234 VALENTYN’S ACCOUNT OF MALACCA. 
Kings, posterity may safely look upon this conquest as a 
proof of the valour of the Batavians. The ramparts and 
bastions were armed with 64 brass and 4 iron guns, 43 brass 
swivel guns and 31 iron ones, and the place was well pro- 
vided with the best war materials. 
The great number of inhabitants, the long duration of the 
siege and other unexpected misfortunes compelled the gal- 
lant Portuguese (for nobody will say that they did not behave 
gallantly during the whole siege), finally, when in want of every- 
thing and when no rescue appeared, to surrender the town. 
It had at that time several pretty broad and properly laid out 
streets, a small hill in the middle with the Church of St. Paul 
at its top and the beautiful Convent of the Order of Jesuits on 
its slope, besides many other churches and convents and very. 
fine lofty buildings and houses; and, having been built in an 
exceedingly fertile tract of land, it was situated as advan- 
tageously as possible for the trade in the southern part of 
India. 
But we must say that, if the Portuguese during this siege 
suffered such great calamities, they deserved it as a righteous 
punishment of God; for having led here for so many years 
such an incredibly godless life, they really could not be 
astonished at the terrible destruction of this town by war, 
famine and pestilence (the three scourges of which God so 
often makes use to punish similar places). 
It is supposed that during the siege more than 7,000 per- 
sons died in the town, but that, in order to escape famine 
and pestilence, a much greater number fled from the town 
and were scattered all over the neighbouring country ;(!) for 
of its population of more than 20,000 souls before the siege, 
no more than 3,000 inhabitants were left. | 
We lost before’ that place more than 1,500 Hollanders, 
mostly, however, of contagious diseases. 
The Portuguese Governor died of disease two days after 
the surrender of the town, and was buried in the Church of 
occasionally both amongst Malays and aborigines, and apparently Christian 
legends found amongst the latter by Pére Borie and referred to by him ina 
paper in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 
