Page 45 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION.
Mozambique.1 After Simito dc Mendoza, who was the captain,
had got on shore with all the people, he and many others died.
By this fleet there came news to the Count Viceroy of the
death of his son D. Vasco, which he felt much, having no other.
There also came news of the death of the King D. Filippe the
Prudent,2 whose exequies the Count Admiral celebrated with
great ostentation and ceremonies.3
Of the Dutch ships referred to above by Couto as being
got ready to go to the East, the first to sail were three
under the command of Steven van der Hagen. This fleet
left Holland on April 26th, 1599, stayed a couple of
months at Mauritius, and reached Bantam on March 13th,
1600. The ships then proceeded to Amboina and Banda,4
where they had encounters with the Portuguese and
trouble with the natives, and returned on November 19th
to Bantam. Here they found six other Dutch ships, with
four of which they sailed on January 14th, 1601, calling
at St. Helena, and reaching home in July, 1601.5
On December 21st, 1599, another fleet of four ships,
under the command of Pieter Both,0 of Amersfoort, sailed
from Holland for the East.7 On April 26th, 1600, the
fleet divided, two of the ships under Van Caerden calling
at Madagascar and passing through the Maldives, and
reaching Bantam on August 6th, the other two vessels
arriving soon afterwards. These two ships, under Paulus
van Caerden, were sent by Both to load pepper at Priaman,
whence they proceeded to other ports in Sumatra, reaching
1 Figuereido Falcao (Livro em que se content to da fa azenda, etc.,
p. 183) says that the Costello was lost at Socotra.
2 On September 13th, 1598 (sec note on p. xli, supra).
3 Cf. letter of 1599 of Goa Chamber to the King, in Archivo
Portuguez-Oriental, fasc. i, Pt. 11, pp. 61-62.
4 Cf. Voyage of Capt. John Sarisf p. xxxiii.
6 See De Jonge, op. cit.y vol. ii, pp. 226-229.
* Afterwards Governor-General of Netherlands India.
7 See De Jonge, op. cil.y vol. ii, pp. 229-235.
INTRODUCTION. lx XXV
Achin on November 2ist, and learning from some of the
captive Hollanders there the details of the attack on the
Lceuw and Lceuwin. Finding the Achincsc monarch very
unfriendly, Van Caerden, after various acts of piracy,1 left
again for Bantam, arriving there on March 19th, 1601, and
finding that Both had sailed homewards in December
or January, in charge of seven ships. On March 29th
there arrived at Bantam three ships from Holland, under
the command of Jacob van Neck, who, proceeding in one
of these to the Moluccas, left the other two at Bantam to
return with Van Caerden. The four ships sailed for
Europe on April 13th, 1601, calling in September at
St. Helena, where they found letters from Both, stating
that he had been there in June.
The tidings brought from Malacca to Goa of the con­
tinuous arrival in the Malay archipelago of Dutch ships
must naturally have caused increasing alarm in that city;
but, curiously enough, the Chamber of Goa, in their annual
letters of 1599 to 1602 to the King, say nothing on the
subject.2 In spite of the discouraging fiasco in which the
dispatch of the fleet under Lourengo de Brito resulted,
the Viceroy seems to have sent what reinforcements he
could to Malacca. In April, 1598, according to Couto
{Dec. XII, Liv. I, cap. xvii), he dispatched “Joao Pinto de
Morais in the galleon S. Joao,3 to go and make the Malaca
voyages with many provisions and munitions for it; and
therein embarked Ruy Gonsalves dc Siqueira, provided
with the captaincy of that fortress, D. Juliao de Noronha,
1 See De Jonge, u.s.
2 The letter of the Goa Chamber to the King, written in 1598, and
the royal letters to the Chamber from 1600 to 1609 inclusive, appear
to have been lost.
s There seems to be some mistake here, as Figueiredo Falcao
I cit.y p. 182) records the return ot the S. Jodo to Portugal in 1598.
(According 10 him, this ship remained in India in 1600.)