Page 27 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

m
xlvi INTRODUCTION.
of there being none large or small, and six hundred paid soldiers,
and as captain-major thereof Lourenzo de Brito, an old fidalgo,
and one of experience,1 who ordered sail to be set on the 20th of
September in the direction of Malaqua, on account of its being
understood that the enemies would be going there, and because
of having had news during the past year that in Sunda were
sailing about three other ships and a pinnace ;2 God grant that
the fleet may encounter and disperse them, so that they may not
return to those parts to carry on the commerce in drugs that they
aim at. . . .
We call your Majesty’s attention to the fact that the necessities
and novelties under which the Count Viceroy assumed the
government of this State are great and extraordinary, because . . .
the English are coming into the South Sea, and during this
present year have captured on this coast two of our ships that
were going to Bengalla,3 an unheard-of thing, wherefore it is most
important that your Majesty should command with urgency that
this State be provided with men, and arms, and money, since
these matters do not admit of delay.
Father J0S0 dos Santos, who was at Mozambique at
the time, thus describes the visit of the two English ships
(in his Ethiopia Oriental^ Pt. II, Liv.
III, cap. xviii) :—
At this time, when we arrived at Mozambique,4 the people of
this island were all uneasy owing to the news they had had, that
the English were coming to it, which was sent by Manoel de
Sousa Coutinho, Governor of India,5 to the captain of Mozam­
bique, advising him to prepare for their arrival, because he had
received word by land from Portugal, that a large fleet of English
was going out to India, and that they might perchance call at
1 Couto mentions him among those that took a prominent part in
the defence of Chaul during the siege of 1570-71 (Dec. VIIf
cap. xxxiii). For his later history, see itifra.
2 These were the four vessels of Cornclis de Houtman’s fleet (sec
supra, p. xxxiv). They arrived at Bantam in June, 1596; but the news
of their presence in those waters appears not to have reached Goa
through Malacca until after the homeward ships of 1597 had sailed.
3 See Couto’s account of this, infray p. Ii.
4 On May 26th, 1595, from Quirimba and Sofala, where Dos Santos
had been making a stay.
* A strange error : Manoel de Sousa Coutinho ceased to be
Governor of India on May 15th, 1591, when Mathias de Albuquerque
arrived at Goa as Viceroy (see supra, p. xv). But Dos Santos } nor May, in their accounts of this voyage, gives the exact date.)
throughout confuses the 1591 and 1597 visits of the English ships to
Titangone (cf. supra, p. xxxiv). This is the more curious, in that he
was at Mozambique on both occasions.
INTRODUCTION. xlvii
Mozambique on the way. On account of which the residents of
this island brought all the food and goods that they possessed
inside the fortress, which thus became overcrowded. Dom
Hieronymo de Azevedo, who was at that time captain,1 advised
the captain of the coast of Melinde, liras d’Aguiar, to withdraw
to Mozambique. The latter at once came there with two foists
full of soldiers, and in addition two pangayos laden with pro­
visions.2 All of which might then have been dispensed with,
because the English did not come until two years afterwards in
in sight of Mozambique ~~
on
two ships only. The which came
the 13th of June,'* 1597, and passed by, pursuing their voyage
for Malaca, where, it was afterwards learnt, they arrived.4 And
already in the year 1591, six years before these two ships came,
there had come a single ship of English to Mozambique, which
was the first that went out to India since Francisco Orach.5 The
which ship cast anchor in front of Titangone (a very famous
spring, five miles from Mozambique),0 where she watered on the
27th of October7 of the said year, and thence took her course
for Malaca.8
Couto’s account of these events is as follows. After
recording (in Dec. XII, Liv. I, cap. vii) the arrival at Goa
August 19th, 1597, of a galliot from Mozambique, he
on
proceeds:—
This captain brought letters from Nuno da Cunha, captain of
that fortress,9 in which he stated, that in the past July there were
1 Another error : D. Jeronymo de Azevedo had left Mozambique for
India some years before, and was at this time (1595) captain of the
conquest of Ceylon. From Couto’s account, given below, it will be
seen that the captain of Mozambique at this time was Nuno da
Cunha.
3 The English ships appear to have captured one or both of these
vessels (see Voyages of Sir J. Lancaster, pp. 5, 26).
3 Both the Goa Chamber and Couto say that the ships passed in
July.
4 They arrived only in the Straits of Malacca, and not at Malacca
itself (see below).
6 Francis Drake (see supra, p. xxv).
c Quitangonha island at the northern end of Conducia Bay (see
Voyages of Sir fas. Lancaster, pp. 5, 26 ; also Dos Santos, op. cit.y
Pt. 1, Liv. in, cap. iv, and English translation in Theal’s Records o
South-Eastern Africa, vol. vii, p. 317).
7 The month is correct, and possibly the day also. (Neither Barker
8 She did not get as far as Malacca, however.
9 See Theal’s Beginnings of South African Historyy p. 276, and
P. 361.