144 PORTUGUESE HISTORY OF MALACCA. 



At this time Malacca was in a miserable condition, excess- 

 ively poor, having very few men, and these unhealthy and 

 dispirited, having suffered much by shipwreck, sickness, and 

 scarcity of provisions ; not without deserving these calami- 

 ties, for Malacca was then the Portuguese Nineveh in India ; 

 I know not if it be so now. In this deplorable situation, 

 incessantly battered by the enemy, cut off from all supplies of 

 provisions, Malacca had no adequate means and hardly any 

 hopes of defence. In this extremity, Tristan Vaz accident- 

 ally entered the port with a single ship, in which he had been 

 to Sunda for a cargo of pepper. Being earnestly entreated by 

 the besieged to assist them, he agreed to do everything in his 

 power, though it seemed a rash attempt to engage a fleet of 

 100 sail with only ten vessels, nine of which were almost 

 rotten and destitute of rigging. Among these he distributed 

 300 naked and hungry wretches ; and though confident in his 

 own valour, he trusted only in the mercy of God, and caused 

 all his men to prepare for battle by confession, of which he 

 set them the example. He sailed from Malacca with this 

 armament about the end of November 1571, and soon dis- 

 covered the formidable fleet of the enemy in the river Fermo- 

 so. ( 1 ) Giving the command of his own ship to Emanuel Fer- 

 ragra, Tristan Yaz de Vega went sword in hand into a 

 galliot, to encourage his men to behave valiantly by expos- 

 ing himself to the brunt of battle along with them. On the 

 signal being given by a furious discharge of cannon, Tristan 

 instantly boarded the admiral ship of the enemy, making 

 great havoc in her crew of 200 men, and even carried away 

 her ensign. Ferdinando Perez, with only 13 men in a small 

 vessel, took a galley of the enemy's. Ferdinand de Lemos 

 ran down and sank one of the enemy's ships. Francisco de 

 Sima having taken another, set her on fire, that he might 

 be at liberty to continue the fight. Emanuel Ferragra 

 sank three vessels, unrigged others, and slew great numbers 

 of the enemy. In short, every one fought admirably, and the 

 whole hostile fleet fled, except four galleys and seven small 



f 1 ) i.e. Batu Pah at. 



