual conservation of Peace with the King of Portugal Amongst these Embassadors there was one from the King of Batas who raigned in the Isle of Samatra where it is held for a surety that the Island of Gold is which the King of Portugal Dom Ioana the Third had resolved should have been discovered by the advice of certain Captains of the Country This Embassador that was Brother-in-law to the King of Batas named Aquarem Dabolay brought him a rich Present of Wood of Aloes Calambaa and five quintals of Benjamon in flowers with a Letter written on the bark of a Palm tree where these words were inserted More ambitious then all men of the service of the crowned Lyon seated in the dreadful Throne of the Sea the rich and mighty Prince of Portugal thy Master and mine to whom in thee Pedro de Faria I do now render obedience with a sincere and true amity to the end I may become
them CHAP. VII What happened to me at Penaiu with the King of Batas expedition against the Tyrant of Achem and what he did after his Victory over him BY that time we had sailed seven or eight leagues up the River at the end we arrived at a little Town named Botterrendan not above a quarter of a mile distant from Panaiu where the King of Batas was at that time making preparation for the War he had undertaken against the Tyrant of Achem. This King understanding that I had brought him a Letter and a Present from the Captain of Malaca caused me to be entertained by the Xabandar who is he that with absolute power governs all the affairs of the Army This General accompanied with five Lanchares and twelve Ballons came to me to the Port where I rode at anchor Then with a great noise of Drums Bells and popular acclamations he brought me to a certain Key of the Town called Campalator There the Bendara Governor of the Kingdom stayed for me in great solemnity attended by many Our●balons and Amborraias which are the noblest persons of his Court the most part of whom for all that were but poor and base both in their habit and manner of living whereby I knew that the Country was not so rich as it was thought to be in Malaca When I was come to the Kings Palace and had past through the first Court at the entrance of the second I found an old woman accompanied with other persons far nobler and better apparelled then those that marched before me who beckoning m● with her hand as if she had commanded me to enter Man of Malaca said she unto me Thy arrival in the King my Masters Land is as agreeable unto him as a s●owre of rain is to a crop of Rice in dry and hot weather Wherefore enter boldly and be afraid of nothing for the people which by the goodness of God thou seest here are no other then those of thine own Country since the hope which we have in the same God makes us believe that he will maintain us all together unto the end of the world Having said so she carried me where the King was unto whom I did obeysance according to the man-of the Country then I delivered him the Letter and the Present I had brought him which he graciously accepted of and asked me what occasion drew me thither Whereunto I answered as I had in commission that I was come to serve his Highness in the Wars where I hoped to 〈◊〉 the honor to attend on him and not to leave him till such time as he returned Conqueror of his Enemies Hereunto I likewise added that I desired to see the City of Achem as also the scituation and fortifications of it and what depth the River was of whereby I might know whether it would bear great Vessels and Gallions because the Captain of Malaca had a design to come and succor his Higness as soon as his men were returned from the Indiaes and to d●liver his mortal Enemy the Tyrant of Achem into his hands This poor King presently believed all that I said to be true and so much the rather for that it was conformable to his desire in such sort that rising out of his Th●one where he was set I saw him go and fall on his knees before the carcass of a Cows head set up against the wall whose horns were guilt and crowned with flowers Then lifting up his hands and eyes O thou said he that not constrained by any material love where●nto Nature hath obliged thee dost continually make glad all those that desire thy milk as the own mother doth him whom she hath brought into the world without participating either of the miseries or pains which ordinarily she suffers from whom we take our Being be favorable unto the prayer which now with all my heart I offer up unto thee and it is no other but this that in the meadows of the Sun where with the payment and recompence which thou receivest thou art contented with the good that thou dost here below thou wilt be pleased to conserve me in the new amity of this good Captain to the end he may put in execution all that this man here hath told me At these words all the Courtiers which were likewise on their knees said three times as it were in answer How happy were he that could see that and then dye incontinently Whereupon the King arose and wiping his eyes which were all beblubbered with the tears that proceeded from the zeal of the prayer he had made he questioned me about many particular things of the Indiaes and Malaca Having spent some time therein he very courteously dismissed me with a promise to cause the Merchandise which the Mahometan had brought in the Captain of Mala●a's name to be well and profitably put off which indeed was the thing I most desired Now for as much as the King at my arrival was making his preparations for to march against the Tyrant of Achem and had taken order for all things necessary for that his Voyage after I had remained nine days in Panaiu the Capital City of the Kingdom of Batas he departed with some Troops towards a place named Turban some five leagues of where he arrived an hour before Sun-set without any manner of reception or shew of joy in regard of the grief he was in for the death of his children which was such as he never appeared in publique but with great demonstrations of sorrow The next morning the King of Batas marched from Turban towards the Kingdom of Achem being eighteen leagues thither He carried with him fifteen thousand men of War whereof eight thousand were Bataes and the rest Menancabes Lusons Andraguires Iambes and Bournees whom the Princes his neighbors had assisted him with as also forty Elephants and twelve Carts with small Ordnance namely Faulcons Bases and other field Pieces amongst the which there were three that had the Arms of France and were taken in the year 1526. at such time as Lopo Vaz d● Sampayo governed the State of the Indiaes Now the King of Batas marching five leagues a day came to a River called Quilem There by some of the Tyrants Spies which he had taken he learnt that his Enemy waited for him at Tondacur two leagues from Achem with a purpose to fight with him and that he had great store of strangers in his Army namely Turks Cambayans and Malabars Whereupon the King of Batas assembling his Councel of War and falling into consultation of this affair it was concluded as most expedient to set upon the Enemy before he grew more strong With this resolution having quit the River he marched somewhat faster then ordinary and arrived about ten of the clock in the night at the foot of a Mountain half a league from the Enemies Camp where after he had reposed himself a matter of three hours he marched on in very good order for which effect having
please God it might be brought to pass CHAP. IX The Arrival of an Embassador at Malaca from the King of Aaru to the Captain thereof his sending me to the said King my coming to Aaru and that which happend to me after my departing from thence FIve and twenty days after my coming to Malaca Dom Stephano de Gama being still Captain of the Fortress an Embassador arrived there from the King of Aaru for to demand succor of men from him and some munitions of War as Powder and Bullets for to defend himself from a great Fleet that the King of Achem was setting forth against him with an intention to deprive him of his Kingdom and so be a nearer neighbor unto us to the end that having gained that passage he might afterwards send his forces the more easily against our Fortress of Malaca whereof Pedro de Faria was no sooner advertised but representing unto himself how important this affair was for the service of the King and preservation of the Fortress he acquainted Dom Stephano de Gama with it in regard his Command of the place was to continue yet six weeks longer howbeit he excused himself from giving the succor which was required saying that the time of his Government was now expiring and that his being shortly to come in the duty of his charge did oblige him to take care of this business and to think of the danger that menaced him Hereunto Pedro de Faria made answer that if he would relinquish his Government for the time he had yet to come in it or give him full power to dispose of the publique Magazins he would provide for the succor that he thought was necessary In a word and not to stand long on that which past betwixt them it shall suffice to say that this Embassador was utterly denyed his demand by these two Captains whereof the one alledged for excuse that he was not yet entered upon his Charge and the other that he was upon the finishing of his whereupon he returned very ill satisfied with this refusal and so far resented injustice which he thought was done unto his King as the very morning wherein he imbarqued himself having met by chance with the two Captains at the gate of the Fortress he said aloud before them publiquely with the tears in his eyes O God! that with a soveraign Power and Majesty raignest in the highest of the Heavens even with deep sighs fetch'd from the bottom of my heart I take thee for Iudg of my cause and for witness of the just occasion I have to make this request to these Captains here and that in the name of my King the faithful Vassal of the great King of Portugal upon homage sworn by his Ancestors to the famous Albuque●que who promised us that if the Kings of our Kingdom did always continue true and loyal Subjects to his Master that then both he and his successors would oblige themselves to defend them against all their enemies as belonged to their soveraign Lord to do wherefore since we have continued still loyal to this day what reason have you my Masters not to accomplish this obligation wherein your King and you are so deeply engaged especially seeing you know that only in respect of you this perfidious Tyrant of Achem takes our Country from us For there is nothing he so much reproacheth us withall as that my King is as good a Portugal and Christian as if he had been born in Portugal and yet now that he desires you to succor him in his need as allyes and true friends ought to do you excuse your selves with reasons that are of no validity The succor we require of you for to secure us and to keep this faithless wretch from seizing on our Kingdom is a very small matter namely forty or fifty Portugals that may instruct us in the military art together with four barrels of Powder and two hundred Bullets for field Pieces a poor thing in comparison of that you have Now if you can yet be perswaded to grant us this little ayd you shall thereby so much oblige our King as he will ever remain a faithful slave to the mighty Prince of Portugal your Master and ours in whose name I beseech you once twice nay an hundred times that you will perform that appertains unto your duty to do for this which I thus publikely demand of you is of so great importance that therein consists not so much the preservation of the Kingdom of Aaru as the safety of this your Fortress of Malaca which that Tyrant of Achem our enemy so extreamly desires to possess and to that purpose he hath gotten the assistance of divers strange Nations but because he finds that our Kingdom is a let to the execution of his design he endeavors to usurp it upon us and then he intends to guard this Straight in such sort as he will quite exclude you from all Commerce with the Spices of Banda and the Molucques and from all the Trade and Navigation of the Seas of China Sunda Borneo Timor and Jappon and this his own people stick not to boast of even already being also further manifested by the accord which he hath lately made with the Turk through the interpos●ure of the Bassa of grand Cairo who in consideration thereof hath promised to ay● him with great Forces Wherefore at length give ear unto the request which I have made unto you in the name of my King and that so much concerns the service of yours for since you may yet give a remedy to the mischief which you see is ready to fall I desire you to do it speedily And let not one of you excuse himself by alledging that the time of his Government is almost at an end nor the other that he is not as yet entered upon his Charge for it is sufficient that you know you are both of you equally obliged thereunto Having finished this speech in form of a request which availed him nothing he stooped down to the ground from whence taking up two stones he knocked with them upon a Piece of Ordnance and then the tears standing in his eyes he said The Lord who hath created us will defend us if he please and so imbarquing himself he departed greatly discontented for the bad answer he carried back Five days after his departure Pedro de Faria was told how all the Town murmured at the small respect that both he and Dom Stephano had carried to that poor King who had ever been a friend both to them and the whole Portugal Nation and continually done very good offices to the Fort for which cause his Kingdom was now like to be taken from him This advice causing him to see his fault and to be ashamed of his proceeding he labored to have palliated it with certain excuses but at last he sent this King by way of succor fifteen quintals of fine Powder an hundred pots of Wild-fire an hundred and fifty Bullets for
For a conclusion of his speech he related unto me the little punishment which was ordained for such as were culpable of these matters and the great rewards that he had seen conferred on those which had not deserved them whereunto he added that if the King desired throughly to perform the duty of his Charge and by Arms to conquer people so far distant from his Kingdom and to preserve them it was as necessary for him to punish the wicked as to recompence the good This said he sent me to lodg in a Merchants house who for five days together that I remained there entertained me bravely though to speak truth I had rather have been at that time in some other place with any poor victuals for here I was always in fear by reason of the Enemies continual alarms and the certain news that came to the King the next day after my arrival how the Achems were already marching towards Aaru and would be there within eight days at the farthest which made him in all haste to give directions for such things as he had not taken order for before and to send the women and all that were unfit for War out of the City five or six leagues into the Wood amongst the which the Queen her self made one mounted on an Elephant Five days after my arrival the King sent for me and asked me when I would be gone whereunto I replyed at such time as it would please his Greatness to command me though I should be glad it might be with the soonest for that I was to be employed by my Captain with his Merchandise to China Thou hast reason answered he then taking two Bracelets of massy Gold off from his wrists worth some thirty Crowns I pre-thee now said he giving them to me do not impute it to miserableness that I bestow so little on thee for thou mayst be assured that it hath been always my desire for to have much for to give much withall I must desire thee to present this Letter and this Diamond from me to thy Captain to whom thou shalt say that whatsoever I am further engaged to him in for the pleasure he hath done me by succoring me with those Ammunitions he hath sent me by thee I will bring it to him my self hereafter when I shall be at more liberty then now I am Having taken leave of the King of Aaru I presently imbarqued my self and departed about Sun-set rowing down the River to an Hamlet that is at the entrance thereof composed of ten or eleven houses covered with ●traw This place is inhabited with very poor people that get their living by killing of Lezards of whose livers they make a poyson wherewith they anoint the heads of their arrows For the poyson of this place chiefly that which is called Pocausilim is held by them the best of those Countries because there is no remedy for him that is hurt with it The next day having left this small Village we sailed along the coast with a land wind until evening that we doubled the Islands of Anchepisan then the day and part of the night following we put forth somewhat farther to Sea But about the first watch the wind changed to the North-east for such winds are ordinary about the Isle of Samatra and grew to be so tempestuous that it blew our mast over board tore our sails in pieces and so shattered our Vessel that the water came in that abundance into her at two several places as she sunk incontinently to the bottom so that of eight twenty persons which were in her three and twenty were drowned in less then a quarter of an hour For as five that escaped by the mercy of God we passed the rest of the night upon a Rock where the waves of the Sea had cast us There all that we could do was with tears to lament our sad fortune not knowing what counsel or course to take by reason the Country was so moorish and invironned with so thick a Wood that a bird were she never so little could hardly make way through the branches of it for that the trees grew so close together We sat crouching for the space of three whole days upon this Rock where for all our sustenance we had nothing but Snails and such filth as the ●oam of the Sea produced there After this time which we spent in great misery and pain we walked a whole day along by the Isle of Samatra in the owze up to the girdle-stead and about Sun-set we came to the mouth of a little River some Crossbow-shot broad which we durst not undertake to swim over for that it was deep and we very weak and weary so that we were forced to pass all that night standing up to the chin in the water To this misery was there adjoyned the great affliction which the Flies and Gnats brought us that coming out of the neighboring Woods bit and stung us in such sort as not one of us but was gore blood The next morning as soon as we perceived day which we much desired to see though we had little hope of life I demanded of my four companions all Mariners whether they knew the Country or whether there was any habitation thereabout Whereupon the eldest of them who had a wife at Malaca not able to contain his tears Alas answered he the place that now is most proper for you and me is the house of death where ere it be long we must give an account of our sins it therefore behoves us to prepare our selves for it without any further delay and patiently to attend that which is sent us from the hand of God For my part let me intreat thee to be of a good courage whatsoever thou seest and not be terrified with the fear of dying since every thing well considered it matters not whether it be to day or to morrow This spoken he embraced me and with tears in his eyes desired me to make him a Christian because he beleeved as he said that to be so was sufficient to save his Soul which could not otherwise be done in the cursed sect of Mahomet wherein he had lived till then and for which he craved pardon of God Having finished these last words he remained dead in mine arms for he was so weak as he was not able to subsist any longer as well for that he had not eaten ought in three or four days before as in regard of a great wound the wrack of the Lanchara had given him in his head through which one might see his brains all putrefied and corrupted occasioned both for want of looking unto as by salt water and flies that were gotten into it Verily this accident grieved me very much but for my self I was in little better case for I was likewise so weak that every step I made in the water I was ready to swoon by reason of certain hurts on my head and body out of which I had lost a great
great that it contains along the Coast above three thousand leagues as may easily be seen by the cards and globes of the world if so be their graduation be true Besides if this loss should happen which God of his infinite mercy forbid though we have but two much deserved it for our carelessness and sins we are in danger in like manner to lose the Customs of Mandorim of the City of Goa which is the best thing the King of Portugal hath in the Indiaes for they are Ports and Islands mentioned heretofore whereon depends the greatest part of his Revenue not comprehending the Spices namely the Nutmegs Cloves and Maces which are brought into this Kingdom from those Countries Now to return to my discourse I say that the Tyrant of Achem was advised by his Councel how there was no way in the world to take Malaca if he would assail it by Sea as he had done divers times before when as Dom Stephano de Gama and his Predecessors were Captains of the Fortress but first to make himself Master of the Kingdom of Aaru to the end he might afterwards fortifie himself on the River of Panetican where his Forces might more commodiously and nearly maintain the War he intended to make For then he might have means with less charge to shut up the Straights of Cincapura and Sabaon and so stop our Ships from passing to the Seas of China Sunda Banda and the Molucques whereby he might have the profit of all the Drugs which came from that great Archipelague And verily this counsel was so approved by the Tyrant that he prepared a Navy of an hundred and threescore Sails whereof the most part were Lanchares with oars Galiots Calabuzes of Iaoa and fifteen Ships high built furnished with Munition and Victual In these Vessels he imbarqued seventeen thousand men namely twelve thousand Soldiers the rest Sailers and Pioners Amongst these were four thousand Strangers Turks Abissins Malabares Gusurates and Lusons of the Isle of Borneo Their General was one named Heredin Mahomet Brother-in-law to the Tyrant by marriage with a Sister of his and Governor of the Kingdom of Baarros This Fleet arrived safely at the River of Panetican where the King of Aaru attended them with six thousand of his own natural Subjects and not a forraigner amongst them both in regard he wanted mony for to entertain Soldiers and that also he had a Country unprovided of victual to feed them At their arrival the Enemies found them fortifying of the Trench whereof I spake heretofore Whereupon without any further delay they began to play with their Ordnance and to batter the Town on the Sea side with great fury which lasted six whole days together In the mean time the besieged defended themselves very valiantly so as there was much blood spilt on either side The General of the Achems perceiving he advanced but little caused his Forces to Land and mounting twelve great Pieces he renewed the battery three several times with such impetuosity that it demolished one of the two Forts that commanded the River by means whereof and under the shelter of certain packs of Cotton which the Achems carried before them they one morning assaulted the principal Fortress In this assault an Abissin commanded called Mamedecan who a month or thereabout before was come from Iuda to confirm the new League made by the Bassa of Caire on the behalf of the grand Signior with the Tyrant of Achem whereby he granted him a Custom-house in the Port of Pazem This Abissin rendered himself Master of the Bulwark with threescore Turks forty Ianizaries and some Malabar Moo●s who instantly planted five Ensigns on the walls In the mean time the King of Aaru encouraging his people with promises and such words as the time required wrought so effectually that with a valorous resolution they set upon the Enemy and recovered the Bulwark which they had so lately lost so as the Abissin Captain was slain on the place and all those that were there with him The King following his good fortune at the same instant caused the gates of the Trench to be opened and sallying out with a good part of his Forces he combated his Enemies so valiantly as he quite routed them In like manner he took eight of their twelve Pieces of Ordnance and so retreating in safety he fortified himself the best he could for to sustain his Enemies future assaults CHAP. XI The Death of the King of Aaru and the cruel Iustice that was executed on him by his Enemies the going of his Queen to Malaca and her reception there THe General of Achem seeing the bad success which he received in this incounter was more grieved for the death of the Abissin Captain and the loss of those eight Pieces of Ordnance then for all them that were slain besides whereupon he assembled his Councel of War who were all of opinion that the commenced siege was to be continued and the Trench assailed on every side which was so speed●ly put in execution that in seventeen days it was assaulted nine several times in so much as by divers sorts of fire-works continually invented by a Turkish Engineer that was in their Camp they demolished the greater part of the Trench Moreover they overthrew two of the principal Forts on the South side together with a great Platform which in the manner of a false-bray defended the entry of the River notwithstanding all the resistance the King of Aaru could make with his people though they behaved themselves so valiantly as the Achems lost above two thousand and five hundred men besides those that were hurt which were far more then the slain whereof the most part dyed shortly after for want of looking to As for the King of Aaru he lost not above four hundred men howbeit for that his people were but few and his Enemies many as also better ordered and better armed in the last assault that was given on the thirteenth day of the Moon the business ended unfortunately by the utter defeat of the King of Aaru's Forces For it was his ill hap that having made a salley forth by the advice of a Cacis of his whom he greatly trusted it fell out that this Traytor suffering himself to be corrupted with a bar of gold weighing about forty thousand duckets which the Achem gave him whereof the King of Aaru being ignorant set couragiously on his Enemies and fought a bloody battel with them wherein the advantage remained on his side in all mens judgment but that Dog the perfidious Cacis whom he had left Commander of the Trench sallied forth with five hundred men under colour of seconding the King in his pursuit of so prosperous a beginning and left the Trench without any manner of defence which perceived by one of the Enemies Captains a Mahometan Malabar named Cutiale Marcaa he presently with six hundred Gusarates and Malabars whom he had led thither for that purpose made himself Master of the Trench
and Royal House of rich Achem the very day of this thy Embassadors arrival whom I have presently sent away without further seeing or hearing of him as he may tell thee upon his return to thy presence The King of Iantana's Embassador being dismissed with this Answer the very same day that he arrived which amongst them they hold for a mighty affront carried back the Present which the Tyrant would not accept of in the greater contempt both of him that sent and he that brought it and arrived at Compar where the King of Iantana was at that instant who upon the understanding of all that had past grew by report so sad and vext that his servants have vowed they have divers times seen him weep for very grief that the Tyrant should make so little reckoning of him Howbeit he held a Councel there upon the second time where it was concluded that at any hand he should make War upon him as on his mortal Enemy and that the first thing he should undertake should be the recovery of the Kingdom of Aaru and the Fort of Panetican before it was further fortified The King accordingly set forth a Fleet of two hundred Sails whereof the most part were Lanchares Calaluses and fifteen tall Juncks furnished with Munition necessary for the enterprize And of this Navy he made General the great Laque Xemena his Admiral of whose valor the History of the Indiaes hath spoken in divers places To him he gave two thousand Soldiers as also four thousand Mariners and gally slaves all choyce and trained men This General departed immediately with his Fleet and arrived at the River of Panetican close by the Enemies Fort which he assaulted five several times both with scaling ladders and divers artificial fires but perceiving he could not prevail that way he began to batter it with four hundred great Pieces of Ordnance which shot continually for the space of seven whole days together at the end whereof the most part of the Fort was ruined and overthrown to the ground whereupon he presently caused his men to give an assault to it who performed it so valiantly that they entered it and slew fourteen hundred Achems the most of which came thither but the day before the Fleet arrived under the conduct of a Turkish Captain Nephew to the Bassa of Caire named Mora do Arraiz who was also sl●i●● there with four hundred Turks he had brought along with him whereof Laque Xemena would not spare so much as one After this he used such diligence in repairing that which was fallen wherein most of the Soldiers labored that in twelve days the Fort was rebuilt and made as strong as before with the augmentation of two Bulwarks The news of this Fleet which the King of Iantana prepared in the Ports of Bintan and Compar came to the Tyrants ears who fearing to lose that which he had gotten put instantly to Sea another Fleet of fourteen hundred and twenty Sails Foists Lanchares Galiots and fifteen Galleys of five and twenty banks of oa●s a piece wherein he caused fifteen thousand men to be imbarqued namely twelve thousand Soldiers and the rest Mariners and such as were for the service of the Sea Of this Army he made the same Heredin Mahomet General who had before as I have already declared conquered the Kingdom of Aaru in regard he knew him to be a man of a great spirit and fortunate in War who departing with this Army arrived at a place called Aapessumhee within four leagues of the River of Panetican where he learnt of certain fishermen whom he took and put to torture all that had past concerning the Fort and the Kingdom and how Laque Xemena had made himself Master both of the Land and Sea in expectation of him At this news it is said that Heredin Mahomet was much perplexed because intruth he did not b●lieve the Enemy could do so much in so little time By reason whereof he assembled his Councel where it was concluded that since both the Fort and Kingdom were regained and all the men he had left there cut in pieces as likewise for that the Enemy was very strong both at Sea and Land and the season very unfit for their design therefore they were to return back Neverth●less Heredin Mahomet was of a contrary opinion saying that he would rather dye like a man of courage then live in dishonor and that seeing the King had made choyce of him for that purpose by the help of God he would not lose one jot of the reputation he had gotten wherefore he vowed and swore by the bones of Mahomet and all the Lamps that perpetually burn in his Chappel to put all those to death as Traytors that should go about to oppose this intent of his and that they should be boiled alive in a Cauldron of Pitch in such manner as he meant to deal with Laque Xemena himself and with this boiling resolution he parted from the place where he rode at anchor with great cries and noise of Drums and Bells as they are accustomed to do upon like occasions In this sort by force of oars and sails they got into the entry of the River and coming in sight of Laque Xemena's Navy who was ready waiting for him and well reinforced with a great number of Soldiers that were newly come to him from P●ra Bintan Siaca and many other places thereabout he made towards him and after the discharging of their O●dnance afar off they joyned together with as much violence as might be The fight was such that during the space of an hour and an half there could no advantage be discerned on either part until such time as Heredin Mahomet General of the Achems was slain with a great shot that hit him just in the brest and battered him to pieces The death of this Chieftain discouraged his people in such manner as laboring to return unto a Point named Baroquirin with a purpose there to unite and fortifie themselves until night and then by the favor thereof to fly away they could not execute their design in regard of the great currant of the water wh●ch separated and dispersed them sundry ways by which means the Tyrants Army ●ell into the power of Laque Xemena who defeated it so that but fourteen Sails of them escaped and the other hundred threescore and six were taken and in them were thirteen thousand and five hundred men killed besides the fourteen hundred that were slain in the Trench These fourteen Sails that so escaped returned to Achem where they gave the Tyrant to understand how all had past at which it is reported he took such grief as he shut up himself for twenty days without seeing any body at the end whereof he struck off the heads of all the Captains of the fourteen Sails and commanded all the Soldiers beards that were in them to be shaved off enjoyning them expresly upon pain of being sawed asunder alive to go ever
already delivered he had spent so much time and yet could never till then hear any news of him in all the Ports and places where he had been The next morning we arrived at the Port of Lailoo where Quiay Panian had much kinred and many friends so that he wanted no credit in that place wherefore he intreated the Mandarin who is the Captain of the Town to permit us to buy for our mony such things as we stood in need of which he instantly granted as well for fear lest some displeasure might be done him as for the sum of a thousand duckets presented unto him by Antonio de Faria wherewith he rested very well satisfied Hereupon some of our Company went ashore who with all diligence bought whatsoever we wanted as Saltpeter and Sulphur to make powder Lead Bullets Victual Cordage Oyl Pitch Rosin Ockam Timber Planks Arms Darts Staves hardened in the fire Masts Sails Sail-yards Targets Flints Pullies and Anchors that done we took in fresh water and furnished our Vessels with Mariners Now although that this place contained not above three or four hundred houses yet was there both there and in the villages adjoyning such a quantity of the aforesaid things that in truth it were hard to express it for China i● excellent in this that it may vaunt to be the Country in the world most abounding in all things that may be desired Besides for that Antonio de Faria was exceeding liberal in regard he spent out of the general booty before the partitions were made he payd for all that he bought at the price the sellers would set by means whereof he had more brought him by far then he had use for so that within thirteen days he went out of this Port wonderfully well accommodated with two other new great Junks which he had exchanged for two little ones that he had and two Lanteaas with Oars as also an hundred and sixty Mariners both for rowing and for governing the sails After all these preparations were made and we ready to weigh anchor a general muster was taken of all that were in our Army which in number was found to be five hundred persons as well for fight as for the service and navigation of our Vessels amongst whom were fourscore and fifteen Portugals young and resolute the rest were Boys and Mariners and men of the other Coast which Quiay Panian kept in pay and were well practised in Sea-fight as they that had been five years Pyrats Moreover we had an hundred and sixty Harquebuses forty pieces of brass Ordnance whereof twenty were field-pieces that carryed stone-bullets threescore quintals of powder namely fifty four for the great Ordnance and six for the Harquebuses besides what the Harquebusiers had already delivered to them nine hundred pots of artificial fire whereof four hundred were of powder and five hundred of uns●aked Lime after the Chinese manner a great number of stones Arrows Half-pikes four thousand small Javelings store of Hatchets to serve at boarding six Boats full of Flints wherewith the Sailers fought twelve Cramp-irons with their hooks fastned to great Iron chains for to grapple Vessels together and many sorts of fire-works which an Engineer of the Levant made for us With all this equipage we departed from this Port of Lail●● and within three days after it pleased God that we arrived at the fishing place where Coia Acem took the Portugals Junk There as soon as it was night Antonio de Faria sent spies into the River for to l●●rn whereabout he was who took a Paroo with six Fishermen in her that gave us to understand how this Pyrat was some two leagues from thence in a River called Tinlau and that he was accommodating the Junk he had taken from the Portugals for to go in her with two others that he had unto Siam where he was born and that he was to depart within two days Upon this news Antonio de Faria called some of his company to councel where it was concluded that first of all the places and forces of our Enemy was to be visited and seen because in a matter of so much hazard it was not safe to run as it were blindfold unto it but to advise on it well beforehand and that upon the certainty of that which should be known such resolution might afterwards be taken as should seem good to all Then drawing the fishermen out of the Paroo he put some of Quiay Panians Mariners into her and sending her away only with two of those fishermen keeping the rest as hostages he committed the charge of her to a valiant Soldier named Vincentio Morosa attired after the Chinese fashion for fear of discovery who arriving at the place where the Enemy rode made shew of fishing as others did and by that means espyed all that he came for whereupon re●ur●ing he gave an account of what he had seen and assured us that the Enemies were so weak ●s upon ●oarding of them they might easily be taken Antonio de Faria caused the most experienced men of his company to be assembled to advise thereon and that in Quiay Panians Junk to honor him the more as also to maintain his friendship which he much esteemed At this meeting it was resolved that as soon as it was night they should go and anchor at the mouth of the River where the Enemy lay for to set upon him the next morning before day This agreed unto by all Antonio de F●ria set down what order and course should be held at the entring into the River and how the Enemy should be assaulted Then dividing his men he placed thirty Portugals in Quiay Panians Junk such as he pleased to choose because he would be sure to give him no distaste Likewise he disposed six Portugals into each of the Lant●●as and into Christovano Borralho's Junk twenty the rest of the Portugals being three and thirty he retained with himself besides slaves and divers Christians all valiant and trusty men Thus accommodated and ordered for the execution of his enterprize he set sail towards the River of Tinlau where he arrived about Sun-set and there keeping good watch he past the night till three of the clock in the morning at which time he made to the Enemy who rode some half a league up in the River It pleased God that the Sea was calm and the wind so favorable as our Fleet sailing up the River arrived in less then an hour close to the Enemy unperceived of any But because they were Thieves and feared the people of the Country in regard of the great mischiefs and robberies which they dayly committed they stood so upon their guard and kept so good watch that as soon as they discerned us in all haste they rung an alarum with a Bell the sound whereof caused such a rumor and disorder as well amongst them that were ashore as those aboard that one could hardly hear one another by reason of the great noise they made
lost in the Gallion where Manael de Souzad Sepulveda also perished A little further to the Northward of this Island of Lequio there is a great Archipelago of small Islands from whence is drawn a great quantity of silver which in my opinion by what I gathered out of a petition which Ray Lopez de Vilhalobos General of the Castillians presented to Iorge de Castro at that time Captain of Ternate should be those whereof the Inhabitants had some knowledge and which they called the Islands of Silver and yet I cannot see with what reason that may be because both by what I have observed and read as well in the writings of Ptolomie as other Geographers not any one of them hath pierced into the Kingdom of Siam and the Island of Sumatra only our Cosmographers since the time of Alphonso d' Albuquerque have passed a little further and treated of the Selebres Pasuaas Mindanaus Champas as also of China and Iapon but not of the Lequios or other Archipelagoes which are to be discovered within the vast extent of that Sea From this brief relation which I have made of the Island of Lequios may be inferred both out of what I have heard and ●een that with two thousand men only this Island might be taken together with all the rest of these Archipelagoes whence more profit might be drawn then from the Indiaes and they might be conserved with less charge as well in regard of men as otherwise for we spake there with Merchants who assured us that the sole Revenue of three Custom houses and of the Island of Lequios amounted unto one million and an half of gold not comprising therein either the Mass of the whole Kingdom or the Mynes of Silver Copper Iron Steel Lead and Tin which are of a far greater revenue then the Customs I will not speak further of other particularities of this Island which I might here insert for that I hold this sufficient to awaken the courages of the Portugals and incite them to an Enterprise of so much service for our King and profit for themselves CHAP. XLIX My sayling from Liampoo to Malaca from whence the Captain of the Fortress sent me to the Chaubainhaa at Martabano and all that bef●l us in our voyage thither BEing arrived at Liampoo we were very well received by the Portugals that lived there From whence within a while after I imbarqued my self in the Ship of a Portugal named Tristano de Gaa for to return unto Malaca with an intention once more to try my fortune which had so often been contrary to me as may appear by that which I have delivered before This Ship being safely arrived at Malaca I went presently unto Pedro de Faria Governour of the Fortress who desiring to benefit me somewhat before the time of his Government was expired he caused me to undertake the voyage of Martaban which was usually very profitable and that in the Junck of a Mahumetan named Necoda Mamude who had wife and children at Malaca Now the principal designe of this voyage was to conclude a peace with the Chaubainhaa King of Martabano as also to continue the commerce of those of that Country with us because their Juncks did greatly serve for the prov●sions of our Fortress which at that time was unfurnished thereof by reason of the success of the Wars of Iaoa Besides I had a designe in this my voyage of no less consequence then the res● which was to get one called Lancarote Gu●rreyro to come thither who was then on the Coast of Tanaucarim with an hundred men in four Foists under the name of a Rebel or Mutiner I was to require him to come to the succour of the Fortress in regard it was held for certain that the King of Achem was suddainly to fall upon it so that Pedro de Faria seeing himselfe destitute of all that was necessary for him to sustain a Siege and of men likewise found it fit to make use of these hundred men the rather for that they were nearest and so might be the sooner with him In the third place he sent me upon another important occasion namely to give advice to the Ships of Bengala that they should come all carefully in consort together left their negligence in their Navigation should be the cause of some distaster This voyage then I undertook very unwillingly and parted from Malaca upon a Wednesday the ninth day of Ianuary in the year one thousand five hundred forty and five being under Sail I continued my course with a good wind to Pullo Pracelar where the Pilot was a little retarded by means of the Shelves which cross all that Channel of the firm Land even unto the Island of Sumetra When we were got forth with much labour we passed on to the Islands of Pullo Sambillam where I put my self into a Manchua which I had very well equipped and sayling in it the space of twelve days I observed according to the order Pedro de Faria had given me for it all the Coast of that Country of Malaya which unto Iuncalan contains an hundred and thirty leagues entring by all the Rivers of Bartuhaas Salangor Panaagim Qued●m Parles Pendan and Sambilan Siam without so much as hearing any news at all of his enemies in any of them So continuing the same course nine days more being the three and twentieth of our voyage we went and cast anchor at a little Island called Pisandur●a where the Necoda the Mahometan Captain of the Junck was of necessity to make a cable and furnish himself with wood and water With this resolution going on shore every man applyed himself so the labour he was appointed unto and therein spent most part of the day Now whilest they were thus at work the Son of this Mahometan Captain came and asked me whither I would go with him and see if we could kill a Stag whereof there was great plenty in that Island I answered him that I would accompany him with all my heart so that having taken my Harquebuse I went along with him athwart the wood where we had not walked above an hundred spaces but that we espied a many of wild boars that were rooting in the earth near to a pond Having discovered this game we got as near to them as we could and discharging amongst them we carried two of them to the ground Being very glad of this good success we presently gave a great shout and ran straight to the place we had seen them rooting But so dreadful to behold in this place we found above a dozen bodies of men digged out of the earth and some nine or ten others half eaten B●ing much amazed at this object we withdrew a little aside by reason of the great stanch which proceeded from these dead bodies Hereupon the Sarrazin told me that he thought we should do well to advertise his father of this to the end we might instantly surround this Island all about for to see whether
a review to be made of those that would fight but he ●ound them to be not above two thousand in all and they too so destitute of courage as they ●ould hardly have resisted feeble women Beholding himself then reduced to the last cast he communicated his mind to the Queen only as having no other at that time by whom he may be advised or that indeed could advise him The only expedient then that he could rest on was to render himself into the hands of his Enemy and to stand to his mercy or his rigor Wherefore the next day about six of the clock in the morning he c●u●ed a white flag to be hung out over the wall in sign of peace whereunto they of the Camp answered with another like banner Hereupon the Xenimbrum who was as it were Marshal of the Camp sent an horseman to the bulwark where the flag stood unto whom it was delivered from the top of the wall That the Chaubainhaa desired to send a Letter to the King so as he might have a safe-conduct for it which being signified to the Xenimbrum he instantly dispatched away two of good quality in the Army with a safe-conduct and so these two Bramaa● remaining for hostages in the City the Chaubainhaa sent the King a Letter by one of his Priests that was fourscore years of age and reputed for a Saint amongst them The contents of this Letter were these The love of children hath so much power in this house of our weakness that amongst us who are fathers there is not so much as one that for their sakes would not be well contented to descend a thousand times into the deep pit of the house of the Serpent much more would expose his life for them and put himself into the hands of one that useth so much clemency towards them that shall do so For which reason I resolved this night with my wife and children contrary to the opinions that would disswade me from this good which I hold the greatest of all others to render my self unto your Highness that you may do with me as you think fit and as shall be most agreeable to your good pleasure As for the fault wherewith I may be charged and which I submit at your feet I humbly beseech you not to regard it that so the merit of the mercy which you shall shew me may be the greater before God and men May your Highness therefore be pleased to send some presently for to take possession of my person of my wife of my children of the City of the Treasure and of all the Kingdom all which I do even now yield up unto you as to my Soveraign Lord and lawful King All the request that I have to make unto you thereupon with my knees on the ground i● that we may all of us with your permission finish our days in a Cloister where I have already vowed continually to bewail and repent my fault past For as touching the honors and estates of the world wherewith your Highness might inrich me as Lord of the most part of the Earth and of the Isles of the Sea they are things which I utterly renounce for evermore In a word I do solemnly swear unto you before the greatest of all the Gods who with the gentle touch of his Almighty hand makes the Clouds of Heaven to move never to leave that Religion which by your pleasure I shall be commanded to profess where being freed from the vain hopes of the world my repentance may be the more pleasing to him that pardoneth all things This holy Grepo Dean of the golden House of Saint Quiay who for his goodnesse and austerity of life hath all power over me will make a more ample relation unto you of what I have omitted and can more particularly tell you that which concerns the offer I make you of rendring my self that so relying on the reality of his Speech the unquietness wherewith my soul is incessantly troubled may be appeased The King of Bramaa having read this Letter instantly returned another in answer thereunto full of promises and oaths to this effect That he would forget all that was past and that for the future he would provide him an estate of so great a Revenue as should very well content him Which he but badly accomplished as I shall declare hereafter These news was published throughout all the Camp with a great deal of joy and the next morning all the Equipage and Train that the King had in his quarter was set forth to view First of all there were to be seen fourscore and six Field-Tents wonderful rich each of them being invironed with thirty Elephants ranked in two Files as if they had been ready to fight with Castles on their backs full of Banners and their Panores fastened to their Trunks the whole number of them amounted unto two thousand five hundred and fourscore Not far from them were twelve thousand and five hundred Bramaas all mounted on horses very richly accoustred with the order which they kept they inclosed all the Kings quarter in four Files and were all armed in Corslets or Coats of Mayl with Lances Cymitars and guilded Bucklers After these Horse followed four Files of Foot all Bramaas being in number above twenty thousand For all the other Souldiers of the Camp there were so many as they could not be counted and they marched all in order after their Captains In this publique Muster were to be seen● world of Banners rich colours such a number of Instruments of war sounded that the noise thereof together with that which the Souldiers made was most dreadful and so great as it was not possible to hear one another Now for that the King of Bramaa would this day make shew of his greatness in the reddition of the Chaubainhaa he gave express Command that all the Captains which were strangers with their men should put on their best clothes and Arms and so ranged in two Files they should make as it were a kind of street through which the Chaubainhaa might pass this accordingly was put in execution and this street took beginning from the City gate and reached as far as to the Kings Tent being in length about three quarters of a League or better In this street there were six and thirty thousand strangers of two and forty different Nations namely Portugals Grecians Venetians Turks Ianizaries Iews Arm●nians Tartars Mogores Abyssins Raizbutos Nobins Coracones Persians Tuparaas Gizares Tanacos Malabares Iaos Achems Moens Siams Lussons of the Island Borneo Chacomas Arracons Predins Papuaas S●lebres Mindanoas Pegus Bramaas and many others whose names I know not All these Nations were ranked according to the Xemimbrums order whereby the Portugals were placed in the Vantgard which was next to the gate of the City where the Chabainhaa was to come After them followed the Arm●nians then the Ianizaries and Turks and so the rest CHAP. LI. In what manner the Chaubainhaa rendred himself
he imba●qued in twelve thousand rowing Vessels whereof two thousand were Seroos Laulers Caturos and Foists Now all this great Fleet set forth from Pegu the ninth day of March 1545. and going up the River of Ansedaa it went to Danapluu where it was furnished with all such provisions as was necessary From this place following on their way through a great River of fresh water called Picau Malacou which was above a league broad at length upon the thirteenth of April they came within view of Prom. There by some whom they took that night they learned that the King was dead and how he had left for his successor to the Kingdom a son of his of thirteen years of age whom the King his Father before he dyed had marryed to his wives sister the Aunt of the said young Prince and Daughter to the King of Avaa This young King was no sooner advertised of the King of Bramaa his coming to besiege him in his City of Prom but he sent presently away to the King his Father-in-law for succor which he instantly granted and to that end speedily raised an Army of 30000 Mons Tarces and Chalems choyce men and trained up in the Wars of whom he made a son of his and brother to the Queen General In the mean time the Bramaa having intelligence thereof used all possible diligence for to besiege the City before so great a succor might arrive To which purpose having landed his Army in a plain called Meigavotau some two leagues below the City he continued there five days in making ready such preparations as were needful Having given order for all things he caused his Army to march one morning before day directly to the City with the sound of Drums Fifes and other such instruments of War where being arrived about noon without any opposition he began presently to settle his Camp so that before it was night the whole City was environed with Trenches and very great Ditches as also with six rows of Cannons and other Pieces of Ordnance CHAP. LIII That which passed between the Queen of Prom and the King of Bramaa together with the first Assault that was given to the City and the Success thereof THe King of Bramaa had been now five days before the City of Prom when as the Queen that governed the State in the place of her Husband seeing her self thus besieged sent to visit this her enemy with a rich jewel of precious stones which was presented unto him by a Talagrepo or religious man of above an hundred years old who was held amongst them for a Saint together with a Letter wherein this was written Great and mighty Lord more favoured in the House of fortune then all the Kings of the earth the force of an extream power an increasing of the Salt-seas whereinto all lesser rivers do render themselvos a Shield full of very fair devices Processor of the greatest States upon the Throne whereof thy feet do repose with a marvellous Majesty I Nhay Nivolau a poor woman Governess and Tutress of my Son an Orphan do prostrate my self before thee with tears in mine eyes and with the respect which ought to be rendred unto thee I beseech thee not to draw thy Sword against my weakness for thou knowest that I am but a silly woman which can but only cry unto God for the wrong that it done me whose property also it is to succour with mercy and to chastice with justice the States of the world be they never so great trampling them under his feet with so redoubted a power that the very Inhabitants of the profound house of smoak do fear and tremble before this Almighty Lord I pray and conjure thee not to take from me that which is mine seeing it is so small a thing as thou shalt not be the greater for it when thou hast it nor yet the less if thou hast it not whereas contrarily if thou my Lord wilt shew thy self pitiful to me that act of clemency will bring thee such reputation as the very Infants themselves will cease from sucking the white breasts of their Mothers for to praise thee with the pure lips of their innocency and likewise all they of my Country and Strangers will ever remember such thy charity towards me and I my self will cause it to be graven on the Tombs of the dead that both they and the living may give thee thanks for a thing which I do beg of thee with so much instance from the bottom of my heart This holy man Avenlachim from whom thou shalt receive this Letter written with mine own hand hath Power and Authority to treat with thee in the Name of my Fatherless Son concerning all that shall be judged reasonable touching the tribute and homage which thou shalt think fit to have rendred unto thee upon condition that thou wilt be pleased to let us enjoy our houses so that under a true assurance thereof we may bring up our children and gather the fruit of our labours for the nourishment of the poor Inhabitants of this paltry Town who will all serve thee and I to with a most humble respect in all things wherein thou shalt think good to imploy us at thy pleasure The Bramaa received this Letter and Ambassage with a great deal of authority and entertained the Religious man that delivered it to him with much honour as well in reguard of his age as for that he was held as a Saint amongst th●m with all he granted him certain things which were at first demanded as a Cessation of Arms till such time as Articles should be agreed on as also a permission for the Besieged to converse with the Besiegers and other such things of little consequence In the mean time judging with himself that all those offers which this poor Queen made him and the humble submissions of her Letter proceeded from weakness and fear he would never answer the Ambassadour clearly or to purpose Contrarily he caused all the places there abouts that were weak and unarmed to be secretly ransaked and the poor Inhabitants thereof to be unmercifully butchered by their barbarous enemies whose cruelty was so g●eat that in five dayes according to report they killed fourteen thousand persons the most part whereof were women children and old men that were not able to bear Arms. Hereupon the Rolim who brought this Letter relying no longer on the false promises of this Tyrant and discontented with the little respect he used towards him demanded leave of him to return to the City which the B●amaa gave him together with this answer That if the Queen would deliver up her self her Treasure her Kingdom and her Vassals to him he would recompence her another way for the loss of her State but withall that she was to return him a peremptory answer to this proposition of his the very same day which was all the time I could give her that so he might upon the knowledge of her resolution determine upon
that other succors came to joyn with them as indeed the report went that fourscore thousand all Mons by Nation and led by the King of Avaa were on their way thither With this resolution the Tyrant of Bramaa set forth towards Meleytay with an Army of three hundred thousand men namely two hundred thousand by Land alongst the Rivers side whereof the Chaumigrem his Foster-brother was Commander in chief and the other hundred thousand under his own conduct being all choyce men and imbarqued in two thousand Seroos Being come within sight of Meleytay the Avaas desiring to shew that the resolution wherewith they were come thither was of far more power with them then any fear they could have and that also their Enemies might not receive any benefit by their Fleet which lay on the River and do them an affront besides by taking of it they set all the●● Vessels on fire and burnt them every one Then without any dread of that which the flesh doth naturally most fear they got all into the field and ranged themselves into four Battalions in three of which whereof each one made ten thousand men were the thirty thousand Mons and in the the other that were somewhat bigger were all the Mariners of the four hundred Vessels they had burnt These same they placed in the Vaunt-guard with an intention that they should weary the Enemies with whom they made a cruel fight which lasted about half an hour wherein all these Mariners were cut in pieces presently after them the thirty thousand Mons close compacted together in three Battalions presented themselves and with wonderful violence set upon their Enemies between whom and them followed so extraordinary and cruel a battel as not longer to insist upon it nor to recount in particular how things past which also I cannot well do it shall suffice me to say that of the thirty thousand Mons eight hundred only escaped out of it who being routed made their retreat into the Fortress of Meleytay but that which was most memorable herein was that of the King of Bramaas two hundred thousand men an hundred and fifteen thousand lay dead in field and all the rest for the most part were wounded In the mean time the Tyrant which came along on the River in the two thousand Seroos arrived at the place of Battel where beholding the strange massacre which the Mons had made of his people he became so enraged at it that dis-imbarquing his Forces he instantly layd siege unto the Fortress with a purpose as he said to take all those eight hundred that were in it alive This siege continued seven whole days together during the which those without gave five assaults to it and the besieged defended themselves always very valiantly howbeit seeing that the last hour of their life was come and that they could no longer hold that place for their King as they had hoped they might by reason of the fresh Forces which the King of Bramaa had landed like couragious men as they were they resolved to dye in the field as their companions had done and valiantly revenge their deaths with that of their Enemies whereunto they were the more willingly carryed because they perceived well that if they continued still in the place they should never make use of their valor as they desired to do for that the Tyrants Ordnance would by little and little consume them This resolution taken they under the favor of a very dark and rainy night sallyed forth and first of all fell upon the two first Courts of guard that were on the Lands side cutting all in pieces that they met withall Then following their design they passed on like desperate men and whether they did it either to shew that they regarded not death which threatened them or for the desire they had to gain honor so it was that they behaved themselves so couragiously and pressed the Tyrant so neer as they forced him to leap into the River and swim for his life in so much that all the Camp was in disorder and broken through in I know not how many places with the death of above twelve thousand men amongst whom were fifteen hundred Bramaas two thousand strangers of divers Nations and all the rest Pegu's This ●ight last not above half an hour in which time the eight hundred Mons were all slain there being not so much as one of them that would yield upon any composition whatsoever Hereupon the Tyrant of Bramaa seeing the fight ended and all things quiet went and reassembled his Forces together and so entered into the Fortress of Meleytay where he presently commanded the Xemims head to be cut off saying that he was the sole cause of that disaster and that he who had been a Traytor to his King could not be faithful unto him behold the recompence which this Tyrant made him for delivering up the City of Prom unto him howsoever it justly belonged unto him for a punishment of his perfidiousness that carryed him to betray his King and his own Country into the power of his Enemies After this they fell to dressing of the hurt men which were in very great number We p●st all this night with much apprehension always keeping good watch and the next morning as soon as it was day the first thing that we did was to rid away the dead bodies which were in so great number all over the Camp that the ground was quite covered with them After this we took a view of those that were killed as well on the one as the other party and we found that on the Bramaas side there were an hundred and fourscore thousand and on the Prince of Avaas forty and two thousand wherein were comprized the thirty thousand Mons. That done after the Tyrant had fortified the City of Prom as also the Fort of Meleytay and made two other Forts upon the bank of the River in such places as he judged to be most important for the safety of that Kingdom he went up the River of Queitor in a thousand rowing Ser●os wherein were imbarqued seventy thousand men In this Voyage his intention was to go in his own person for to observe the Kingdom of Avaa and to see the City himself the better to consider the strength of it and thereby judg what Forces he should bring for to take it So he proceeded still on for the space of eight and twenty days and during that time passed by many goodly places which within the Kingdom of Chaleu and Iacuçalaon were upon the bank of the River At length he arrived at the City of Avaa the thirteenth of October the same year a thousand five hundred forty and five Being come to the Port he remained there thirteen days and that while burned between two and three thousand Vessels that he found there Moreover he set fire on many Villages thereabout which cost him not so little but that he lost in all these degasts eight thousand of
have a good successe in the pleasure thou seemest to take in making war upon thine enemies The Ambassador having received this Letter departed from the Court the third day of November in the year one thousand five hundred forty and six accompanied with certain Lords who by the expresse commandement of the Calaminham went along with him to Bidor where they took their leave of him after they had made him a great feast presented him with divers gifts But before I intreat of the way which we held from this place till we came to Pegu where the King of Bramaa was I think it convenient and necessary to make a relation here of certain things which we saw in this country wherein I will acquit my self as succinctly as I can as I have done in all other matters whereof 〈◊〉 have spoken heretofore for if I would discourse in particular of all that I have seen and of that which hath past as well in this Empire as in other Kingdomes where I have been during my painfull voyages I had then need to make another volume far bigger then this same and be indued with a wit much above that I have howbeit that I may not wholly conceal things so remarkable I am contented to say so much thereof as my grosse stile will permit me to deliver The Kingdome of Pegu hath in circuit an hundred and forty leagues is scituate on the South side in sixteen degrees and in the hear● of the Country towards the rhomb of the East it hath an hundred forty leagues being invironed all above with an high ground named Pangavirau where the Nation of the Bramaas doth inhabit whose country is fourscore leagues broad and two hundred long This Monarchy was in times past one sole Kingdome which now it is not but is divided into thirteen estates of Soveraignes who made themselves masters of it by poysoning their King in a banquet which they made him in the City of Chaleu as their histories relate of these thirteen estates there are eleven that are commanded by other Nations who by a tract of another great country are joyned to all the bounds of the Bramaas where two great Emperors abide of which the one is called the Siamon and the other the Calaminham who is the same I purpose only to treat of According to report the Empire of the Prince is above three hundred leagues bredth and as much in length and it is said that antiently it contained seven and twenty Kingdomes the inhabitants whereof spake all one language within this Empire we saw many goodly Cities exceedingly well peopled and abounding with all provisions necessary for mans life as flesh fresh water fish corn pulse rice past●res vines and fruits the chief of all these Cities is Tymphan where this Emperor the Calaminham with his Court commonly resides it is seated along by a great river named Pit●y and invironed all about with two broad walls of earth made up with strong stone on either side having very broad ditches and at each gate a Castle with high Towers certain Merchants affirmed unto us that this City had within it some four hundred thousand fires and albeit the houses are for the most part not above two stories high yet in recompense thereof they are built very stately and with great charge especially those of the Nobility and of the Merchants not speaking of the great Lords which are separated by great inclosures where are spacious outward Courts and at the entring into them arches after the manner of China as also gardens and walks planted with trees and great ponds all very handsomely accommodated to the pleasures and delights of this life whereunto these people are very much inclined We were also certified that both within the inclosure of the City and a league about it there were six and twenty hundred Pagodes some of which wherein we had been were very sumptuous and rich indeed for the rest the most of them were but petty houses in the fashion of Hermitages These people follow four and twenty Sects all different one from another amongst the which there is so great a confusion of errors and diabolicall precepts principally in that which concerns their bloudy Sacrifices as ●abhor to speak of them but the Idol which is most in vogue amongst them and most frequented is that whereof I have already made mention called Qui●y Frigau that is to say The God of the Meats of the Sun for it is in this false God that the Calaminham believes and does adore him and so do all the chiefest Lords of the Kingdome wherefore the Grepos Menigrepos and Talagrepos of this false god are honored far more then all others and held in the retation of holy personages their superiours who by an eminent title are called Cabizondos never know women as they say but to content their bruitish and sensuall appetites they want not diabolicall inventions which are more worthy of tears then recital during the ordinary Fairs of this City called by them Chandu●●s we saw all things there that nature hath created as iron steel lead tin copper lattin saltpeter brimstone oyl vermillion honey wax sugar lacre benjamin divers sorts of stuffes and garments of silk pepper ginger cinamon linnen cloth cotton wool alum borax cor●alines christall camphire musk yvory cassia rhubarbe turbith scamony azure woad incense cochenill saffron myr●he rich porcelain gold silver rubies diamonds emerauds saphirs and generally all other kind of things that can be named and that in so great abundance as it is not possible for me to speak that which I have seen and be believed women there are ordinarily very white and fair but that which most commends them is that they are of a good nature chast charitable and much inclined to compassion The Priests of all these four and twenty Sects whereof there are a very great number in this Empire are cloathed in yellow like the Roolims of Pegu they have no money either of gold or silver but all their commerce is made with the weight of cates casis maazes and conderins The Court of the Calaminham is very rich the Nobility exceeding gallant and the revenue of the Lords and Princes very great the King is feared and respected in a marvellous manner he hath in his Court many Commanders that are strangers unto whom he giveth great pensions to serve him for the safety of his person our Ambassador was assured that in the City of Timphan where most commonly the Court is there are above threescore thousand horse and ten thousand Elephants the gentlemen of the country live very hand somely and are served in vessels of silver and sometimes of gold but as for the common people they use porcelain lattin in summer they are apparrelled in sattin damask and wrought taffeti●s which come from Persia in winter in gowns furred with marterns there is no going to Law amongst them no● does any man enter into bond there but if there be any difference
receive him who brought along with him an hundred and threescore Calaluzes and ninety Lanchares full of Luffons from the Isle of Borneo With all this company he arrived where the King of Zunda was who entertained him very courteously and with a great deal of honor Fourteen daies after our coming to this Town of Iapara the King of Demaa went and imbarqued himself for the Kingdome of Passar●an in a Fleet of two thousand and seven hundred sails amongst the which were a thousand high-built Juncks and all the rest were Vessells with oars The eleventh of February he arrived at the river of Hicandurea which is at the entrance of the bar and because the King of Panaruca Admirall of the Fleet perceived that the great Vessells could not passe unto the Port which was two leagues off by reason of certaine shelves of sand that were in divers parts of the river he caused all those that were in them to be disimbarqued and the other V●ssells with oars to go and anchor in the road before the Town with an intention to burn the Ships that were in the Port which indeed was accordingly executed In this Army was the Emperor Pangu●yran in person accompanied with all the grande●s of the Kingdome the King of Zunda his brother-in-law who was Generall of the Army went by land with a great part of the forces and being all arrived at the place where they meant to pitch their Camp they took care in the first place for the fortifying thereof and for placing the Canon in the most commodious places to batter the Town in which labour they bestowed the most part of the day As for the night ensuing it was spent in rejoycings and keeping good watch untill such time as it was day whenas each Captain applied himself to that whereunto his duty obliged him all in generall imploying themselves according to the ingineers directions so that by the second day the whole Town was invironed with high Pallisadoes and their Platformes fortified with great beames whereupon they planted divers great pieces of Ordnance amongst the which were Eagles and Lions of metall that the Ache●s and Turks had cast by the invention of a certain Renegado born in the Kingdome of Algar●es appertaining to the Crown of Portugal and by reason this wicked wretch had changed his belief he called himself Coia Geinal for as for the name which he had before when he was a Christian I am contented to passe it over in silence for the honor of his Family being indeed of no mean extraction In the mean time the besieged having taken notice how ill-advised they had been in suffering the enemies to labour two whole daies together peaceably in fortifying of their Camp without any impeachment of theirs and taking the same for a great affront they desired their King to permit them to fal upon them the night following alledging how it was probable that men vvearied vvith labour could not make any great use of their arms nor be able to resist this first impetuosity The King who at that time commanded the Kingdom of Passaruan was young indued with many excellent qualities vvhich made him to be exeeedingly beloved of all his subjects for as it was reported of him he was very liberal no manner of Tyrant exceedingly affable to the common people a friend to the poor and so charitable towards Widovvs that if they acquainted him vvith their necessities he relieved them instantly and did them more good then they asked of him Besides these perfections that vvere so recommendable he possessed some others so confor●able to mens desires as there vvas not any one that vvould not have exposed his life a thousand times for his service if need ●ad been Furthermore he had none but choice men vvith him even the flovver of all his Kingdome besides many strangers upon vvhom he conferred much vvealth honor and many graces which he accompanied vvith good vvords that being indeed the means vvhereby the minds both of great and small are so strongly gained that they make them Lions of sheep vvhereas carrying ones self other vvayes of generous Lions they are made fearfull hares This King then examining the request vvh●ch his people made unto him and referring himself to the advice of the antientest and most prudent Councellors of his State vvhich vvere vvith him there vvas a great contention about the successe that the affairs might have but in the end by the counsell of all in generall it vvas concluded That in case ●ortune should be altogether adverse unto them in this sally which they m●ant to make against their enemies yet would it be a much lesse evill and lesse consider●ble affront then to see the King so besieged by vile people who against all reason would reduce them by force to quit their beliefe w●erein they had been bred by their Fathers to imbrace another new one by the suscitation of the Farazes who place their salvation in washing their parts behind in not eating of swines flesh and mar●ying of seven wives whereby the best advised may easily judge that God was so much their enemy as he would not assist them in any thing seeing that with so great offence they would under pretext of Religion and with reasons so full of contradiction compell their King to become a Mahometan and render himself tributary to them To these reasons they added many others which the King and they that were with him found to be so good as they all with one common consent agreed thereunto which is en evident mark that it is a thing no lesse naturall for a good Subject to expose his life for his King then for a vertuous wife to conserve her chastity for the husband which God hath given her This being so said they a matter of so great importance was no longer to be deferred but we all in generall and each one in particular are by this sally to make demonstration of the extreme affection which we bear to our good King who we are assured will never be unmindfull of them that shall fight best for his defence which is all the inheritance we desire to leave to our children Whereupon it was resolved that the night following they should make a sally upon their enemies Whereas the joy which this designed sally brought to all the inhabitants of the Town was generall they never stayed till they were called but two hours after midnight and before the time which the King had appointed they assembled all in a great place which was not far from the Royall Palace and where they of the country had accustomed to keep their Fairs and to solemnize their most remarkable feasts on those principall dayes which were destined to the invocation of their Pagod●s The King in the mean time wonderfully content to see such heat of courage in them of seventy thousand inhabitants which were in the Town drew out twelve thousand only for this enterprise and divided them into four companies each
of them containing three thousand whereof an Unkle of the Kings was Generall a man whom experience had rendred very knowing in such undertakings and that marched in the head of the first company Of the second was Captain another of the principall Ma●dacins Of the third a stranger a Champaa by Nation and born in the Island of Barneo and of the fourth one called Panbacaluio all of them good Commanders very valiant and exceeding expert in matters of war When they were all ready the King made them a Speech whereby he succinctly represented unto them the confidence which he had in them touching this enterprise After which the better to incourage them and assure them of his love he took a cup of gold and drunk to them all causing the chiefest of them to pledge him and craving pardon of the rest for that the time would not permit them to do the like This gracious carriage of his so incouraged the souldiers that without further delay the most part of them went and annoynted themselves with Mi●hamundi which is a certain confection of an odoriferous oyle wherewith these people are accustomed to frote themselves with when they have taken a full resolution to die and these same are ordinarily called A●acos The hour being come wherein this sally was to be made four of twelve gates that were in the Town were opened thorough each of the which sallied forth one of the four Captaines with his company having first sent out for Spies into the Camp six Orobalons of the most valiant that were about the King whom he had honored with new titles and with such speciall favours as use to give courage to them that want it and to increase it in them that are indued with some resolution The four Captains marched a little after the six Spies and went and joyned all together in a certain place where they were to fight with the enemies whereupon falling into the midst of them with a marvellous impetuosity they fought so valiantly that in lesse then an houres time which the fight indured the twelve thousand Passaruans left above thirty thousand enemies upon the place besides those that were wounded which were in a far greater number and whereof many died afterwards Furthermore they took prisoner three Kings and eight Pates which are as the Dukes amongst us the King of Zunda too with whom we forty Portugalls were could not so save himselfe but that he was hurt with a Lance in three places a number being killed in defending him Thus was the Camp put in so great disorder as it was almost destroyed the Pa●gueyran himself being wounded with a dart and constrained to leap into the water where little lacked but that he had been drowned Whereby one may see what the force of a number of resolute and fearlesse men is against such as are surprised when least they think of it for before that the enemies could know what they did or the Commanders could put their souldiers into order they were twice routed The next morning as soon as the day gave them leave to know the truth of the businesse the Passeruans retired into the Towne where they found that they had not lost above nine hundred of their men nor more then two or three thousand hurt It is scarcely to be believed how much the King of Demaa was grieved with the disaster of the former day as wel for the affront which he received from those within by the losse of his people as for the bad successe of the beginning of this siege whereof he seemed in some sort to impute the fault unto our King of Zunda saying that this fortune had happened by the bad directions he had given to the Centinells Now after he had commanded that the wounded should be drest and the dead buried he called to Councell all the Kings Princes and Captains of the forces that he had both by Land and Water unto whom he said That he had made a solemn vow and oath upon the M●zapho of Mahomet which is their Alcoran or the book of their Law never to raise the siege from before this Town untill he had utterly destroyed it or lost his own State therein Whereunto he added That he protested he would put to death whomsoever should oppose this resolution of his what reason soever he could alledge thereupon which begot so great a terror in the minds of all that heard him as there was not one that du●st contradict his will but contrarily they infinitely approved and commended it He used then all kind of diligence for the new fortifying of the Camp with good ditches strong Pallisadoes divers Bulworks made of stone and timber garnished on the inside with their Platformes where he caused a great many of Canons to be planted so that by this meanes the Camp was stronger then the Towne it selfe in regard whereof the besieged did often times jeere the Centinells without telling them That it must needs be concluded they were notorious cowards since instead of besieging their enemies like valiant men they besieged themselves like feeble women wherefore they bid them return● home to their houses where it was fitter for them to fall to spinning then to make war These were the jeers which they ordinarily put upon the besiegers who vvere greatly offended vvith them This Tovvne had been almost three moneths besieged and yet had the enemies advanced but little for during all that time vvherein there had been five batteries and three assaults given to it with above a thousand ladders planted against the vvalls the besieged defended themselves still like valiant and couragious men fortifying them selves vvith counter-mires which they opposed to the breaches vvhich they made vvith pieces of timber taken from the houses so that all the power of the Pangueyran which as I have declared was about eight hundred thousand men whereof the number was much diminished was not able to give him entrance into it Hereupon the principall Ingineer of the Camp who was a Renegado of Maillorque seeing that this affair had not a successe answerable to what he had promised the King he resolved to take another far different course To that effect with a great amasse of earth and bavins he framed a kind of a Platform which he fortified with six rows of beames and wrought so that in nine dayes he raised it a fathom higher then the wall that done he planted forty great pieces of Canon upon it together with a number of Bases and Faulconets wherewith he fell to battering the Town in such sort as the besieged were therewith mightily damnified so that the King perceiving that this invention of the enemy was the only thing in the world that could most incommodate him in the Towne he resolved by the meanes of ten thousand Volunteers who had offered themselves unto him for that purpose and to whom for ● mark of honor he gave the title of Tygers of the world to attacque this Fort and they
not be applied to his wound but because he was hurt just in the heart there was no hope of recovery so that he died within a very short time after Presently they seized on the Page whom they put to torture by reason of some suspitions which they had upon this accident but he never confessed any thing and said nought els save That he had done it of his own free will and to be revenged of the blow which the King had given him on his head by way of contempt as if he had struck some dog that was barking up and down the streets in the night without considering that he was the son of the Pate Pondan Lord of Surebayaa The Page then was impaled alive with a good big stake which was thrust in at his Fundament and came out at the nape of his neck As much was done to his Father to three of his brothers and to threescore and twelve of his kinsmen so that his whole Race was exterminated upon which so cruell and rigorous an execution many great troubles ensued afterwards in all the country of Iaoa and in all the Islands of ●ale Tymor and Madura which are very great and whereof the Governors are Soveraigns by their Lawes and from all antiquity After the end of this execution question was made what should be done with the Kings body whereupon there were many different opinions amongst them for some said that to bury him in that place was as much as to leave him in the power of the Passeruans and others that if he were transported to Demaa where his Tomb was it was not possible but that it would be corrupted before it arrived there whereunto was added that if they interred him so putrified and corrupted his soul could not be received into Paradis● according to the Law of the country which is that of Mahomet wherein he died After many contestations thereupon in the end they followed the counsell which one of our Portugals gave them that was so profitable to him afterwards as it was worth him above ten thousand duckats wherewith the Lords rewarded him as it were in vye of one another for a recompence of the good service which he did then to the deceased This counsell was that they should put the body into a Coffin full of Lime and Camphire and so bury it in a Junck also full of earth so that albeit the thing was not so marvellous of it self yet left it not to be very profitable to the Portugals because they all found it very good and well invented as indeed the successe of it was such as by means thereof the Kings body was carried to Demaa without any kind of corruption or ill savour As soon as the Kings body was put into the Iunck appointed for it the King of Zunda Generall of the Army caused the great Ordinance and the ammunition to be imbarqued and with the least noyse that might be committed to safe custody the most precious things the King had together with all the treasures of the Tents But whatsoever care and silence was used therein the enemy could not be kept from having some inkling of it and from understanding how things went in the Camp so that instantly the King marched out of the Town in person with only three thousand souldiers of the past confederacy who by a solemn vow caused themselves to be annoynted with the oyle which they call Minhamundi as men resolved and that had vowed themselves to death Thus fully determined as they vvere they went and fell upon the enemies whom finding busie in trussing up their baggage they intreated so ill as in lesse then half an hours space for no longer lasted the heat of the fight they cut twelve thousand of them in pieces Withall they took two Kings and five Pates or Dukes prisoners together with above three hundred Turks Abyssines and Achems yea and their Ca●ismoubana the Soveraign dignity amongst the Mahometans by whose counsell the Pangueyran was come thither There vvere also four hundred ships burnt vvherein vvere the hurt men so that by this means all the Camp vvas neer lost After this the King retreated into the Tovvn vvith his men vvhereof he lost but four hundred In the mean time the King of Zunda having caused the remainder of the Army to be re-imbarqued vvith all speed the same day being the nineth of March they set saile directly for the City of Demaa bringing along with them the body of the Pangueyran vvhich upon the arrivall thereof vvas received by the people vvith great cries and strange demonstrations of a universall mourning The day after a revievv vvas taken of all the men of vvar for to knovv hovv many vvere dead and there vvas found missing an hundred and thirty thousand vvhereas the Passeruans according to report had lost but five and tvventy thousand but be it as it vvill and let fortune make the best market that she can of these things yet they never arrive but the field is died vvith the bloud of the vanquishers and by a stronger reason vvith that of the vanguished to vvhom these events do alvvayes cost far dearer then to the others The same day there vvas question of creating a nevv Pangueyran vvho as I have said heretofore is Emperor over all the Pates and Kings of that great Archipelago vvhich the Chineses Tartar Iapon and Lequio Historians are vvont to call Raterra Vendau that is to say the eye-lid of the world as one may see in the Card if the elevation of the heights prove true Novv because that after the death of the Pangueyran there vvas not a lavvfull successor to be found that might inherit this Crovvn it vvas resolved that one should be made by election for vvhich effect by the common consent of all eight men vvere chosen as heads of all the people to create a Pangueyran These same assembled then together in a house and after order had been taken for the pacifying of all things in the City they continued seven vvhole daies together vvithout being able to come to any agreement about this election for vvhereas there vvere eight pretendents of the principall Lords of the Kingdome there vvere found amongst these Electors many different opinions vvhich proceeded from this that the most part or all of them vvere meerly allied to these ●ight or to their kinsmen so that each one laboured to make him Pangueyran vvhich vvas most to his mind Whereupon the inhabitants of the City and the souldiers of the Army making use of this delay to their advantage as men vvho imagined that this affair vvould never be terminated and that there vvould be no chastisement for them they began shamelessly to break out into all kind of actions full of insolency and malice And forasmuch as there vvas a great number of Merchants Ships in the Port they got aboard them and fell pell-mell to rifling both of strangers and those of the country vvith so much licentiousnesse as it vvas said
all preparations necessary for this design to be made so that in seventeen days they built up six and twenty Castles of strong pieces of timber whereof each one was set upon six and twenty wheels of iron which facilitated the motion of so great a frame Every Castle was fifty foot broad threescore and five long and five and twenty high and all of them were reinforced with double beams covered over with sheets of lead Moreover each of them was full of wood and had fastned to them before great iron chains and that were very long in regard of the fire Things thus prepared one Friday about midnight being very dark and rainy the King of Bramaa caused three times one after another all the great Ordnance of the Camp to be discharged which as I remember I have already said consisted of an hundred and threescore great pieces vvhereof the most part shot iron bullets besides a many of Falconets bases and muskets to the number of fifteen hundred so that from all these guns shot off together three times one after another proceeded so horrible and dreadfull a noyse as I cannot think that any vvhere but in hell the like could be for on whatsoever the imagination can be fixt it cannot meet with any thing that may be rightly compared thereunto At this time it was not only the great pieces of Ordnance whereof I have spoken before and the small ones too which were shot off but the like was done by all the guns which were both within the City and without in the Camp of what bigness soever they vvere being at least an hundred thousand in all for whereas there were as I have already said threescore thousand Harquebuziers in the King of Bramaaes Army there vvere thirty thousand also in the City besides seven or eight thousand Falconets and Bases so that to hear all these shot off continually for the space of three hours together and intermingled with thunder lightning and the tempest of the night was to say the truth a thing which was never seen read of or imagined and such indeed as put every one almost besides himself for some fell flat on the ground some crept behind walls and others got into walls During the greatest violence of this horrible and furious tempest they set fire on the six and twenty Castles which they had before brought close to the walls so that by the force of the wind which vvas at that time very great and by the means of barrels of pitch that had been put into them they fel a flaming in such a strange manner as there was anew to be seen so dreadfull a picture of hell for it is the only name that can be given it because there is nothing upon earth that may rightly he resembled unto it that if even those which were without trembled at it I leave you to think vvith hovv much more reason vvere they to fear it vvhom necessity constrained to abide the violence of it Hereupon began a most bloudy conflict on either part they without falling to scale the walls and the besieged who took no less care for all things then they valiantly to defend themselves so that no advantage was to be found on either side but rather both of them were in a condition to be utterly destroyed for whereas the one and other reinforced themselves continually with fresh supplies and that the King of Bramaaes obstinacy vvas such as he went himself in person amongst his souldiers incouraging them with his speeches and the great promises that he made them the fight proceeded so far and increased so mightily as being unable to deliver the least part of that which passed therein ● leave it to the understanding of every one to imagine what it might be Four hours after midnight the six and tvventy Castles being quite burned to the ground with so terrible a blaze as no man durst come within a stones cast of it the King of Bramaa caused a retreat to be sounded at the request of the Captains of the strangers for there vvere so many hurt men amongst them as all the day and most part of the night following was imployed in dressing of them CHAP. LXX The King of Bramaaes raising his siege from before the City of Odia● with a description of the Kingdome of Siam and the fertility thereof THe King of Bramaa seeing that neither the great Ordnance vvherewith he had battered the City nor the assaults vvhich he had given unto it nor his inventions of Castles accompanied vvith so many artifices of fire whereon he had so much relied had served him to any purpose for the execution of that which he had so mightily desired and being resolved not to desist from the enterprise vvhich he had begun he called a Councell of War vvherein all the Princes Dukes Lords and Commanders that vvere in the Army were present Having then propounded his desire and intention unto them he required them to give him their advice thereupon immediately the affair being put into deliberation and thoroughly debated on either part they concluded in ●he end that the King vvas by no means to raise this siege in regard this enterprise was the most glorious and most profi●able of all that ever might be offered unto him they represented moreover unto him the vvorld of treasure that he had imployed therein and that if he continued battering the City without desisting from his assaults at length the enemies would be spent because it vvas apparent as they vvere informed that they vvere no longer able to vvithstand the least attempt that should be made against them The King being exceedingly contented for that their opinions proved to be conformable to his desire testified the great satisfaction that he received thereby so that he gave them many recompences in money and vovved to them that if they could take the City he vvould confer upon them the greatest commands of the Kingdome vvith very honorable titles and revenues This resolution being taken there was no further question but of considering in vvhat manner the businesse should be carried whereupon by the counsell of Diego Suarez and of the Ingineer it was concluded that vvith bavin● and green turfe a kind of Platform should be erected higher then the vvalls and that there on should be mounted good store of great Ordnance wherewith the principall fortifications of the City should be battered since that in them alone consisted all the enemies defence Order then vvas presently given for all that vvas judged necessary thereunto and the threescore thousand Pioners vvhich vvere in the Camp vvere imployed about it vvho in tvvelve days brought the Fort or Platform into the estate vvhich the King desired There vvere already planted on it then forty pieces of Canon for the battering of the City the day ensuing vvhenas a Post arrived vvith Letters to the King vvhereby he vvas advertised That the Zemindoo being risen up in the Kingdome of Pegu had cut fifteen thousand
Bramaaes there in pieces and had withall seiz●d on the principall places of the country At these news the King was so troubled that without further delay he raised the siege and imbarqued himself on a river called Paca●au where he stayed but that night and the day following which he imployed in retiring his great Ordnance and ammunition Then having set fire on all the Pallisadoes and lodgings of the Camp he parted away one Tuesday the fifteenth day of October in the year a thousand five hundred forty and eight for to go to the Town of Mar●abano Having used all possible speed in his voyage at seventeen days end he came thither and there was amply informed by the Chalagonim his Captain of all the Zemindoos proceedings in making himself King and seizing on his treasure by killing fifteen thousand Bramaaes and that in divers places he had lodged five hundred thousand men with an intention to stop his passage into the Kingdome This news very much perplexed the King of Bramaa so that he fell to thinking with himself what course he should take for the remedying of so great a mischief as he was threatned with In the end he resolved to tarry a while at Martabano to attend some of his forces that were still behind and then to go and fight a battell with his enemy but it was his ill luck that in the space of fourteen days only which he abode there of four hundred thousand men which he had fifty thousand quitted him For whereas they were all Peg●es and consequently desirous to shake off the Bramaaes yoke they thought it best to side with the new King the Zemindoo who was a Pegu as well as they and they were the rather induced thereunto by understanding that this Prince was of an eminent condition liberall and so affable to every one that he thereby won most men to be of his party In the mean time the King of Bramaa fearing lest the defection of his souldiers should daily more and more increase was advised by his Councell to stay no longer there in regard the longer he should tarry the more his forces would diminish for that a great part of his Army was Pegues which were not likely to be very faithful unto him This counsell was approved of by the King who presently marched away towards Pegu neer unto which he was no sooner arrived but he was certified that the Zemindoo being advertised of his coming was attending ready to receive him So these two Kings being in the view of one another incamped in a great ●laine some two leagues from the City of Pegu the Zemindoo with six hundred thousand men and the Bramaa with three hundred and fifty thousand The next day these two Armies being put into battell array came to joyn together one Friday the sixteenth of November the same year a thousand five hundred forty and eight It was about six of the clock in the morning when first they began their incounter vvhich vvas performed vvith so much violence as a generall defeat ensued thereupon yet fought they with an invincible courage on either part but the Zemindoo had the worse for in lesse then three hours his whole Army was routed with the slaughter of three hundred thousand of his men so that in this extremity he vvas forced to save himself only with six horse in a fortress called Battelor where he stayed but one hour during the vvhich he furnished himself with a little Vessell wherein he fled the night ensuing up the river to C●daa Let us leave him now flying untill we shall come to him again whenas time shall serve and return to the King of Bramaa who exceedingly contented vvith the victory vvhich he had gotten marched the next morning against the City of Pegu where as soon as he arrived the inhabitants rendred themselves unto him on condition to have their lives and goods saved Whereupon he took order for the dressing of them that were hurt as for those that he lost in this battell they were found to be threescore thousand in number amongst the which were two hundred and fourscore Portugals all the rest of them being grievously wounded Having already intreated of the successe which the King of Bramaas voyage had in the kingdom of Siam and of the rebellion of the Kingdom of Pegu me thinks it will not be amisse for me to speak here succinctly of the scituation extent abundance riches and fertility which I saw in this kingdom of Siam and in this Empire of Sorna● to shew that the conquest thereof would have been far more utile unto us then all the estates which now we have in the India's and that we might obtain it with a great deal lesse charge This kingdom as may be seen in the Map is seven hundred leagues in length and a hundred and threescore in bredth the most part of it consists in great plaines where are a world of corn grounds and rivers of fresh water by reason whereof the Country is exceeding fertile and abundantly stored with cattell and victualls In the most eminent parts of it are thick Forests of Angelin wood whereof thousands of ships might be made there are also many mines of Silver Iron Steel Lead Tin Saltpetre and Brimstone likewise great abundance of Silk Aloes Benjamin Lacre Indico Cotton wooll Rubies Saphires Ivory and gold There is moreover in the woods marvailous store of Brasill and Ebony wherewith an hundred Juncks are every year laden to be transported to China Hainan the Lequios Camboya and Camp●aa besides Wax Honey and Sugar which divers places there do yeeld very plentifully The Kings yearly revenue is ordinarily twelve millions of gold over and above the presents which the great Lords make him that comes to a great matter In the jurisdiction of his territories there are six and twenty hundred populations which they call Prodou as cities and towns amongst us besides villages and small hamlets whereof I have no reckoning The most part of those populations have no other fortifications or walls then palisadoes of wood so that it would be easie for any that should attaque them to make themselves masters thereof the rather for that the inhabitants of those places are naturally effeminate and destitute of arms offensive and defensive This coast of this kingdom joyns upon the two North and South Seas on that of the Indiaes by Iunçalo and Tanauçarius and on that of China by Monpolocata Cuy Lugor Chintabu and Berdio The capitall City of all this Empire is Odiaa whereof I have spoken heretofore it is fortified with walls of brick and mortar and contains according to some foure hundred thousand fires whereof an hundred thousand are strangers of divers countries of the world for whereas the country is very rich of it self and of great traffick there passes not a yeare whereunto from the Provinces and Islands of Iaoa Bale Madoura Augenio B●rneo and Solor there sailes at the least a thousand Iuncks besides other smaller vessells
want of care and imprudence His Commanders presently obeyed him and without longer tarrying there each of them went straight to the place whither his Commission directed him The Chaumigrem by means of this so cunning and well dissembled a sleight rid himself in lesse then three hours of all the hundred and fifty thousand Pegues who he knew if once they came to hear of the Kings death would fall upon the thirty thousand Bramaaes that he had there with him and not leave one of them alive This done as soon as it was night turning back to the City which was not above a league from thence he seized with all speed on the deceased Kings Treasure which amounted according to report unto above thirty millions of gold besides jewells that were not to be estimated and withall he saved all the Bramaa●s wives and children and took as many arms and as much ammunition as he could carry away After this he set fire on all that was in the Magazines caused all the lesser Ordnance to be rived asunder and the greater which he could not use so to be cloyed Furthermore he made seven thousand Elephants that were in the country to be killed reserving only two thousand for the carriage of his treasure ammunition and baggage As for all the rest it was consumed with fire so that neither in the Palace where were chambers all seeked with gold nor in the Magazines and Arsenalls nor on the river where were two thousand rowing Vessells remained ought that was not reduced to ashes After this execution he departed in all hast an hour before day and drew directly towards Tanguu which was his own country from whence he came some fourteen years before to the conquest of the Kingdome of Pegu which in the heart of the country was distant from thence about an hundred and threescore leagues Now whereas fear commonly adds wings to the feet it made him march with such speed as he and his arrived in fifteen days at the place whither they were a going In the mean time whereas the Chaumigrem had cunningly sent away the hundred and fifty thousand Pegues as I have declared already it happened that two days after they understood how the King of Bramaa was dead Now in regard they vvere mortall enemies of that Nation sixscore thousand of them in one great body turned back in hast for to go in quest of the thirty thousand Bramaaes but when they arrived at the City they found that they were gone from thence three days before this making them to follow in pursuit of them with all the speed that possibly they could they came to a place called Guinacoutel some forty leagues from the City whence they came there they were informed that it was five days since they passed by so that dispairing of being able to execute the design which they had of cutting them in pieces they returned back to the place from whence they were parted where they consulted amongst themselves about that which they were to do and resolved in the end since they had no lawfull King and that the Land was quite freed of the Bramaaes to go to Xemin de Satan as incontinently they did who received them not only with a great deal of joy and good entertainment but promised them mighty matters and much honor by raising them to the principall commands of the Kingdome as soon as time should serve and that he was more peaceably setled Thereupon he went directly to the City of Pegu where he was received with the magnificence of a King and for such crowned in the Temple of Comquiay which is the chief of all the rest CHAP. LXXII That which arrived in the time of Xenim de Satan and an abominable ●ase that befell to Diego Suarez together with the Xemindoos expedition against Xenim de Satan and that which insued thereupon THree moneths and nine dayes had this Tyrant Xenim de Satan already peaceably possessed the city and kingdome of Pegu whenas without fearing any thing or being contradicted by none he fell to distributing the treasure and revenues of the Crown to whomsoever he pleased whereupon great scandalls insued which were the cause of divers quarrells and divisions amongst many of the Lords who for this cause and the injustice which this tyrant did them retyred into severall foraigne Countries and Kingdoms Some also went and sided with the Xemindo● who began at that time to be in reputation again For after he had fled from the battell onely with six horse as I have declared heretofore he got into the Kingdom of Ansedaa where as well by the efficacy of his Sermons as by the authority of his person he won so many to his devotion as assisted by the favour and forces of those Lords as adhered to him he made up an army of threescore thousand men with which he marched to Meidoo where he was very well received by those of the Country Now setting aside what he did in those parts during the space of foure moneths that he abode there I will in the mean time passe to a strange accident which in a few dayes fell out in this city that one may know what end the good fortune of the great Diego Suarez had who had been Governour of this Kingdom of Peg● and the recompence which the world is accustomed to make at last unto all such as serve and trust in it under the semblance of a good countenance which she shews them at first The matter past in this sort There was in this city of Pegu a Merchant called Manbagoaa a rich man and that of good reputation in the country This same resolved to marry a daughter of his to a young man the son of a worshipfull and very rich Merchant also named Manicaniandarim about that time that Diego Suarez was in the greatest height of his fortune and termed the Kings brother and in dignity above all the Princes and Lords of the Kingdom So the fathers of these young couple being agreed on this marriage and of the dowry that was to be given which by report was three hundred thousand duckats when as the day was come wherein the nuptialls were celebrated with a great deal of state and magnificence and honoured with the presence of most of the gentlemen of chiefest quality in the city it happened that Diego Suarez being come a little before Sun-set from the royall palace with a great train both of horse and foot as his manner was to be alwayes well accompanied passed by Mambogoaas door where hearing the musick and rejoycing that was in the house asked what the matter was whereunto answer being made him that Mambogoaa had married his daughter and that the wedding was kept there he presently caused the Elephant on which he was mounted to stay and sent one to tell the father of the bride that he congratulated with him for this marriage and wished a long and happy life to the new married couple to these words he
lodging for him and there he will pay you for this affection which you testifie to have for him After this his wrath redoubled in such sort as instantly he caused this very Daughter to be killed in her Fathers arms which truly was more then a bruitish and savage cruelty in seeking to hinder the affections which nature hath imprinted in us Then no longer enduring the sight of the Xemindoo he commanded him to be taken from thence and to be carried to a close prison where he passed all the night following under a sure guard The next morning Proclamation was made over all the City for the people to be present at the death of the unhappy Xemindoo now the chiefest reason why the Bramaa did this was that the inhabitants seeing him dead might for ever lose all hope of having him for their King as all generally desired for whereas he was their Countryman and the Bramaa a Stranger they were in extreame fear least the Bramaa should become in time like unto him whom X●min de Satan slew and that had been during his raign a mortall enemy to the P●gues intreating them with such extraordinary cruelty as their scarcely passed a day wherein he did not execute hundreds of them and all for matters of small importance and which deserved no punishment had they been proceeded against by the waies of true Justice About ten of the clock the unfortunate Xemindoo was drawn out of the dungeon where he was in the manner ensuing Before him marched through the Streets by which he was to passe forty men on horseback with lances in their hands to prepare and clear the waies there were as many behind as before him which carried naked swords crying aloud to the people whereof the number was infinite to make roome After them followed about fifteen hundred harquebusiers with their matches lighted next to these last which they of the country use to call the avant coureurs of the Kings wrath went an hundred and threescore elephants armed with their Castles and covered with silk tapestry marching by five and five in a rank after them rode in the same order by five in a rank fifteen men on horseback which carried black ensignes all bloudy crying aloud as it were by way of Proclamation Let those miserable wretches which are the slaves of hunger and are continually persecuted by the disgrace of fortune hearken to the cry of the arm of wrath executed on them that have offended their King to the end that the astonishment of the pain which is ordained them for it may be deeply imprinted in their memory Behind these same were other fifteen clothed with a kind of bloudy garment which rendred them dreadfull and of a bad aspect who at the sound of five Bell● which they rung in haste said with so lamentable a voice as they that heard them were moved to weep This rigorous Iustice is done by the living God the Lord of all truth of whose holy body the hairs of our heads are the feet It is he that will have the Xemindoo put to death for usurping the Estates of the great King of Bramaa Lord of Tanguu These Proclamations were answered by a troupe of people which marched thronging before with such loud cryes as made one tremble to hear them saying these words Let him die without having pity on him that hath committed such an offence These were followed by a company of five hundred Bramaa horse and after them came another of foot whereof some held naked swords and buckle●s in their hands and the rest were armed with corselets and coats of maile In the midst of th●se came the poor patient mounted on a lean ill-favored jade and the hangman on the crupper behind him holding him up under both the armes This miserable Prince was so poorly clad that his naked skinne was every where seen withall in an exceeding derision of his person they had set upon his head a Crowne of straw like unto an Urinall case which Crowne was garnished with muscle-shells fastned together with blew thred and round about his yron coller were a number of onions tyed Howbeit though he was reduced to so deplorable an estate and that his face was scarce like to that of a living man yet lest he not for all that from having something of I know not what in his eyes which manifested the condition of a King There was besides observed in him a majesticall sweetnesse which drew tears from all that beheld him About this guard which accompanied him there was another of above a thousand horse men intermingled with many armed elephants Passing thus thorow the twelve principall streets of the City where there was a world of people he arrived at last at a certain street called Cabam Bainhaa out of which he went but two and twenty days before to go and fight with the Bramaa in such pomp and greatnesse as by the report of them that saw it and of which number I was one it was without doubt one of the most marvellous sights that ever hath been seen in the world whereof notwithstanding I will make no mention here either in regard I cannot promise to recount rightly how all past or for that I fear some will receive these truths for lies neverthelesse mine eyes having been the witnesses of these two successes if I do not speak of the greatnesse of the first I will at leastwise declare the miseries of the second to the end that by these two so different accidents happening in so short a time one may learn what little assurance is to be put in the prosperities of the earth and in all the goods which are given us by inconstant and deceitful Fortune Whenas the poor Patient had past that street of Cabam Bainha● he arrived at a place where Gonçalo Pacheco our Captain was with above an hundred Portugals in his Company amongst the vvhich there was one of a very base birth and of a minde yet more vile vvho having been robbed of his goods some yeers before as he said at such time as the Patient raigned and complained to him of those who had done it he vvould not vouchsafe to give him audience so that thinking to be revenged on him for it now vvith extravagant and unseemly speech as soon as this poor Prince came where Gonçalo Pacheco was with all the other Portugals the witlesse fellow said aloud to him that all might hear him O Robber Xemindoo remember how when I complained to thee of those that had robbed me of my goods thou wouldst not do me justice but I hope that now thou shalt satisfie what thy works deserve for I will at supper eat a piece of that flesh of thine whereunto I will invite two dogs that I have at home The sad Patient having heard the vvords of this hair-brain'd fellow lifted up his eyes to heaven and after he had continued a while pensive turning himself vvith a severe countenance towards him that uttered them Friend
for the King our Soveraign Lord vvas thus handled by Don Antonio if the report of it be true Finally when the season of Navigation was come he was sent so manacled as he was to the Indiaes with an infamous verball process which the Parliament of Goa annulled afterwards And Don Antonio had thereupon an expresse Commandment from the Vice-Roy Don Pedro de Mascarenhas who governed the State of the Indiaes at that time to appear personally before him as a Prisoner for to be confronted in judgment with Gaspar Iorge and render an account of his proceeding against him as indeed Don Antonio failed not in making his appearance at Goa accordingly where being about to justifie himself for that which had past he was ordered to answer within three dayes to an ignominious Libel which Gaspar Iorge had exhibited against him But forasmuch as Don Antonio was naturally an enemy of Justifications by Answers and Replyes whereby it was said the Councellors of the Parliament intended to surprize him the report went at least wise such was the saying of Detractors for as for me I neither saw nor am assured of it that in stead of imploying the three dayes which had been given him in making answer to this Libell hee vvithin four and twenty hours having met accidentally vvith Gaspar Iorge sent him to prosecute his Suit in the other World laying him so sure on the ground as he never rose again Howbeit there are those vvhich recount this Affair quite otherwise and that say how in a Feast vvhereunto he was invited hee vvas poysoned By this death of his all this difference vvas decided and this businesse vvholly ceased so that Don Antonio vvas by Sentence absolutely cleared and sent back to his Government wherein he continued not above two months and a half at the end vvhereof he died of a bloody Flux and so vvere all the storms of envie and discord vvherewith the Fortresse of Malaca had been beaten appeased When the season was come vvherein vve might continue our Voyage on the first day of April in the year One thousand five hundred fifty and five wee parted from Malaca after vvee had imbarqued our selves in a Carvel belonging to the King our Soveraign Lord which Don Antonio the Captain of the Fortresse gave us by the expresse command of the Vice-Roy Three dayes after our putting to sea we arrived at an Island called Pulho Pisan at the entering into the Streight of Sincaapura where the Pilot having never navigated that way before ran us with full sails so dangerously on certain Rocks as we thought our selves to be utterly lost without all hope of recovery In regard whereof by the advice of all the rest the Father and I were constrained to get into a Manchua for to go and demand succour of one Luis Dalmeida who two hours before had passed by us in a Vessell of his and lay at anchor two leagues off us by reason the winde was against him So the Father and I made to him with peril enough For whereas all that Country which appertained to the King of Iantana Grand-childe to him that had been King of Malaca our mortall Enemy were at that time in arms his Balons and Lanchares that were assembled in a Fleet of Warr continually gave us chase with an intention to take us but by Gods providence we escaped them At length after we had got to this ship with no little fear and trouble he that was Captain of her furnished us with a Boat and Mariners and so we returned to our Carvel as speedily as we could for to succour and draw her out of the danger wherein we had left her But it pleased the Lord that we found her the day after delivered from it though it is true that she took in water abundantly in the prow's side but in the end we stanched it at Patana where we arrived seven dayes after There I went ashore with two others to see the King unto whom I delivered a Letter from the Captain of Malaca and being received very graciously by him he read it over whereby he understood that the cause of our coming thither was to provide our selves of victuals and some other things which we had not taken in at Malaca as also that we were resolved to proceed on in our course directly to China and from thence to Iapan where Father Belquior and others with him were to preach the Christian Law to the Gentiles vvhich the King of Patana having read after he had mused a little he turned to them that were about him and said smiling to them O how much better were it for these men since they expose themselves to so many travels to go to China and inrich themselves there then to recount tales in strange Countreys Whereupon calling the Xabandar to him Be sure said he unto him that thou givest these men here all that they shall demand of thee and that for the love of the Captain of Malaca who hath greatly recommended them unto mee and above all remember That it is not my custome to command a thing twice When we had taken leave of the King exceedingly contented with the good reception he had given us we fell presently to buying of Victuals and other such things as we stood in need of So that in eight dayes we were abundantly furnished with whatsoever was necessary for us Being departed from this Haven of Patana we sailed two dayes together with a South-east winde along by the coast of Lugor and Siam traversing the Barr of Cuy to go to Pulho Cambim and from thence to the Islands of Canton with an intent there to attend the conjunction of the new Moon But it was our ill fortune to be surprized by East and South-east winde which raign in that Coast the most part of the year whereof the violence was so great that we were in fear to be cast away so that to decline the event thereof we were forced to tack about again to the Coast of Malaya and arriving at an Island called Pullo Timan we ran into great danger there as well by reason of the tempest which we had upon the sea as in regard of the great treason of the people of the Country Now after five dayes that we had continued there without having either fresh water or victuals because for the easing of our Vessell we had cast out all into the Sea it pleased God that wee encountred with three Portugal Ships which came from Sunda by whose arrivall we were very much comforted in our travels Whereupon Father Belquior and I began to treat with the Captains of those Vess●ls about that which they thought was requisite we should do and all were of the opinion that we should send back the Carvel wherein wee vvere to Malaca saying that there was no likelihood wee should be able to make so long a Voyage in her as that of Iapan Having approved of this counsel we presently imbarqued our selves in the Ship of one