80 
HINDOOSTAN. 
fal contufion on the head, with the utmoft difficulty es¬ 
caped on-board his ffiip. See the article Calicut, vol. iii. 
p. 620. 
Defeated in his views of driving out the zamorin, and 
feizing his territory, Albuquerque next projected the 
fcheme of reducing the iiland of Goa, in the province of 
Guzerat, on the-Malabar or weftern coaft of Hindooftan, 
and making it the emporium of the Portuguefe trade in 
the Eaft Indies. See the article Guzerat, vol. ix. p. 133. 
At that period, Bahadur was the affumed king of Guze¬ 
rat, having, as we have Hated, during the diltra&ions of 
the Afghan dynafty of -Lodi,, fhaken off the yoke of the 
Delhi emperors, and fet up for himfelf; while the king 
of the Deccan, from whofe dominions Goa had been taken, 
was Mahmud Shah, a weak and debauched prince, who 
refigned his authority to his general Adil Shah, called alfo 
Idalcan. The Portuguefe admiral had no fooner poffeffed 
himfelf of Goa, and left it under the care of a governor, 
than intelligence of the important tranfa&ion was tranf- 
mitted to Adil Khan; who, without the fmalleft delay, 
equipped an army and a fleet, and failed to its relief. 
Landing his troops, he vigoroufly affaulted the place, 
killed the Portuguefe governor, and cut in pieces all who 
had not time to efcape to their fhips., Thefe veffels failed 
in quell of Albuquerque, who now collecting the whole 
naval and military force of his nation then in India, com¬ 
menced a new and terrible affault on the works that de¬ 
fended the port, and then ftormed the city, putting every 
one to death who was found in arms. The utmoft ef¬ 
forts were now employed to render Goa impregnable: 
walls flanked with baftions, and a ftrong caltle, were con- 
ltrucled of immenfe ftrength ; and innumerable palaces 
and churches gradually arofe to adorn this new metropo¬ 
lis of Portuguefe India. See the article Goa, vol. viii. 
P- 6 «- 
Three celebrated ports in the Indian Seas were at this pe¬ 
riod poffeffed by the Moorifh or Mohammedan merchants ; 
namely, Aden, on the coaft of Arabia; Ormus, in the Per- 
fian Gulf; and Malacca, the capital of Malay. Albuquer¬ 
que now formed the bold deflgn of driving out the Moors, 
and feizing their pofleffions in the name of king Emanuel, 
his royal mailer. The force which the Portuguefe com¬ 
mander brought againft Malacca, the firft objeftof his af¬ 
fault, conlifted of nineteen Ihips of war, and fourteen hun¬ 
dred troops; with which he made fo furious an attack 
upon the city both by lea and land, that the Malays, 
though they made a long and obftinate reliftance, were at 
length overcome. The city was taken by llorm, the in¬ 
habitants put to the fword, and their wealth plundered by 
.the viftors. Of this wealth, the grand fpur of the occa- 
lion, l'ome eftimate may be formed, when it is reflected 
that only a fifth of it, which was referved for the king, 
amounted to two hundred thoufand pieces of gold! Al¬ 
buquerque, after having malfacred the Moors, repeopled 
the city with native Malays, creeled a fort of great ftrength 
to defend it from liirprife, while he took poffeffion of the 
neighbouring illands called the Moluccas ; which lee, 
for an account of them. 
During the time that Albuquerque was profecuting 
thefe l'chemes of ambition at Malacca, we will not lay 
with what claim of juftice or right, Goa was affaulted by 
another formidable army of Hindoos, lent by Adil Khan 
(or Idalcan,) to recover that capital from their foreign 
enemy, in which they fucceeded. On the firft intelligence 
of this unlooked-for hoftility, the Portuguele admiral 
quitted the Indian Archipelago, and took with him all 
the forces that could be fpared; conlilting of twenty-one 
ihips, and four thoufand land-forces, with which he com¬ 
menced a furious attack on Goa by lea and land; and fo 
irrefiltable was the ardour of his troops, that the city was 
quickly compelled to lurrender, on conditions dictated 
by the conqueror. The fame of Albuquerque began now 
to expand in every direction over the weftern coaft of In¬ 
dia ; and both the Zamorin, and Adil Khan, fent ambaf- 
fadors to folicit his future friendihip and alliance. 
This point gained, the enterprifing Albuquerque im¬ 
mediately put in force his meditated attack upon Aden, at 
the entrance of the Red Sea. Againft that celebrated city, 
he fitted out twenty Ihips, containing feventeen hundred 
Portuguefe and eight hundred Malays. But, on their ar¬ 
rival, they found the place more ftrongly fortified than they 
had an)'- idea of. Neverthelefs they attempted to take the 
citadel by ftorm, but were driven back by the natives with 
prodigious daughter, and obliged to give up the enterprize. 
They in revenge burnt all the Ihipping in the harbour; and 
entered on the fourth day the mouth of the Red Sea, on 
which they fpread their fails with great exultation, being 
the firft Portuguefe veffels that ever navigated that lake; 
where they had alfo the good fortune to capture feveral 
rich lliips belonging to the fultan of Cairo; but, being 
compelled to winter at Comaran, they fullered leverely 
from ficknefs and famine, and were greatly reduced in 
their numbers. When the feafon permitted, Albuquerque 
returned to India ; but fecured the lpacious port of Maf- 
kat in Arabia Felix, which he added to his other con- 
quefts, and made it an emporium for the wealth of the 
three Arabias, of Perfia, and of India; and it continued 
to maintain this pre-eminence till nearly the middle of the 
feventeenth century, when, in confequence of their ty¬ 
ranny and avarice, the Portuguele were violently expelled 
by an infurreftion of the inhabitants, never more to 
hoift their flag, or renew their traffic, in that feaport of 
Afia. 
Though foiled in his attempts upon Aden, Albuquer¬ 
que was determined to reduce to the Portuguefe flag the 
rich commercial city and iiland of Ormus, fituated in the 
Perlian GuJph : fee the article Ormus. The whole of 
his forces in India attended him on his expedition. In 
haughty terms he demanded of its terrified fovereign, Tu- 
ran Shah, a weak and effeminate prince, full poffeffion of 
the citadel, the eftabliftnnent of Portuguefe factories on 
the iiland, and the future dependence of his kingdom on 
the crown of Portugal. If thefe conditions were refufed, 
he threatened to burn the capital, and plunder the iiland. 
Turan Shah hefitated not to obey this arbitrary fummons ; 
the keys both of the citadel and the palace were yielded 
up to the invader. Its palaces were converted into fac¬ 
tories for the new fettlers, and the (tores and artillery of 
the place, not requifite for its immediate defence, were 
depofited cn-board the fleet, and conveyed to Goa. Pe¬ 
dro d’Albuquerque, a kinfman of the admiral, was ap¬ 
pointed governor; who ffiortly after put to death the ful¬ 
tan and his minillers, and put fifteen princes of the blood 
under confinement, while they plundered their effects, and 
feized upon the unbounded wealth of the place!!! 
The thirft after glory Hill ftimulating Albuquerque to 
the aggrandizement of his own country, he now formed 
two political yet daring projects. One was to deftroy 
the trade of Alexandria into the eaft by way of the Red 
Sea, and to ruin all Egypt, by inducing the emperor of 
Abyffinia to divert the channel of the Nile into the fea, 
before it reaches Egypt. The other was, to tranfport a 
large body of horfe to Arabia, in order to plunder Moham¬ 
med’s tomb at Mecca, and thereby put an end to the reli¬ 
gious and commercial pilgrimages to that place. But 
thefe mighty defigns were cut lhort by the death of Al¬ 
buquerque, which happened on his return to Goa, after a 
lhort illnefs, in his fixty-third year, Dec. 16, 1515. 
His fucceffor Lopez Saurez eftablilhed a fettlement at 
Columbo, on the iiland of Ceylon, making its fovereign 
compound for his kingdom, by acknowledging himfelf a 
fubjefl of the king of Portugal. And at a iomewhat later 
period, the city and iiland of Diu, at the entrance of the 
gulf of Cambay, denominated the Key of India, at that 
time iubjeft to Bahadur, fovereign of Guzerat, with one 
of the fineft ports in India, was likewife fubjefled to the 
controul of the Portuguefe, by the mode commonly prac- 
tifed by their commander, of affifting the prince againft 
his enemies, and in return demanding permiffion to efta- 
blilh a factory, and ere6l a fortrels in his capital. This 
1 affiftance 
