subsequently discovering that he was carrying on a traitorous correspondence, he put him to death, with his nearest male relatives, although his wife offered 2,800 pounds of gold for their redemption. Some writers accuse Albuquerque in this, of treachery and cruelty, asserting that his only reason for the execution was his fear of the man's power, he being the chief of 10,000 of his countrymen. Such a motive was clearly foreign to the character of Albuquerque, and his words on the occasion, as recorded by De Barros, should be received as evidence of the real one: "He was," he said, "the minister of justice of his king, who was not accustomed to sell justice for money:" indeed there is every reason to believe that there were conclusive proofs of the man's treachery. On his return to Goa, Albuquerque built a church in honour of "Our Lady of the Annunciation," and decorated it with ornaments from the tombs of the kings of Malacca; from whence also he took four bronze lions to grace his own tomb. These, however, were lost, with much treasure, in a storm at sea, during which Albuquerque risked his own life to save that of one of the sailors. From this, as well as from the fact, that throughout his career he was beloved by the men, though disliked by some of the officers; that at the storming of Calicut, he would have prevented the plundering which led to the defeat of the Portuguese and the death of Continho, and that he died without enriching himself; we may well conclude that Albuquerque was disliked, deserted, and misrepresented by the officers, because he would not let them seek their private advantage to the detriment of the public service.
After the conquest of Malacca, Albuquerque sent his nephew, Francisco de Noronha, to whose valour he had already been much indebted, to the conquest of Mozambique; and to complete the reduction of the fortresses by which the Mahometan power was protected in the Indian seas, he himself sailed to Aden. In the attack on this fortress, however, he was unsuccessful. Determined to end his days in India, Albuquerque requested the title of Duke of Goa. This gave an opportunity for the malice of his enemies at the court of Portugal, who at last prevailed on the king to supersede him, and L. Soarez and Diego Mendez were appointed respectively to the government of India, and the command of the fortress of Cochin. They did not, however, reach that country until after the completion of his last great act, the capture of Ormuz. This he effected by policy, ejecting the vizier Ras Ahmed, and causing his execution, dismantling the batteries, and erecting a fortress which he garrisoned with Portuguese for the defence of the town.
His health gave way before the evil news of his being superseded reached him, but this announcement completed what his labours under a burning sun had begun; and leaving his nephew, Pero d'Albuquerque, in command at Ormuz, he sailed for India, praying only to be permitted to die at Goa. He expired as he was about to enter that harbour, on the night of December 13, 1515, and was buried in the church which he had built, the lamentation of the people overpowering the voices of the officiating priests. Albuquerque was of commanding presence, though not of lofty stature, the contour of his features indicating that haughty spirit which, no doubt, hindered some of his noblest projects, by making him personal enemies. His eyes were dark and piercing, and his beard descended below his waist. Ambition was his ruling passion, and he may deserve to be surnamed "the Great," not only on account of his actions, which brought all the coasts of India into subjection to the king of Portugal, but because those actions were not the result of any meaner motive. His letter to the king, written on his deathbed, in which he requests the aggrandizement of his natural son, his only child, shows this plainly; as does his desiring the title of Duke of Goa, when taken in connection with his carelessness of personal enrichment. Not inferior to Cortez himself in the largeness of his views, or his persistency in their pursuit, his chief object in life was to lessen the Mahometan power, and especially that of the caliph of Egypt. With him, war with the floors was, in India as in Africa or the Peninsula, a crusade, and pursued with corresponding devotion.
The Portuguese were indebted to Albuquerque for their first knowledge of the Persian Gulf and the coasts of Arabia. His lieutenants explored the Eastern archipelago. His ambassadors were sent to the courts of the most powerful Asiatic princes, and true to his policy of availing himself of the quarrels of others to forward his own views, we find him sending ordnance to the Persians to assist them against the Turks, and stimulating the king of Abyssinia to attack Egypt; and if we now smile at the impossibility of his scheme to make Egypt a desert by turning the Nile into the Red Sea, we must at least admit the greatness of the idea, and confess that schemes as impracticable have gained the attention even of scientific men in our own day. As strong feelings of religion and loyalty marked the end of Albuquerque, so did a consciousness of having performed the duty which had been intrusted to him: he could say that "the state of India would speak for him." Nothing but the conquest of Aden remained to complete his original purposes; but the glory and power which he had gained for the Portuguese in India soon faded before the selfishness of his successors. He died without the poor satisfaction of knowing that the king, though superseding him in the government of India, had left him in command of his recent conquest, and those regions on the Red Sea and coast of Africa, which he no doubt hoped the valour and policy of Albuquerque were then bringing into subjection to the crown of Portugal.—C. G. N.
ALBUQUERQUE, Alfonso Braz d', was born in 1500, and died at Lisbon in 1580. A natural son of the conqueror of the Indies, he was at an early age placed in the marine service, and, as commander of the convoy, accompanied to Savoy the unfortunate Beatrice of Portugal, through whose influence he was afterwards married into a family of distinction, attached to the court. After a time he quitted the profession of his youth, and in the situation of financier, to which he was appointed by Joao III., displayed the same ability, zeal, and disinterestedness that had characterized him as an officer of marines. His exertions in 1569, when a plague ravaged the kingdom, to provide accommodation for the sick, are recorded in terms of exaggerated praise by the historians of the time. He prepared for publication a volume of memoirs left by his father.—J. S., G.
ALBUQUERQUE, Coello Antoine, a Portuguese captain, whose voyage from Goa to Madras, and from Madras to Macao, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, has been narrated at length by one of his officers.
ALBUQUERQUE, Duarte Coelho d', Portuguese governor of San Salvador in 1638, when that city was besieged by the Dutch. Died at Madrid in 1658.
ALBUQUERQUE, Matthias d', a Portuguese general, governor of the province of Pernambuco in Brazil, and after his return to Europe in 1635, for services rendered in the war that resulted in the separation of the crowns of Portugal and Spain, elevated by John IV. to the rank of grandee, and named Count of Allegrete. Died at Lisbon in 1646.
ALBUTIUS, Caius Titus, a celebrated Roman orator, who flourished in the reign of Augustus, was born in Lombardy, and exercised there for some time the function of ædile. Injuriously treated in a public revolt, he repaired to Rome, where his extraordinary powers of eloquence procured him distinction. In his old age he returned to Lombardy, and baring been long afflicted with an abscess in the lungs, he announced to his fellow-townsmen of Novarre his intention of committing suicide, and accomplished his design by starving himself—J. S., G.
ALBUTIUS, Titus, an Epicurean philosopher, banished from Rome about the beginning of our era. He had held office under the empire in Sardinia, and was convicted of peculation.
ALCACOBA or ALCAZOVA, Simon, a Portuguese navigator, captain of one of the ships fitted out for the West Indies in 1522 by Charles V., was afterwards appointed by that monarch one of the arbiters to adjust the boundary line between the colonial possessions of Spain and Portugal. In 1534, at his own expense he equipped two ships, and set sail on a voyage of discovery. He reached the coast of Patagonia, but, driven to extremity by bad weather, returned to Port de Lobes, and there disembarked. Advancing into the interior of the country, he was seized with sickness, and had to resign the command of his troops to his lieutenant, Rodrigo d'Isla, who led them back to the ships. On board they rose in a mass, and murdered Alcacoba, the pilot, and three others.—J. S., G.
ALCADINUS, an Italian physician and litterateur, was born at Syracuse about the year 1170. He celebrated in elegiac verse the triumphs of his patrons, Henry VI. and Frederick II., and also wrote a treatise on the baths of Pouzzoles. Died 1234.
ALCÆUS, a Greek comedian, of whose works only a few fragments have reached us; said to have lived about 380 b.c.
ALCÆUS of Messenia, a Greek poet, flourished about 170 b.c. His works have been lost, except a few epigrams.
