Indian Antiquary Vol 52

SR No.: 032544
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

Page 460

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( AUGUST, 1923
Sanganians. 117. In February 1528 a Gujarat fleet of 80 vessels under a valiant Moor named Alexiath (Ali Shah) appeared at the inouth of Chaul river and did much damage to the territory of Ahmadnagar and to Portuguese trade. The Viceroy Sampayo sent a fleet of 40 ships, which took or destroyed all of them in Bombay Harbour (Bom. Gaz., XIII, 451; da Cunha, Chaul and Bassein, p. 39). In 1529 Hector de Silveira sailed up the river at Bassein, defeated Alexiath and plundered and burned the city (Faria, I, 321).
Portuguese. 118. In 1531 Nano d'Acunha, "Governor of the Rortuguese interests in India, Nacle his first attempt to take Din, but being unsuccessful he retired, leaving Antonio de Saldanha, one of his captains, for the express purpose of piracy. Saldanha pillaged the coasts of Saurashtra or Kathiawar without mercy, burning Gogo and Patam (Pattan Som. nath), twelve leagues from Diu and carried off their riches (Tod, Travels, p. 259). It was Nunho da Cunha who in 1531 gave a license to Damiao Bernaldes to trade to Bengal. As soon as he had rounded Cape Comprin he turned corsair and plundered a rich Moor ship of £9,000 in money at the Nicobars. Nuno requested Shihabu'ddin (see para. 113 above) to .' seize him and his crew, but he made his escape, only to be captured by the Portuguese at Negapatam. He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment but died in confinement (Campos, pp. 31, 159, 160 ; Whiteway, p. 52). James Silveyra, cruising near Aden in 1532-3, "discovered a very rich ship of Gidda (Jeddah) which spying him lay by and her Captain coming aboard, shewed him a letter from a Portuguese, who was prisoner in that city [Aden) which the Moor thought to be a secure pase, being given him as such. Silveyra
pened and found in it these words : 'I beseech such of the King of Portugal's Captains as shall meet this ship to make prize of her, for she belongs to a very wicked Moor.' Silveyra prrceiving how the Moor was imposed upon, took no notice of the deccit but discharged him, choosing rather to lose the riches of that ship than bring into question the sincerity of the Portuguese." (Faria, I, 356). In 1535 Diego Rebello prevented two Arab ships from trading at Chittagong (Campos, p. 57).
119. In 1535 the pirate Francis de Sa oaptured a junk coming from the Straits of Sunda to Chincheo (Ljungstedt, Port. Sett., p. 5).
Turks. 120. In 1537 when war broke out between Venice and the Turks, the Sultan ordered Sulaiman Pasha, Governor of Cairo, a eunuch of Greek descent (Dames, p. 15), "of stature short, his face ugly and belly so big, he was more like a beast than a man, his age eighty years (he could not rise without the help of four mon. His purse purchased him the coinmand," Faria, I, 433), to assist Burhan Beg (? Alauddin Lodi), who had taken refuge with Bahadur Shah of Gujarat (treacherously trapped and killed by a Portuguese captain on the 14th February 1537, Bayley, pp. 6, 389 26) to restore his father Iskandar (? Ibrahim) driven from Delhi by Humayun (von Hammer, II, 42-3). At Alexandria he found A Venetian trading fleet and compelled a number of the men to accompany him when he sailed for India from Suez on the 22nd June 1538. At Diu he found one Khwaja Zaffer (Jafar or Zafar), a renegade from Otranto (Kerr, VI. 267. His mother addressed her letters to him, Coje Zotar, my son at the Gates of Hell, 'Faria, II, 102) in command of the King of Diu's troops, and with his assistance took the Portugueso castle commanded by John Francisco Paduano. In defiance of the terms of capitulation he made the whole of the garrison galley slaves (Kerr, VI, 248, 271). Dames (p. 19) says that he failed to take the Portuguese castle and suddenly retired in November.
86 Faria (I, 404-8) asserts that Bahadur Shah's death was really due to his own treachery and more or legs an accident, but Nunho da Cunha found it necessary to send explanatory letters to "the Princes of the Decan, Narsinga, Ormuz and the coast of Arabin" in order to justify the Portuguese.