no WESTERN HINDOOSTAN. 



great grandeur and fplendor. It ftands elevated, in form of an 

 amphitheatre, on the banks of a raoft beautiful bay. The 

 country rifes gently into hills, finely wooded, and the fcene is 

 varied with churches, convents, and villas, and the diftance 

 bounded by the Ghauts, foaring with aweful majefty. The 

 Algoada fort defends the entrance on the northern fide. All 

 this is fliewn in Mr. Dalrymple's elegant views. Two rivers 

 flow from the Balagat mountains, and their mouths nearly 

 meet oppofite to the harbour. On one, which was called the 

 Ganges, a few leagues from the fea, flood the Nelcynda. Arriafty 

 ii. 173, fays, that the fhips which took in part of their lading 

 there, fell down, and received the reft while they lay at anchor 

 before Barace, a town near its mouth, or in the modern canal 

 of Bardez. 



The Indian name of Goa was Tricurii, or the iile of Thh 

 Villages ; it is faid to have been peopled by Moorijh merchanuo, 

 who had been baniflied from different ports of Malabar, and 

 formed foon a very fiourilliing fettlement. This is faid to 

 have happened at no very diftant period before the arrival of 

 the Portuguefe. 

 SeizedbyAlbu- When the gvezt Albuquerque tnteiQ^ on his vice-royalty, it 

 quERquE. ^y^g ^ ri\o^ opulent place, and flrongly fortified. It was at 



that time fubjedt to Zabaim, a potent monarch, who was then 

 engaged in war with divers tributary princes. Timoia, a neigh- 

 boring pirate, who had fubmitted to the Portuguefe, ftrongly 

 advifed the Chrijiian General to feize the opportunity of attack- 

 ing Goa, reprefenting its great opulence, and the honor and 

 wealth that would attend his fuccefs. Albuquerque liftened to 



his 



