Sultan of

Guzerat appeals

against

the Portuguese.

CHAPTER IX. was at war with the Rajpoots, and had succeeded in capturing Chittore.27 At the same time he was so help for harassed by the devastating cruisers of the Portuguese, that in an unhappy moment he sought to obtain peace by allowing the Viceroy to erect a fort on the little island of Diu. No sooner, however, was the fort built and garrisoned, than the Sultan, as usual, began to regret having granted the concession, and to scheme for the expulsion of the Portuguese. Asiatic rulers are generally adepts at diplomacy, and are ever aiming at the formation of confederations and alliances, which would never suggest themselves to a European, and which rarely lead to any result. In the sixteenth century the Sultan of Turkey, better known as the Great Turk, was the terror of the Christian world. He was hated on account of his religion, and was as much feared as the first Napoleon. His prowess, especially since his conquest of Egypt in 1517, was no doubt a frequent theme amongst the Mecca pilgrims; and thus it came to pass that the Sultan of Guzerat sent an embassy with presents to Constantinople, and implored the assistance of the Great Turk against the Christian dogs of Portugal. vellous to relate, the mission was successful. costliness and rarity of the presents from Guzerat so worked upon the imagination of the Ottoman, that he ordered the Pasha of Egypt to send a fleet to Diu. The whole story reads like a romance. The Pasha was only too eager to punish the infidels, and seize their treasures; and thus another Egyptian armada, consisting of seventy large ships and

27 See ante, page 345.

Mar

The

galleys, and carrying a strong force of Turkish CHAPTER IX. Janissaries, made its way from Suez down the Red Sea, and finally appeared before Diu, under the command of Soliman Pasha.29

murder of the

Guzerat.

But by this time Bahadur Shah was dead. He Suspicious had been killed by the Portuguese. Judging from Sultan of two conflicting accounts of the same event, there had been treachery on both sides. Complimentary visits had been exchanged between the Sultan and the Commandant of the fort, and each is said to have contemplated the detention and murder of the other. Then the Viceroy proceeded to Diu, and other visits were exchanged.

Both were now so suspicious of each other that a slight incident led to a fray on the Sultan's barge, in which the Commandant was cut down mortally wounded, and the Sultan was killed in trying to escape to the shore. After a horrible turmoil, another Sultan, named Mahmud Shah, ascended the throne of Guzerat. This dynasty is perhaps better known in Europe than any other line of oriental sovereigns; for either Mahmúd, or one

2 The description of Soliman Pasha by the Portuguese historian is an amusing expression of the old hatred of Christendom against the infidel. "Soliman," says Faria y Sousa, "was a Greek Janissary, born in the Morea. He was short and ugly. His belly was so big that he was more like a beast than a man; and being eighty years of age, he could not rise up without the help of four men. He was governor of Cairo, but purchased the command of the armada against the Portuguese by offering to supply the shipping at his own cost. In order to raise the purchase money, he put many rich persons to death, and seized their estates. He was a tyrant and a coward. He caused four hundred soldiers to be put to the oars, and then ordered two hundred to be executed because they complained. At Jedda he tried to take the king by treachery. At Aden he was more successful. He received a present and relief from the king of Aden. He then entertained the king on board his fleet. Meantime he pretended that he had many sick men on board, and sent them on shore privately armed. The result was that his 'sick men' took possession of the city of Aden, whilst the king was murdered on board the fleet. After this notable exploit Soliman proceeded to Diu."-Faria y Sousa, vol. i., page 433.

CHAPTER IX. of his predecessors, was the veritable "Bluebeard" of nursery tradition. Whether Bluebeard or no, the Mahmud who was reigning over Guzerat, when the Egyptian armada appeared before Diu under the command of Soliman Pasha, belonged unquestionably to the "Bluebeard" type of kings.

Portuguese besieged by the Turks, 1538.

The siege which followed is an obsolete story in the present day, but in the sixteenth century it was one of the great events in the history of the Portuguese. The Turkish Janissaries were landed, armed with bows and muskets; and excited the utmost alarm, even amongst their brother Mussulmans of Diu, by their brutality and insolence. During twenty days a heavy cannonade was directed against the Portuguese fort, whilst several desperate attempts were made by the Turks to carry it by storm. Unfortunately there was a change of Viceroys at the time, and no relief was sent from Goa. At last, when half the garrison were killed, and the remainder were subjected to the most horrible privations, a general assault was made by all the Turkish forces. It was repulsed by a band of heroes, who fought with the heroism of despair. But most of the Portuguese had now lost all hope. Powder and provisions were alike exhausted. At this critical moment the Egyptian fleet sailed away. The worn-out garrison could scarcely believe their eyes. They suspected treachery, and kept the best watch they could till morning. Then they saw that the Turks had really gone. Subsequently they discovered that the Sultan of Guzerat had grown so heartily sick of the Egyptian allies, that he had frightened them away by false reports that a great fleet from Portugal was at hand.29 The policy pur

29 Faria y Sousa, vol. i., p. 444. On his way back to Egypt, Soliman is said

ure of the

sued throughout by the Guzerat Sultan is all of the CHAPTER IX. same character. He had been forced into friendly Sudden departalliance with the Portuguese. He had then implored Turkish expe the aid of Turkey to help him to get rid of his Portuguese allies. He had next grown anxious for the departure of the Turks. Finally he seems to have come to terms once more with the Portuguese, without abandoning the hope of effecting their ultimate expulsion from the Eastern Seas.

Portugal.

The news of this glorious repulse of the Turks Rejoicings in filled the whole Portuguese nation with joy and exultation. The brave Commandant of Diu returned to Lisbon, and was received at the capital with the highest honours. Scarcely had his ship anchored in the Tagus, when all the Court nobles thronged on board to conduct him to the presence of the king and queen. Indeed so great was his fame that all the foreign ambassadors came to do him honour; and the French ambassador was so enthusiastic as to engage an artist to paint the portrait of the brave man, who had repulsed the Great Turk on the Indian shores.

Diu: triumph

Seven years later, in 1545, the Sultan of Guzerat Second siege of made another attempt to expel the Portuguese from of the Viceroy. Diu. The details were famous at the time, but are of little interest now. On that occasion the Viceroy relieved the fort in person; and on returning to Goa was received with all the honours of a Roman triumph. He was crowned with laurel, and accompanied through the streets of Goa by a procession of prisoners, cannon, and carts loaded with arms. Salutes were fired, bands of music were playing,

to have captured a hundred and forty Portuguese in Arabia, and to have sent their heads, noses, and ears to the Great Turk as trophies of his victory.

CHAPTER IX. the streets were adorned with silks, and fair women thronged at the windows, and threw flowers and sweet waters on the victor. When the Queen of Portugal heard the story, she observed that the Viceroy had conquered like a Christian, but triumphed like a heathen.30

Overthrow of

the Hindú

empire of

Twenty years of comparative quiet followed this Narsinga, 1565, last triumph. Meantime revolutions were convulsing India, which could not fail of influencing the affairs of the Portuguese. In Hindustan the Moguls had established a paramount power; and the illustrious Akber had pushed his empire to the bay of Bengal, and established his suzerainty over the greater portion of Rajpootana. In the Dekhan the Mussulman Sultans of Bíjápúr and Golcónda were exposed to constant aggressions from the unwieldy Hindú empire of Narsinga. The reigning Hindú sovereign of the Peninsula at this period was Ráma Rai, a potentate who is as celebrated as his great predecessor Krishna Rai. The haughtiness and arrogance of this great Raja is without a parallel in European history. He seems to have been an embodiment of Southey's conception of Kehama. He treated the envoys from the Sultans of Bíjápúr and Golcónda with such pride and insolence, that on their return to their own courts, they threw down their turbans before their sovereigns, and demanded revenge against the infidel. For a brief interval all political rivalries and jealousies were cast aside; and a flash of the old Bedouin enthusiasm, which carried the banners of the Khalifat to the Oxus and the Indus, was kindled in the breasts of the Mussulmans.

so Faria y Sousa, vol. ii., p. 116.