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besieged, by the King of Bantam, and distisguishing himself 

 by prodigies of personal valor. Once when he was on the 

 point of being stabbed by one of the King of Bantam's Cap- 

 tains he was providentially saved by one of his own people. 

 The culprit was ordered to be shot from the canon's mouth, 

 but as the cannon burst, killing only the unfortunate man 

 who had fired it, the prisoner was thrown-down from the 

 citadel tower. By the rigorous opposition whicb he directed 

 against the King of Bantam and the King of Patana, he esta- 

 blished mightily the power of Portugal in Malacca- That 

 during the whole period of his activity in the East he was 

 employed with honor to himself and appreciable advantage to 

 his country is certain, for upon the death of Henri de Mene- 

 ses, who succeeded the great Vasco da Gama in the Vice- 

 Koyalty, when the principal officers of state bad met in the 

 temple of Cananor, to open the Government dispatches ap- 

 pointing a successor, it was found that Mascarenhas was 

 nominated to the illistrious port. Unfortunately he was then 

 at Malacca, and in the urgent need of a recognised chief, 

 Lopez Sampayo was chosen by election, and sworn on the 

 Gospels as Governor of Cochin and Viceroy of India in the 

 absence of Mascarenhas. This appointment, though intended 

 to give solidarity to the power of Portugal nearly consum- 

 mated the ruin of Portuguese supremacy in the East. Mas- 

 carenhas, having been delayed by stress of weather in his 

 first attempt to reach the scene of his vice-regal attributes, 

 and having voluntarily postponed his second departure by an 

 expedition in which he completely reduced the power of the 

 King of Bantam, found on his arrival at Goa in 1527 that 

 Sampayo refused to recognize the validity of his appointment* 

 This led to a civil faction similar to that which attended the 

 refusal of D'Almeida to surrender the vice-royalty to Albu- 

 querque. Like the latter, Mascarenhas in the course of this 

 dissension was fettered hands and feet and imprisoned in 

 Cananor : and proclamation was made by sound of trumpet 

 that whoever should have the audacity to proclaim Masca- 

 renhas vice-roy should be strangled. But those who establish 

 the law of " might makes right " are subject to perilous 



