Page 10 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

!?
o t
xii INTRODUCTION.
not long before he was off again with another naval
expedition. Mir AH Bey, the captain of the Turkish fleet
that had given such a blow to Portuguese prestige on the
east coast of Africa in 1586, had ever since been preparing
for a second descent upon those parts; and, being urged
thereto in letters from the Moors, he set sail from the Red
Sea at the end of 1588 or beginning of 1589,1 with a fleet
of four galleys and the foist that he had captured from
Roque de Brito two years before. He ran down the
Somali coast as far as Magadosho, where he landed and
was well received ; and thence he continued his course
southwards, getting money contributions at all the ports
at which he called, until he came to Malindi, where he
anchored late one night, intending next morning to
bombard the town. The captain of the fort, Matheus
Mendes de Vasconcellos, had, however, been forewarned of
Mir All’s coming; and, placing some guns on a sandhill
commanding the galleys, he played upon them until they
were forced to weigh anchor and sail for Mombasa, where
Mfr All proposed to erect forts, from which he could sally
out and destroy Malindi on some future occasion.
Meanwhile, by a foist that Matheus Mendes had dis­
patched to Goa on the first news of the intended descent of
Mir Ah', the Governor had been apprised of the threatened
danger. Accordingly, after the departure of the home­
ward-bound ships for Cochin, Martim Alfonso set about
preparing a fleet to be sent to the East African coast.
This fleet, the command of which he gave to his brother,
Thomd de Sousa Coutinho,2 and which consisted of two
1 Fr. Joao dos Santos, whose account of these events appears to be
the only one extant, gives the year as 1589 ; but the correctness of
this seems doubtful.
1 Not to be confused with Thomd de Sousa d’Arronches, a man of
a brutal character (see Archivo Poriuguez- Oriental, fasc. iii, pp. 857-
861), who has earned eternal infamy by his wanton destruction, in
1588, of the ancient and famous temple at Dondra, in the south of
Ceylon (see Couto, Dec. X, Liv. x, cap. xv).
if
INTRODUCTION. Kill
r
galliasscs, five galleys, six foremasted galliots,1 six smaller &
vessels,2 and a manchua3 as tender, and carrying nine
hundred men-at-arms, set sail from Goa on January 30th,
1589. Soon after getting out to sea, the ships encountered
such severe weather that one of the galleys began to leak
and had to return to Goa, while the other vessels had to
jettison a good deal of their cargo ; finally, the two galliasscs
were lost sight of. The rest of the fleet, after many perils,
sighted land on February 20th, and soon after reached Ip
1 ■
Brava, where they learned of the arrival and doings of
Mir All. Weighing anchor on February 23rd, the ships ■
if-
came to Ampaza, which had been rebuilt by the prince,
who was promised security by Thomd de Sousa on con-
dition of having nothing to do with the Turks. Thc next
place of call was Lamo, where the fleet watered, and
a message was received from Matheus Mendes announcing
the withdrawal of Mir All to Mombasa, and begging Thome \
de Sousa to make all speed lest the enemy should escape r:.
.
before his arrival. Upon this, the ships at once made sail,
i,.
and on March 3rd arrived at Malindi, where they were
t
heartily welcomed.
Having increased his fleet by two ships that lay there
Thomd de Sousa left Malindi, accompanied by the king of
:
that place, the king and prince of Pemba, and Matheus
Mendes, and on Sunday, March 5th, arrived before
f
Mombasa. At first some show of resistance was made by
the Turks ; but this soon collapsed, and on March 7th the ■
Portuguese entered the city, to find it abandoned, the
enemy having taken to the woods. The place was there­
upon sacked and burnt. It must be here mentioned that,
before the arrival of Thomd de Sousa’s fleet, Mombasa was
1 Ox\%.y galeotas de traquete. Ordinary galliots had no foremast.
1 Orig., navios. The compiler of the makeshift Decada Undecima,
which is largely taken from Dos Santos’s work, here substitutes Justus
(foists). 3 See Hobson-Jobson, s. v.