CHAP. IV THE PORTUGUESE AT MOMBASA 53 



Cabral apparently preferred the latter method of persuasion. 

 In 1500 he avenged the supposed treachery to Da Gama by 

 looting Mombasa. Three years later another expedition passed 

 along the coast, and made the town pay tribute ; and in August 

 1505 a fleet of twenty ships, under the command of Francisco 

 Almeyda, attacked and destroyed it. In 1508 the Portuguese 

 formally took possession of the island, and appointed a resident 

 governor. But they had by this time annexed more of the 

 world than they could conveniently manage ; to help in doing 

 this they proceeded to classify their possessions. They divided 

 Arabia and Ethiopia into three provinces, in the first of which 

 they placed Mombasa. These proceedings resulted in a pax 

 Lusitanica, the value of which we may estimate from the fact 

 that as the Mombasa people were said to have treated the 

 natives of Melindi and Zanzibar badly, it was necessary in 

 1528 to send a powerful force under Don Zuna da Cunha to 

 raze the city to the ground. This, however, was not so easily 

 effected ; the town was so well defended that it was not taken 

 till after a siege of four months. The next opportunity for 

 mischief that presented itself was on the occasion of a visit 

 from a Turkish fleet under Ali Bey in 1586. A genera- 

 tion had by this time grown up which knew not Da Cunha, 

 and so could not restrain its innate passion for intrigue. The 

 natives placed the island under the suzerainty of the Porte, 

 but neither of the high contracting parties gained much by 

 this arrangement. The Portuguese Viceroy of India sent 

 Alfonso de Melo Bombeyro with a fleet of eighteen ships to 

 punish this act of rebellion, and Mombasa was promptly 

 reduced to ashes. The town soon grew up again, but only 

 to be looted by a tribe of barbarians named Zimbas, who came 

 from the south. Their occupation of the island was, however, 

 a very short one. The Portuguese seem then to have grown 

 tired of this constant series of evictions, and built the fort 

 which is now the most picturesque building in East Africa. 

 This secured peace on the island until 1630, when the fortress 

 was captured by stratagem. The members of the garrison 

 were shot by arrows, although they had surrendered on con- 

 dition that their lives should be spared. A force from India 

 was at once despatched to recapture the citadel and punish the 

 apostate mission boy, who planned both the revolt and the 



