146 PORTUGUESE HISTORY OF MALACCA, 



in a caravel, and Ferdinand de Palares in a ship, having each 

 40 men, to go out of the harbour on purpose to protect a 

 convoy of provisions then on its way to Malacca, of which the 

 city was in great want. The fleet of the enemy immediately 

 attacked them, and soon battered all three ships to pieces. 

 Seventy- five of the Portuguese were slain or drowned on this 

 occasion, forty were made prisoners, and only five saved them- 

 selves by swimming. Only 150 men now remained in Ma- 

 lacca, of whom 110 were sick or aged. Being in want both 

 of men and ammunition, Tristan Vaz was under the necessity 

 of remaining very quiet ; but the enemy, fearing he was pre- 

 paring some stratagem against them, raised the siege in a 

 panic of terror, when they might easily have carried the city, 

 after remaining before it from the beginning to the end of 

 January 1575. The priests, women and children of the dis- 

 tressed city had implored the mercy of God with sighs and 

 tears ; and, next to God, the city owed its safety to the courage 

 of Tristan Vaz, and to his generosity likewise, as he spent 

 above 20,000 ducats in its defence. 



After this period, we find that the power of the Portuguese 

 in India began to decline, and that of the Hollanders to rise. 

 It may be interesting to know that, according to De Faria, ( x ) 

 the historian before us, it was in the year 1597 that the 

 Dutch first ventured to India. We give his own words : 



" In May 1597, Don Francisco de Gama, Count of Vidu- 

 gueyra, grandson to the discoverer, arrived at Goa as viceroy of 

 India, but carried himself with so much haughty state that 

 he gained the dislike of all men. During his government 

 the scourge of the pride and covetousness of the Portu- 

 guese came first into India, as in the month of September 

 news was brought to Goa that the two first ships of the Hol- 

 landers that had ventured to navigate the Indian seas had 

 been in the port of Titangone, and were bound for the 

 island of Sunda. In a grand council held upon this important 

 event, it was ordered to fit out a squadron of two galleons, 

 three galleys, and nine other vessels to attack the intruders, 



C 1 ) Faria y Souza, Author of "Asia Portuguese" 



