Page 24 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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xl INTRODUCTION.
plan to return thither, as I am informed that they are seeking to
accomplish, it would be greatly to my service to send this year a
ship to Malaca, and that it would be better that there should be
two if they were available (for to take two of the five that are
going this year1 did not seem to me proper), and that Cosmo de
Lafeta2 (who this year is returning to those parts,3 as I am writing
to you in another letter in reply to the memorandum regarding
him that you made in yours from Monba^a)4 should go in the
said Malaca ship commissioned to assist in this emergency so
pressing and of such importance as the chastisement of the said
Hollanders, which must cause you the anxiety that you owe to my
service; whereby you will have the satisfaction of not being
deprived of one of the five ships that should all arrive at the bar
of Goa; only that, having to reinforce the parts of the South in
this so important emergency, you will have already there the
succour of the said ship, and with a good captain and the men
she carries in less time than could have been the case if the said
ship had called first at Goa instead of at Malaca ; and in order
that you may have complete information of what I have com-
manded shall all be referred to your orders, there shall go
with this the copy (signed by the Secretary Diogo Velho) of the
1 They were the Sdo Roque, the Coticcicdo, the N. S. da Pas, the
Sdo Sivido, and the Sdo Mathcus, the captain-major being D.
Jeronymo Coutinho. As is stated in the note below, they were not
able to leave the Tagus.
1 This man, whose name is sometimes spelt Lafeitar, took a promi­
nent part in the defence of Chaul and the capture of the Morro
in 1594 (see Dr. J. Gerson da Cunha’s Chaul a?id Basset ft, p. 61), and
commanded in various naval engagements. He was later made
a Councillor of India, which office he held until his death, which is
mentioned in a royal letter of February 28th, 1612 (.Document os
Remetlidos, tom. ii, p. 185). His name is mis-spelt “ Laseta” in
Hunter’s History of British India, vol. i, pp. 238, 312, nn.
3 He was to have gone in command of the Sdo Simdo; but, for
some reason, he did not leave for India in 1599 (when the ships
actually sailed), but in 1600, in one of the ships of the company of the
new Viceroy, Aires de Saldanha (in connection with which fact Couto
tells a curious story, in his Dec. XII, Liv. v, cap. viii).
4 Couto {Dec. XII, Liv. I, cap. ii) records the dispatch in April,
1597, from Mombasa, by D. Francisco da Gama, of Miguel de Maccdo
to Hormuz with important letters for the King, which the captain of
Hormuz sent to Spain by an Armenian, who arrived at the court at
Castille at the beginning of December, 1597 (cf. footnote, supra,
p. xxxvi). The King, however, writing to the Viceroy on February
10th, 1598, says that he has just received the latter’s letters of April
8th, 1597, from Mombasa, confirming similar news he had had a few
days before by way of Venice and Flanders {Archivo Portugues-
Oriental, fasc. iii, pp. 829-830).
INTRODUCTION xli
Instruction1 that I commanded to be given to him. Wherefore
I enjoin upon you that, in conformity therewith, and with
anything else that appears to you profitable to my service, without s'. ■
taking into consideration in this matter anything but what is k
entirely of importance to that same service of mine, you assist, £*
favour, and encourage Como [sic] de Lafeta, sending to him as
soon as these ships shall arrive in the monsoon of September all
that you shall consider he is in need of, of vessels, men, and
munitions, orders and messages, in addition to what you shall
have provided; being assured that this will be one of the most m
special services that you can do me in your time ; in order to s-■
extinguish and destroy the novelty of this navigation so prejudicial !8
to my service and to that State, on which subject I need say no m
more to you than what this matter says of itself. ■if :
Written in Lisbon, the 17th of March, 1598. ‘ M
The Prince.2 IS
if:
Finally, on the 5th of April, 1598, when the fleet was all
ready to sail,3 and the dispatches had been sealed up, i
sv
a supplementary letter was written by the Secretary,
Diogo Velho, by order of the Governors of Portugal, in
;• ■■
which the following4 occurs :—
Now on the eve of departure of these ships there has come
from the island of Madeira, where it had arrived, the ruttier* of
7'
the voyage that the Hollanders made to the parts of the South,
P.
■?'
r
1 This document is not in the Archivo Por tuguez-Oriental; but it is E
in the archives in Portugal, and there is a transcript in the India Office
in London (see Hunter’s History of British India, vol. i, p. 23S, n.). L
2 King Philip II was at this time seriously ill (he died on September
13th) ; and the Prince therefore signed for him. r
3 It was unable to leave, however, owing to the mouth of the Tagus
being blockaded by the Earl of Cumberland. The Venetian ambas­
sador in Spain, writing from Madrid to the Doge and Senate on April S:
24th, 1598, says:—“The East India fleet is blockaded in the port of
Lisbon, and we are informed that the Dutch have given a large ;
present to the Earl of Cumberland on condition that he prevents it
from leaving that port, in order that their ships, which are already
despatched to the East Indies, may meet with fewer obstacles to the f
completion of their designs. The merchants who had put their money *
on board ship have now withdrawn it in despair of the fleet sailing
this season” {Calendar of State Papers, Venice, vol. ix, 1592-1603,
P- 3*9)-
4 Archivo Por tuguez- Oriental, fasc. iii, pp. 8S4.
6 It does not appear how this ruttier came into Portuguese hands [•
or who sent it from Madeira.