CHAPTER IX. But the old intriguing spirit of the Mussulman Fresh intrigues traders was as active as ever. The Portuguese and reprisals. Feudatory princes join the Portuguese against the Zamorin. could purchase only very slowly and at very advanced rates; whilst they saw the Moors loading their own vessels rapidly. At last Cabral was so exasperated that he seized one of the Mussulman ships, and transferred the cargo to his own vessel. The cry at once spread throughout the city that the Portuguese were pirates. The military class of Hindús, who are called Nairs in Malabar, were roused to indignation. An excited mob gathered round the factory, and assailed the inmates with darts and javelins. The Portuguese made an obstinate defence, but were overwhelmed by numbers. At last a portion of the wall was broken down, and the Nairs rushed in. Fifty Portuguese were slaughtered on the spot, but the remainder escaped to the shore and swam to their ships. Cabral was so maddened at the news, and especially at hearing that the Zamorin had shared in the plunder of the factory, that he burned fifteen ships that were lying in the harbour, and cannonaded the town for two days, during which, it is said, five hundred people were killed.. This energetic proceeding led to other intrigues of a character which is singularly oriental. The princes of Malabar had long been jealous of the authority of the Zamorin; and when they saw that the Portuguese had cannonaded his port, they manifested an anxiety to cultivate the friendship of such powerful strangers. This line of action is well deserving of notice. Taxiles and Porus the younger pursued precisely the same policy when Alexander of Macedon invaded the Punjab. On the approach of an invader by sea or land, the princes CHAPTER IX. of India have always waited events. If the invader is victorious, they wait until his superiority is fully established; and when they find that he is really the stronger, they are ready to ally with him against their own suzerain. Cabral, like Alexander, was equal to the occasion. He opened up a communication through a somewhat remarkable personage known as a Yogi. These Yogis have already been described as a class of religious mendicants, only known to India, who ponder over the secrets of death and reproduction until they become half crazed, and fancy that they have delivered their souls from the bondage of the flesh, and become deities. However, through this Yogi, Cabral obtained cargoes both at Cochin and Cananore, and then returned to Lisbon. Strange to say this Yogi was ultimately converted to Christianity, and duly baptized.3 sade against the In 1502 another armament appeared in the Piratical cru. Eastern seas under the command of Vasco de Gama, Mussulmans. the discoverer of India. Hostilities had now taken the form of a piratical crusade against every Mussulman ship the Portuguese could find. The cruelties perpetrated were horrible. One ship contained two hundred and sixty pilgrims, who were going to Mecca, of whom fifty were women and children. Twenty children were saved and baptized, but the remainder were thrust down into the hold without mercy, and the ship was then scuttled and set on fire. It would be wearisome to describe other 2 In the present day the paramount power of the British government is on a firmer footing than that of any previous suzerain in India. Some touching proofs of genuine loyalty were exhibited on many trying occasions during the mutinies of 1857. 3 Faria y Sousa, vol. i., page 59. CHAPTER IX. captures, which were mostly of the same stamp. It will suffice to say that the Portuguese were permitted to erect a fort and church at Cochin, and made it their head-quarters. Henceforth the Raja of Cochin proved a faithful ally to the king of Portugal. He paid no tribute, but declared himself a subject of Portugal. In 1503 he was assailed by the Zamorin and a powerful army of confederates; but he resolutely refused to surrender the Portuguese who had taken refuge in his dominions, and the Zamorin was ultimately compelled to retire. In return for this good service, he received a crown of gold from king Emanuel, and a yearly present of a golden cup and a large golden coin from Portugal.* The Syrian Whilst staying at Cochin, Don Vasco received. ambassadors from a colony of Syrian Christians, who had been settled for centuries in the city and kingdom of Cranganore, on the Malabar coast not far from Cochin. The embassy was in every respect a strange one. The men told Don Vasco that there were thirty thousand Christians in the colony; that Saint Thomas the apostle had preached to their forefathers; that they were subject to the Patriarch of Armenia; that they were harassed by the pagans around them; that they knew the Viceroy to be an officer of the most Catholic king in Europe; and they were desirous of making their submission to him. Accordingly they delivered to Don Vasco a so-called rod of justice. This rod was of a red colour, and about the length of a sceptre. It was tipped with silver at each end, and had three bells on the top. 5 ♦ Faria y Sousa, vol. i., page 67; vol. ii., page 226. 5 Ibid., vol. i., page 67. The subsequent efforts of the Portuguese priests to armada for the expulsion of the Shortly after these events, a new and unexpected CHAPTER IX. enemy appeared upon the scene. This was the Egyptian Sultan of Egypt, better known to our forefathers as Portuguese. the Soldan of Cairo. This Saracen monarch was naturally furious at the many captures of Mecca ships, and the heavy loss of trade, which no longer passed through Egypt, but went round the Cape. In the first outburst of his wrath he swore by the Prophet that he would destroy all the holy places at Jerusalem, unless the Portuguese at once abandoned the Indian seas. The Pope was so alarmed that he entreated king Emanuel to accede to the wishes of the Saracen. Nothing, however, was done. Meantime the Venetians were as great losers as the Sultan of Egypt, and actually furnished the infidel with the timber to build a fleet at Suez for the extirpation of the Portuguese. News in those days must have travelled but slowly, but native vessels in large numbers were always plying from port to port. In this way probably the Portuguese Viceroy discovered that an Egyptian fleet was actually on its way to the Indian seas, and that it was expected to co-operate with the Mussulman Sultan of Guzerat for the destruction of the Portuguese. 6 Mussulman generally The Viceroy might well have been alarmed. Fears of a The Turks had long been the terror of Europe; confederacy and the appearance of an Egyptian fleet in the roundless. Eastern seas might have been a signal for the Mussulman powers of Guzerat and the Dekhan to unite their forces for the expulsion of the Christian cure these simple-minded Christians of schism, forms a curious chapter in ecclesiastical history. Faria y Sousa, vol. i., page 82 et seq. The subsidy to the Sultan was even recommended in the Venetian senate. See letter of L. da Porto, quoted by Hallam, Literature of Europe, vol. iii., page 165. CHAPTER IX. Strangers, who were ruining their trade. Trimming of the Mussulman governor of Diu: destruction of the Egyptian armada. But such confederations of Asiatic sovereigns are rarely if ever possible. They are broken up as soon as formed by treachery, or suspicion of treachery. No one will trust his neighbour, but will rather seek to hang back and wait events, in order that he may join the victor in the end. Indeed no tie, political or religious, can be trusted to keep Asiatic rulers together, unless it is held fast by the strong arm of a paramount power. The Egyptian fleet duly arrived in the Indian Ocean, and anchored at the port of Diu, which is a little island off the southern coast of Guzerat. The Mussulman governor of Diu did then precisely what a similar ruler would do now; he waited for events. A Portuguese fleet came up, and an engagement ensued. The Egyptians were getting a little the worst of it, when the governor sent out a reinforcement of small vessels to help them. The Egyptians gained the victory, and took several Portuguese prisoners; and the Viceroy's own son was slain in the action. The governor then took charge of the Portuguese prisoners in behalf of the Egyptians; and tried to keep terms with the Portuguese by sending a letter of condolence to the Viceroy. The Portuguese, however, soon retrieved their loss. The Viceroy sailed with a large fleet to Diu, and fell upon the Egyptians, and utterly defeated them, and plundered and destroyed their shipping. The governor waited this time until the battle was won, and then hastened to restore the prisoners, and court the friendship of the Portuguese. The ablest of all the Viceroys of Portuguese India was Alfonso de Albuquerque, who governed it |