THE MALACCA SULTANATE. 71 
we read the cold commentaries of the Portuguese and the 
gossiping tolerant anecdotes of the Malay Annals we can feel 
that these three ministers were men of unusual character: the 
eldest, the Bendahara, calm, self-contained, temperate and cau- 
tious; the two younger men, passionate perhaps and hot-headed, 
but gifted with an energy and a persistence that is rare among 
men born under the suncf the equator. And Malacca. needed 
them; for it was just when these three men were at the height of 
their authority that the town was startled by an unexpected and 
most ominous apparition—the first European fleet that ever 
sailed into its harbour. That was in August, 1509; the 
Admiral was the Portuguese, Diego Lopez de Sequeira. 
*The Capture of Malacca, A.D. 1511. 
BY 
The How ble R. J. Wilkinson. 
In an age accustomed to the comfort of modern sea-travel it is 
not easy for a writer to convey more than a faint academic idea of 
the hard lot of the first-comers to the Eastern Seas: the leaky 
ships, the stifling cabins, the staie unpalatable food, the putrid 
water, the dirt, the overcrowding, the scurvy, the danger of storms, 
the discomfort of the steamy tropical calms, and the anxiety of 
approach to an uncharted and hostile coast. Yet if we are to take 
the measure of men like d’Almeida and d’Albuquerque we must try 
at least to realize the task that was set before them. Columbus 
and da Gama had been simple navigators who staked their lives 
upon their skill and upon the truth of their geographical beliefs. 
The first ““ Viceroys’ were men of another type, men who dreamed 
dreams and saw visions of empire in the seemingly hope'ess plan of 
pitting the small frail ships of Portugal against the untamed vastness 
of the Indian Ocean and against the teeming millions who inhabited 
its shores. D’Almeida. was the apostle of Sea-Power. He saw 
that with all their apparent weakness his ships had at their mercy 
the commerce of whole continents; and he preached the doctrine 
of asupreme navy. Alfonso d’Albuquerque disagreed. He was a 
veteran and distinguished soldier, a man of authority, who believed 
in Sea-Power but not in its all-sufficiency. He mocked at the 
theory of an Eastern empire that owned no ports or sdocks and 
could not caulk a ship except by the favour of an ally. He was 
the apostle of the Naval Base, sea- power, resting on’ the shore. 
Moreover, as a man of'ancient lineage, cousin to Spanish*kings, him- 
self a knight of the Order of Christ, he would not take service 
under Francis d’ Almeida. 
*Reprinted from the ‘Singapore Diocesan Magazine’, November 1911, pp. 
8—13, by kind permission of the Author, and of the Editor, the Rev. Frank G. 
Swindell. 
R. A. Soc., No. 61, 1912. 
