in a caravel, and FERDINAND DE PALARES in a ship, having each 40 men, to go out of the harbour on purpose to protect a convoy of provisions then on its way to Malacca, of which the city was in great want. The fleet of the enemy immediately attacked them, and soon battered all three ships to pieces. Seventy-five of the Portuguese were slain or drowned on this occasion, forty were made prisoners, and only five saved them- selves by swimming. Only 150 mcn now remained in Ma- lacca, of whom 110 were sick or aged. Being in want both of men and ammunition, TRISTAN VAZ was under the necessity of remaining very quiet; but the enemy, fearing he was pre- paring some stratagem against them, raised the siege in a panic of terror, when they might easily have carried the city, after remaining before it from the beginning to the end of January 1575. The priests, women and children of the dis- tressed city had implored the mercy of God with sighs and tears; and, next to God, the city owed its safety to the courage of TRISTAN VAZ, and to his generosity likewise, as he spent above 20,000 ducats in its defence.
After this period, we find that the power of the Portuguese in India began to decline, and that of the Hollanders to rise. It may be interesting to know that, according to DE FARIA,[1] the historian before us, it was in the year 1597 that the Dutch first ventured to India. We give his own words:
"In May 1597, Don FRANCISCO DE GAMA, Count of Vidugucyra, grandson to the discoverer, arrived at Goa as viceroy of India, but carried himself with so much haughty state that he gained the dislike of all men. During his government the scourge of the pride and covetousness of the Portuguese came first into India, as in the month of September news was brought to Goa that the two first ships of the Hol- landers that had ventured to navigate the Indian seas had been in the port of Titangonc, and were bound for the island of Sunda. In a grand council held upon this important event, it was ordered to fit out a squadron of two galleons, three galleys, and nine other vessels to attack the intruders,
- ↑ FARIA Y SOUZA, Author of "Asia Portuguesa."
