His majesty in great
wrath swore he would give all he was worth to have the offender killed.
wrath swore he would give all he was worth to have the offender killed.
Camoes - Lusiades
The
battles of Pacheco were in defence of the fords by which alone the city
of Cochin could be entered. The numbers he withstood by land and sea,
and the victories he obtained, are much more astonishing than the
defence of Thermopylae.
[600] _Bound to the mast the godlike hero stands. _--English history
affords an instance of similar resolution in Admiral Bembo, who was
supported in a wooden frame, and continued the engagement after his legs
and thighs were shivered in splinters. Contrary to the advice of his
officers, the young Almeyda refused to bear off, though almost certain
to be overpowered, and though both wind and tide were against him. His
father had sharply upbraided him for a former retreat, where victory was
thought impossible. He now fell the victim of his father's ideas of
military glory.
[601] _The fleets of India fly. _--After having cleared the Indian seas,
the viceroy, Almeyda, attacked the combined fleets of Egypt, Cambaya,
and the zamorim, in the entrance and harbour of Diu, or Dio. The fleet
of the zamorim almost immediately fled. That of Melique Yaz, Lord of
Diu, suffered much; but the greatest slaughter fell upon the Egyptians
and Turks, commanded by Mir-Hocem, who had defeated and killed the young
Almeyda. Of 800 Mamelukes, or Turks, who fought under Mir-Hocem, only
22, says Osorius, survived this engagement. Melique Yaz, says Faria y
Sousa, was born in slavery, and descended of the Christians of Roxia.
The road to preferment is often a dirty one; but Melique's was much less
so than that of many. As the King of Cambaya was one day riding in
state, an unlucky kite dunged upon his royal head.
His majesty in great
wrath swore he would give all he was worth to have the offender killed.
Melique, who was an expert archer, immediately despatched an arrow,
which brought the audacious hawk to the ground. For the merit of this
eminent service he was made Lord of Diu, or Dio, a considerable city,
the strongest and the most important fortress at that time in all
India. --See Faria, 1. 2, c. 2.
[602] _Great Cunia. _--Tristan da Cunha, or d'Acugna.
[603] _Heav'n indignant showers their arrows backward. _--Some writers
related that, when Albuquerque besieged Ormuz, a violent wind drove the
arrows of the enemy backward upon their own ranks. Osorius says, that
many of the dead Persians and Moors were found to have died by arrows.
But as that weapon was not used by the Portuguese he conjectures that,
in their despair of victory, many of the enemy had thus killed
themselves, rather than survive the defeat.
[604] _Muscat. _
[605] Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf.
[606] _What glorious palms on Goa's isle I see. _--This important place
was made an archbishopric, the capital of the Portuguese empire in the
east, and the seat of their viceroys; for which purposes it is
advantageously situated on the coast of Dekhan.
battles of Pacheco were in defence of the fords by which alone the city
of Cochin could be entered. The numbers he withstood by land and sea,
and the victories he obtained, are much more astonishing than the
defence of Thermopylae.
[600] _Bound to the mast the godlike hero stands. _--English history
affords an instance of similar resolution in Admiral Bembo, who was
supported in a wooden frame, and continued the engagement after his legs
and thighs were shivered in splinters. Contrary to the advice of his
officers, the young Almeyda refused to bear off, though almost certain
to be overpowered, and though both wind and tide were against him. His
father had sharply upbraided him for a former retreat, where victory was
thought impossible. He now fell the victim of his father's ideas of
military glory.
[601] _The fleets of India fly. _--After having cleared the Indian seas,
the viceroy, Almeyda, attacked the combined fleets of Egypt, Cambaya,
and the zamorim, in the entrance and harbour of Diu, or Dio. The fleet
of the zamorim almost immediately fled. That of Melique Yaz, Lord of
Diu, suffered much; but the greatest slaughter fell upon the Egyptians
and Turks, commanded by Mir-Hocem, who had defeated and killed the young
Almeyda. Of 800 Mamelukes, or Turks, who fought under Mir-Hocem, only
22, says Osorius, survived this engagement. Melique Yaz, says Faria y
Sousa, was born in slavery, and descended of the Christians of Roxia.
The road to preferment is often a dirty one; but Melique's was much less
so than that of many. As the King of Cambaya was one day riding in
state, an unlucky kite dunged upon his royal head.
His majesty in great
wrath swore he would give all he was worth to have the offender killed.
Melique, who was an expert archer, immediately despatched an arrow,
which brought the audacious hawk to the ground. For the merit of this
eminent service he was made Lord of Diu, or Dio, a considerable city,
the strongest and the most important fortress at that time in all
India. --See Faria, 1. 2, c. 2.
[602] _Great Cunia. _--Tristan da Cunha, or d'Acugna.
[603] _Heav'n indignant showers their arrows backward. _--Some writers
related that, when Albuquerque besieged Ormuz, a violent wind drove the
arrows of the enemy backward upon their own ranks. Osorius says, that
many of the dead Persians and Moors were found to have died by arrows.
But as that weapon was not used by the Portuguese he conjectures that,
in their despair of victory, many of the enemy had thus killed
themselves, rather than survive the defeat.
[604] _Muscat. _
[605] Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf.
[606] _What glorious palms on Goa's isle I see. _--This important place
was made an archbishopric, the capital of the Portuguese empire in the
east, and the seat of their viceroys; for which purposes it is
advantageously situated on the coast of Dekhan.
