134- PORTUGUESE HISTORY OF MALACCA. 



and that the same thing was done by all those who seemed to 

 fly there from Bintang, with the design to seize npon the fort 

 on the first opportunity, and restore it to him who was the 

 lawful prince. This secret, as intended by Mahaiud, was at 

 length divulged at Malacca, where it produced the intended 

 effect, as the commandant, George de Albuquerque, gave 

 more credit to this false report than to the honest proceedings 

 of the Bendara, who was tried and condemned as a traitor, 

 and had his head cut off on a public scaffold. In consequence 

 of this event, the city was left almost desolate by the flight of 

 the native inhabitants, and was afterwards oppressed by famines. 

 Some time after, we find Malacca was again distressed, 

 through the misrule of the then Governor, George de Brito, 

 and others, which occasioned almost all the native inhabitants 

 to desert the city in order to avoid oppression. In this situa- 

 tion, Mahmud, the exiled king, sent a considerable force to 

 attempt recovering his capital, under the command of Ceri- 

 lige Rajah ( l ) his general. Cerilige intrenched his army, and 

 so pressed the besieged that the Portuguese would assuredly 

 have been driven from Malacca, had not Don Alexius de 

 Menezes arrived to assume the Government, with a reinforce- 

 ment of 300 men. Menezes secured the safety of Malacca by 

 supplying it with men and ammunition, and appointed Alfonso 

 Lopes de Costa to the under-government, in place of Brito, 

 who was dying. Duante ( 2 ) de Melo was left there with a naval 

 force ; and Duarte Coello was sent with an embassy and pre- 

 sent to the king of Siam to confirm a treaty of peace and 

 amity, and to request of him to send a colony of his subjects 

 to inhabit Malacca, so that the Moors, whom he hated as 

 much as the Portuguese did, might be for ever excluded from 

 that place. All this was agreed to, and, as a testimonial of 

 his friendship to the Christians, he caused a cross, ornamented 

 with the arms of Portugal, to be erected in a conspicuous 

 part of the city of Hudia, ( 3 ) where he then resided. Having 



(!) Sri Adika ( ? ) or Sri Lela ( ? ). 



( a ) Duarte. 



( 3 ) Ayuthia, the then capital, higher up the river. 



