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Chapter 7 – The Portuguese Commander Albuquerque’s Entrance into Goa and Description of Malabar

1510 A.D.

The establishment of Portuguese rule on the west coast of India dates from the taking of Goa in 1510

by Affonso de Albuquerque (or, as his name is also written, Afonso Dalboquerque), whose notable achievements have been described in the sixth volume. This eminent navigator and founder of the Portuguese power

in the East landed in India in 1503, on the Malabar coast. By a series of brilliant successes he advanced Portugal’s prestige not only in India, but also in Ceylon, Malacca, the Sunda Islands, and the island of Ormuz on the Persian Gulf. His career, which may be read in the volumes of the Hakluyt publications, ended in disappointment, however, without receiving true recognition from his country, whose interests he had served so well. He was supplanted in his office of Portuguese governor by a rival, appointed by his king, and, in 1515, he died outside the harbour of Goa, where his genius had won victories for Portugal only five years before.

The selections in this chapter are taken from the

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“Commentarios de Afonso d’Alboquerque,” published at Lisbon by his son, about forty years after the great commander’s death. The first excerpt, reproduced from the translation published by the Hakluyt Society, tells how easily Albuquerque took Goa.

‘As soon as D. Jeronymo and Garcia de Sousa had set out to watch the fortress (as I have already described), the great Afonso Dalboquerque remained quiet throughout the night waiting for the break of day, and advised the captains what course they should pursue if any resistance should be offered to them when entering the city. And just as the morning began to break he ordered the signal to be made to them, of which he had previously given them notice. When the captains heard the signal, they weighed anchor, and steered with all their people – about one thousand Portuguese and two hundred men of Malabar – toward the galley where Afonso Dalboquerque was, and from that point commenced their course, and arriving at the city when it was clear day, and not meeting with any resistance, they entered in at the gate, with a cross carried in front of them; and there was the great Afonso Dalboquerque, who, kneeling on his knees and letting fall many tears, gave thanks to our Lord for that loving-kindness which He had shown him in delivering into his hands so large and powerful a city without trouble or the death of any one. This cross was borne aloft by a friar of St. Dominic, and behind it was carried the royal flag which was made of white satin with a cross of Christus worked in the centre, and in

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Affonso de Albuquerque

this order of procession they all went on up to the gate of the castle, where the principal Moors of the city, and the governors thereof, stood in expectation of their arrival. And these men, casting themselves at the feet of our party, delivered up to them the keys of the fortress, and begged them earnestly of their kindness that they would respect the assurance of safety that had been given to them.

When Afonso Dalbuquerque had entered into the fortress, because he perceived that many men of the city were following behind him, he commanded Dom Antonio de Noronha to wait behind with fifty men at the gate, and not suffer any Moor to enter. The Hindus who were inside approached him in their accustomed courteous manner and told him that they wished to become vassals of the King of Portugal and to place themselves in obedience to him. He therefore received them with great affection and consideration, and ordered proclamation to be made, that under penalty of death for disobedience,

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no one should touch a single thing belonging either to the Moors or to the Hindus that were in Goa, but all should treat them as vassals of his lord, the King of Portugal.

As soon as this was over, he proceeded to inspect the fortress and the palace of the cabaio, which was all made with joinery work, and had gardens and pools of water within it. And thence he went on to some large arsenals, wherein he found many supplies, a great quantity of powder, and many materials for making it, and many weapons for the men, both infantry and cavalry, and a very large quantity of merchandise, and, in some stables of large size, one hundred and sixty horses; and in divers parts of the city there were captured forty large field guns and fifty-five howitzers and of other lesser kinds of artillery a great quantity, and many other things which I do not write of, so that I may not tire the reader. To the shore there were moored forty ships, large and small, and sixteen fustas; and there was also there a great supply of ropes and cordage, and boltwork, and everything else that was necessary for them.

And there, too, Afonso Dalboquerque found all the women and children of the Turks and Rumes, whom they could not carry with them, by reason of the haste they made in fleeing away with Milique cufegurgij. For when this man arrived at the pass of Gondali, intending to cross over to the mainland, so great was the thronging haste that many fugitives were suffocated in the river and others lost their horses and quantities

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of clothing which they were carrying, because there were no means of passing over the ford except by pieces of wood laid across one another. As soon as Afonso Dalboquerque had gathered the women and children of the Turks together, he ordered that they should receive proper attention and be safely kept; and on the second taking of this city he converted them to Christianity and married them to Portuguese men, as I shall show further on.

Now that the great Afonso Dalboquerque was already in possession of the city, he ordered that the captains of the ships of Cannanore should be called together, and then he gave them permission to depart, and made them accept a part of the spoils that had been taken there. And when these men had departed, he called Timoja, and told him he had information that there yet remained some Turks in the castle of Banda, and in other strongholds round about it; and as he was determined that there should not remain any of the seed of these people in the whole of the kingdom of Goa, he was desirous of ordering him to destroy those castles, and put them all to the sword; he would therefore earnestly desire him to send his cousin with some fustas to show our people the entries to the rivers, for they did not know them.

Timoja replied that he considered it a good plan to order the casting out of all the Turks from the island of Goa, and from the neighbouring places, for as long as they remained therein they would give much trouble; so he would make his cousin ready with the

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fustas which were necessary for that object. This having been agreed upon, Afonso Dalboquerque sent word to D Antonio de Noronha, his nephew, to make ready the ship Sancta Clara, and the Cirne, and the Flor de la Mar, and the Flor da Rosa, which were stationed outside the bar (as I have already said), and three galleys, and go and overrun all those places and destroy them, not sparing the life of a single Turk or Moor whom they might find.

D. Antonio set out and drew up opposite the fortress of Banda; and as soon as the fleet had dropped anchor, he got into the galleys and ships’ boats, and made his way up the river, taking with him in the front rank the cousin of Timoja with three fustas. When the Hindus of the land perceived our fleet, inflamed with hatred against the Turks, they all rose up against them, and these, terrified at our men, deserted the fortress and fled away into the interior country, so that when D. Antonia de Noronha arrived, the -Hindus were already in possession of it, and their captain immediately had an audience with D. Antonio, and paid him homage for the fortress, promising to hold himself in obedience to the King of Portugal.

As soon as the news that Banda had surrendered ran along the coast, the Turks who were in the fortress of Condal – distrusting the Hindus who were elated at the favourable treatment they had received from our fleet – deserted it and fled up the river. And when it was known in the land that the Turks had fled, a Hindu captain came with a large body of men, and put himself

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OldPortugueseFort An old Portuguese fort near Sanjan

into the fortress, and sent his submission to Afonso Dalboquerque, holding himself to be a subject of the King of Portugal, and D. Antonio returned to Goa, and passed up the river with the large ships, and gave an account of what had taken place to his uncle, and how he had set fire to four vessels which the Rumes had in the river at Banda.’

Of a more descriptive character is the account of the province of Malabar, and the statements concerning the manners and customs of the people are worthy of citation and may be compared with some of the descriptions by the other writers quoted in this volume.

‘The Province of Malabar commences at the port of Maceirão, close to Mangalore, and reaches as far as the Cape of Comorin in the interior country, bounded

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by the great Kingdom of Narsinga; and all along this land there runs a very lofty mountain range which divides the province of Malabar from the kingdom of Narsinga. The greatest breadth of this land from the seacoast up to the range is about fifteen leagues. These ranges of mountains are so lofty that the natives of Narsinga say that in their country the east winds never blow, because they are prevented from passing over from the other side by reason of the great height. The length of the coast-line of this province would be about a hundred and thirty leagues. In it there are many kings, and all the people are heathens.

The sons of the kings do not inherit, but their nephews, sons of their sisters, not the sons of their brothers, for they hold it to be a very doubtful matter whether their sons are their own. Wherefore, if they have a sister, they give her to a Brahman, who keeps her as his mistress, and the sons of this sister inherit the kingdom. And if they can get Brahman Patamares (messengers, or runners, among the Canarese), who come from the kingdom of Cambaya (and are held in these parts as a more noble race than any other), to them they give their sisters to take them from their earliest girlhood, and with this charge they give the Brahmans large sums of money that they may be willing to take this trouble, which they perform very rigorously, and the sons of these sisters inherit the kingdom.

These Brahmans are a set of religious men (just as our priests among us here), who take care of their

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pagodas. They have among themselves a scientific language, which is like the Latin among us, that no one understands unless he is instructed in it. They are married to one wife only; they do not eat flesh nor fish, nor anything which may suffer death; their food is rice, milk, butter, and fruits, and their drink, water. And in order that this kind of substance may never fail for the Brahmans, who were numerous, the ancient people of this land forbade that cows or bulls should be killed, under penalty of death; and this law was so strictly observed that not only do they not kill them, but they worship them and they are even held as objects of sanctity. They have knowledge of the Trinity and of Our Lady, whereby it appears that anciently they were Christians.

The Naires of this land are the military men and esteemed cavaliers, and the most honourable people of all the country; and it is said that in this province there would be about two hundred thousand of these men. They are very loyal to their king, and worship him; and it has never been found that a Naire has been guilty of treason.

They have physicians, whose method of cure is in this wise. To those who are suffering from fevers they give meat and fish to eat, and purge them with the seed of the figueira de In “the fig-tree of hell” (the castor-oil plant), or give the leaves pounded to them in water to drink. If one suffers from diarrhoea, they give him to drink the fresh water of cocos (the cocoa-nut), and it is stopped immediately. If any are

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sick, they wash their heads for them with cold water, and the vomiting ceases. If wounded, they give warm oil three times a day, and cure them in this manner. In prolonged illnesses, the remedy which they give to the sufferers is to take musicians and make pilgrimages to their pagodas.

In the province of Malabar there are between Chetua and Could.° many Christians of the time of St. Thomas, and there are many churches. Many other customs have they, concerning which I do not write, to avoid digression; but I leave the account of them to those who will write the history of India.’

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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