1 12 PORTUGUESE HISTORY OF MALACCA. 



Perez had purchased during his residence in China. Such 

 was the profitableness of the China trade at this time, that 

 Perez, though only an apothecary of mean parentage, had by 

 this time acquired 2,000 weight of rhubarb, 1,600 pieces of 

 damask, 400 pieces of other silks, above 100 ounces of gold, 

 2,000 ounces of silver, 84 pounds of loose musk, above 3,000 

 purses or coods of that perfume called papos, and a great deal 

 of other commodities. 



Between the years 1522 and 1524 Malacca was much straiten- 

 ed by the king of Bintang, ( l ) who sent a powerful armament 

 against it, to oppose which George Albuquerque sent a 

 naval force under Don Sancho Enriquez ; but in a violent 

 storm 70 out of 200 Portuguese were lost. Till now the king 

 of Pahang had sided with the Portuguese; but seeing the 

 tide of fortune had turned against them, he too became their 

 enemy. Ignorant of this change, Albuquerque sent three 

 ships to his port for provisions, where two of his captains and 

 thirty men were killed. The third made his escape, but was 

 slain with all his men at Java. Simon Abreu and his crew 

 were slain on another occasion, and two vessels sent to pre- 

 vent provisions from getting into Bintang were lost. At this 

 time Mascarenhas, who waited in Malacca for the proper sea- 

 son of sailing to Cochin to assume the government, went 

 against Bintang with twenty-one ships and 400 Portuguese 

 soldiers, having likewise 600 Malays commanded by Tuan 

 Mahomet and Sinai Rajah. Although the capital of Bintang 

 was well fortified and defended by 7,000 men, Mascarenhas 

 surmounted every opposition and took the place. Of the 

 enemy 400 were slain and 2,000 taken prisoners. A vast 

 booty was made on this occasion, among which were nearly 

 300 pieces of cannon ; and the Portuguese lost only three 

 men in this glorious exploit. The king of Bintang died of 

 grief, and Mascarenhas restored the kingdom to the lawful 

 heir under vassalage to Portugal, the former king having 

 been an usurper. 



C 1 ) Bentan. 



