fortress, and rendered it, what it has ever since continued, the capital of the Portuguese possessions in the East. His next enterprise was directed against Malacca, then a great commercial city, and the key of the Eastern Archipelago. On the 2d May 1511, he sailed against it with a force of one thousand four hundred men, of whom eight hundred only were Portuguese. The defence was obstinate, and Albuquerque was repulsed in the first assault; but, returning next day, he at length carried the city, taking a vast quantity of plunder and warlike stores. He then built a fort, and made it the capital of all the Portuguese settlements in this part of India. In this direction the Portuguese soon reached and occupied the Molucca and Banda Islands, whence they drew the clove and nutmeg, the most coveted of all the oriental commodities. The last exploit of Albuquerque was the capture of Ormuz, the key of Persian commerce, and the pride of the East. Two abortive attempts had already been made against it. In February 1514 he arrived there with so great a force, that the king, after making all possible difficulties and objections, saw no resource but to admit the Portuguese to the military occupation of the place. The Portuguese empire in India was now arrived at its greatest height. From the Cape of Good Hope to the frontier of China, an extent

of twelve thousand miles of coast, all the principal emporia were in their possession. On the coast of Africa, they had Sofala, Mosambique, and Mombasa; in Arabia, Muscat; in Persia, Ormuz; in the Malabar coast, Damaun, Diu, Goa, Cochin, Coulan, and many other ports; on the coast of Coromandel, Meliapoor, St Thomas, Madras, and Masulipatam; in the eastern seas, Malacca, Macao, Timor, and the Spice Islands. For about half a century this empire continued gradually declining, through the decay of valour and patriotism in its governors, and of energy in the mother country, now become a province of Spain. Its fall was rapid, when the English and Dutch nations, now far superior in maritime activity, found their way into the Indian seas. The Portuguese were deprived of the Spice Islands, of Malacca, of Ormuz, and were supplanted in all the markets of Coromandel and Malabar. At length their power in India was reduced to a mere name; and it is rather by the forbearance of other nations, than by their own strength, that they still retain possession of Goa, and its surrounding territory.

CHAPTER III.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE PORTUGUESE MISSIONARIES IN INDIA.

Zeal of the Portuguese Government.-Attempts to convert the Natives of Goa.-Salsette.—Pesqueria.—Three Missions to the Mogul.-Manrique.

THE Portuguese monarchs had always loudly proclaimed, that the diffusion of the Catholic faith, and the extension of the spiritual dominion of the Pope, was a still more favourite aim in all their conquests than even to enlarge the sphere of their own empire. Without inquiring whether their zeal went quite so far, it cannot be denied, that had the legitimacy of the means corresponded to the ardour with which the object was pursued, this claim to praise would have been very ample. As soon as any footing had been obtained in India, large bodies of missionaries belonging to the different orders hastened out, at once to devote their own exertions, and to stimulate the efforts of the civil power in the forwarding of this favourite object. It is impossible to dispute their extraordinary

displays of zeal and self-devotion; yet the choice of means was so indiscriminate, and their ideas of their own religion seem so exclusively confined to its external and often superstitious ceremonies, that we cannot but sympathize in the difficulty which they themselves so often mourn over, of distinguishing between itself and that of the nations whom they came to convert.

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The missionaries had not long arrived on the coast of Malabar, ere they discovered that more serious obstacles opposed their progress here than they had encountered in any other part of the globe. The chief of these consisted in the mount power of the Brahmins, of whom they found two descriptions, rivalling each other in their unbounded influence over the minds of the people. One lived in cities, mixed with men, and enjoyed such influence, that nothing was done either by prince or people, nor any undertaking of importance begun, till they had first "consult"ed their demons." The other description were the hermits or Jogues, who went about begging, lived in deserts and caves, or on the tops of trees. Besides the high influence of this priesthood, the pride and insolence of the Nairs or military class, who would not look at, or speak to any of inferior rank, and had attendants calling out before them that all might go aside, appeared little compatible with any sentiments of Christian humility. The

people besides insisted that the outward forms of the two religions were so strikingly similar, as to leave no adequate motive for making a change. This mimicry of the Catholic ceremonies the Fathers consider as the most profound of all the arts, by which the Devil sought to arrest the progress of Christianity. It was in fact so striking, that almost all the inexperienced missionaries fell into the snare, and declared themselves unable to perceive any distinction. The missionaries, however, omitted no means of overcoming these difficulties. They wrote sentences on scraps of paper, which they distributed through the people, representing them as cures for every kind of disease. Whenever any article was lost, they got it recommended to the cross, to the efficacy of which they imputed its restoration. They even scrupled not to claim the merit of recovering some holy cows lost by a Gentoo king, and of restoring to him these objects of his idolatrous veneration. An image of the Virgin, richly embellished with jewels, proved of much efficacy. They were even delighted to see a Jogue or fakir of eighty years old, who came in from the woods, so horrid, black and sunburnt, that he appeared scarcely human; yet on being shewn this image of our Lady, was struck with such delight and admiration, that he solicited instant admission into the pale of the church. The great ob