Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/199

STRATEGY AND HEROISM OF THE PORTUGUESE 147 as a " key in the hands of Your Highness," could not be captured, the fortress island of Diu became to the Portuguese, from 1535 onwards, an Aden nearer to their Indian base. Its naval station caught the Bed Sea and Persian Gulf ships as they rounded the peninsula of Kathiawar toward the Indian coast. Portugal thus held the three angles, at Diu, Ceylon, and Malacca, of the great triangle whose two southern sides formed the route of the spice trade. The naval advantages won by Portuguese strategy A JAVA JUNK. were maintained by Portuguese valour. Whether the native powers covered the sea with their small craft, or strengthened their fleet with a huge junk carrying one thousand fighters " the most monstrous thing that was ever seen by man, and took three years to make r they went down before the galleons and cara- vels. The bare official narratives of such encounters read like epics in epitome. A captain whose coat of mail caught in the pegs as he leapt on an enemy's ship, there remained till he was hewn to pieces through his armour. Another Portuguese vessel " they made a