The Jesuit fathers Andrada and Marquez went from Delhi in the country of the Great Mogul to Thibet along with a caravan of pilgrims that were going to visit a famous pagoda. Passing through the kingdom of Lahore, they came to the vast mountains whence the Ganges flows into the lower plain country of Hindostan, seeing many stately temples by the way full of idols. At the kingdom of Sirinagur they saw the Ganges flowing among snow, the whiteness of which is dazzling to the eyes of travellers. At the end of 50 days journey they came to a pagoda on the borders of Sirinagur, to which multitudes resort to bathe in a spring, the water of which is so hot as to be hardly sufferable, and which they imagine cleanses them from sin. The people here feed on raw flesh and eat snow, yet are very healthy; and the usual order of the sexes is reversed, as the women plough and the men spin. Having rested at the town of Mana the fathers pursued their journey, almost blinded by travelling continually among snow, and came at length to the source of the Ganges, which flows from a great lake. They soon afterwards entered the kingdom of Thibet, and were honourably received by officers sent on purpose from Chaparangue, the residence of the king of Thibet. The king and queen listened to their doctrines with much complacency, and even admitted their truths without dispute, and would not allow them to return to India till they promised an oath to come back, when the king not only engaged to give them liberty to preach, but that he would build them a church, and was greatly pleased with a picture they left him of the Virgin and Child.
The fathers returned according to promise, on which the king built them a church and was afterwards baptised along with the queen, in spite of every thing the Lamas could say to prevent him. From merchants who traded to this place from China, the fathers understood that it was 60 days journey from Chaparangue to China, 40 of which was through the kingdom of Usangue, and thence 20 days to China. They likewise learnt that Cathay is not a kingdom, but a great city-the metropolis of a province subject to the grand Sopo, very near China, whence perhaps some give the name of Cathay to China19. Perhaps this kingdom of Thibet is the empire of Prester John, and not Ethiopia as some have believed.
After having governed five years, the Count of Vidugueyra was ordered by the king to resign to Don Francisco de Mascarennas in 1628; but as that gentleman had left India for Europe, the viceroy resigned the charge of government to Don Luis de Brito, bishop of Cochin, and went home to Portugal. In this year the king of Acheen made an attempt to gain possession of Malacca, against which he sent a fleet of 250 sail, with 20,000 soldiers and a great train of artillery. In this great fleet there were 47 gallies of extraordinary strength, beauty, and size, all near 100 feet long and of proportional breadth. The king embarked with his wife, children, and treasure; but upon some ill omen the fleet and army sailed without him, and came before Malacca in the beginning of July 1629, the former under the command of Marraja, and the latter of Lacsamana, an experienced general who had made many conquests for his master. Having landed the troops, they were attacked by Antonio Pinto de Fonseca with only 200 men, who slew above 300 of the enemy without losing a man, and then retreated into the city. Juan Suarez Vivas with 350 Portuguese, who commanded at Iller, defended that post for some time with great gallantry and did great execution among the enemy; but at length, overpowered by numbers, was forced to retire. Having gained an eminence called mount St Juan, the enemy erected a battery there from which they played furiously against the fort, which answered them with great spirit. The Capuchin convent dedicated to the Mother of God, being considered as of great importance for the defence of the fort, was gallantly defended for 50 days by Diego Lopez de Fonseca, who on one occasion made a sally with 200 Portuguese and defeated 2000 of the enemy. On Lopez falling sick, Francisco Carvallo de Maya took the command of that post, and defended it till the convent was entirely ruined, so that he was obliged to withdraw into the city, on which the enemy converted it into a strong post in which Lacsamana took up his quarters with 3000 men. Marraja occupied mount St Juan, on which he erected a large fort; others were established at the convent of St Lawrence, at Iller and other places, having strong batteries and lines of communication, so that the city was invested on all sides by land, while a number of armed boats presented all access by sea for relief. Fonseca, who commanded in the besieged city, sent out Vivas with 220 Portuguese troops to dislodge Lacsamana from his head-quarters on the ruins of the Capuchin convent, on which occasion Vivas gained possession of the post by a night attack, killing 100 of the enemy, and retired with several cannon. The King of Pam, who was in alliance with the Portuguese, sent a fleet of paraos with 2000 men to the assistance of the town; and Michael Pereyra Botello brought five sail from the city of San Thome: Yet these reinforcements were insufficient to induce the enemy to retire, though they had lost above 4000 men during the siege, while 60 were slain on the side of the defenders.
Although the bishop of Cochin was informed in June of the intended attack on Malacca and the weak state of its garrison, he postponed sending any reinforcement, as it was then the dead of winter on the Malabar coast, proposing to dispatch succours in September. He died however about the end of July 1629, after having governed India for nineteen or twenty months. Upon his death the next patent of succession was opened, which named Don Lorenzo de Cunna, the commander of Goa, to the civil government of India, and Nunno Alvarez Pereyra to the military command. Of this last name there happened to be two in India, or none. If Don Nunno Alvarez Pereyra, a gentleman well known, were meant, the title of Don was omitted in the patent; if Nunno Alvarez Botello, the sirname teemed wrong. It was thought unlikely that the title of Don could be omitted through mistake, as that in Portugal is peculiar to certain families. The mistake of name in regard to Nunno Alvarez Botello was more probable, as he had long gone by the name of Pereyra, in memory of his grandfather Alvarez Pereyra, and had dropped that name for Botello when he inherited the estate of his father, whose name was Botello; yet some continued to call him by the old name, and others gave him the new one. The council of Goa, and the Count de Linnares after his arrival in India, allowed the pretensions of Botello.
In the meantime, considering how dangerous delay might prove to Malacca in its distress, Nunno Alvarez Botello undertook the relief of that place, saying that he would postpone the decision of the dispute till his return. By general consent however, he went by the title of governor; and by direction of the council of Goa, the Chancellor Gonzalo Pinto de Fonseca assumed the administration of justice, so that the government was divided between him, De Cunna, and Botello, who used such diligence in preparing for his expedition to relieve Malacca, that, from the 2d of August, when the charge of governor was awarded to him, to the beginning of September, he had collected 900 Portuguese troops, a good train of artillery, a large supply of arms and ammunition, and 30 vessels, and was ready to put to sea as soon as the weather would allow. He set sail on the 22d of September, rather too early, and encountered four several storms during his voyage, two of which were so terrible that every one expected to be lost. He at length reached Pulobutum, whence he sent two vessels to give notice at Malacca of his approach, yet arrived himself before them. At Pulobutum he found a vessel belonging to Cochin and two from Negapatnam, being some addition to his fleet He arrived at Malacca on the afternoon of the 22d October 1629, to the great surprise of Lacsamana, as his fleet was then in the river Pongor, a league from Malacca, and so situated as to be unable to escape.
Botello immediately landed and gave the necessary orders and again embarking forced his way up the river through showers of bullets, which he repaid with such interest that the enemy abandoned their advanced works that same night, and retired to that which they had constructed on the ruins of the Capuchin monastery. As the river Pongor had not sufficient water for the Portuguese ships, Botello embarked a strong detachment in 33 balones or balames, being country-vessels of lighter draught, with which he went in person to view the strength and posture of the hostile fleet. Being anxious for the safety of their gallies, the enemy abandoned their works at Madre de Dios and San Juan, and threw up other works with wonderful expedition for the protection of their fleet. But having attacked these with much advantage, Botello proposed to the enemy to surrender, on which Marraja returned a civil but determined refusal. His situation being desperate, Marraja endeavoured the night to escape with the smaller vessels, leaving his large gallies at the mercy of the Portuguese, but was prevented by the vigilance and bravery of Vasquez de Evora, who cut off many of his men, not without some loss on his own side, having one of his arms carried off. The enemy now endeavoured to make use of their formidable gallies, and the chief among them called the Terror of the World was seen in motion; on which Botello sent the admiral of the Portuguese gallies, Francisco Lopez to attack her, which he did with great gallantry, passing through clouds of smoke, and a tremendous fire of artillery, and after two hours hard fighting, carried her by boarding, after killing 500 of her men out of 700, with the loss only of seven of his own men.
19
This is evidently erroneous, as we know certainly from the travels of Marco Polo and other authorities, that Cathay was the northern part of China, once a separate kingdom. –E.