Chapter I

DISCOVERIES, NAVIGATIONS, AND CONQUESTS OF THE PORTUGUESE IN INDIA, FROM 1505 TO 1539, BOTH INCLUSIVE: RESUMED FROM BOOK I. OF THIS PART[63].

We have formerly in the _First_ BOOK of this _Second_ PART of our general arrangement, given a historical account of the Portuguese Discoveries along the Coast of Africa, with their Discovery of and early Conquests in India, from the glorious era of DON HENRY prince of Portugal in 1412, down to the year 1505. Necessarily called off from that interesting subject, to attend to the memorable Discovery of the _NEW WORLD_ by the immortal COLUMBUS, we have detailed at considerable, yet we hope not inconvenient length, in the III. IV. and V. Volumes of our Collection, the great and important Discovery of America, and the establishment of the principal Spanish colonies in that grand division of the world, with some short notices of the earliest American Discoveries by the Portuguese, English, and French nations. We now return to a continuation of the early Discoveries and Conquests in India, taking that word in its most extensive signification as comprehending the whole of southern Asia, from the Persian Gulf to Japan and Eastern China. In the present portion of our Collection, we propose chiefly to direct our attention to the transactions of the Portuguese; adding however such accounts as we may be able to procure of the early Voyages to India made by other European nations.

[Footnote 63: Portuguese Asia, by Manuel de Faria y Sousa-Astleys Collection of Voyages and Travels, I. 58. et sequ.]

It is not necessary to particularize the various sources from which the different articles to be contained in this _Book_ or division of our work has been collected, as these will be all referred to in the several chapters and sections of which it is composed. Indeed as the introductions we prefix, on the present and other similar occasions, are necessarily written _previous_ to the composition of the articles to which they refer, contrary to the usual practice, it would be improper to tie ourselves too strictly on such occasions, so as to preclude the availment of any additional materials that may occur during our progress, and therefore we here beg leave to notify that we reserve a power of including the earliest voyages of other European nations to the Atlantic and eastern coasts of Africa, together with Arabia and Persia, among the _early voyages to India_, if hereafter deemed necessary; which is strictly conformable to what has been already done in PART II. BOOK I, and what must necessarily be the case on the present occasion. It may be proper however to mention, that the present chapter, containing a continuation of the early Discoveries, Navigations, and Conquests of the Portuguese in India, is taken from the PORTUGUESE ASIA, of _Manuel de Faria y Sousa_, taking that author up in 1505, where we had to lay down _Castaneda_ at the end of our _Second BOOK_. _Faria_[64], who is designated as a member of the Portuguese military order of Christ, was a celebrated historian among his countrymen, and his work, entitled ASIA PORTUGUEZA, contains an account somewhat in the form of Annals, of the Transactions of his countrymen in _India_, from their first going there in 1497, to the year 1646. This work contains all the Portuguese Voyages and Discoveries, from their first attempt to extend along the western coast of _Africa_, to their final discovery of the farthest parts of _China_ and _Japan_: All their battles by sea and land, with their expeditions, sieges, and other memorable actions: The whole interspersed with descriptions of the places and countries they discovered, visited, or conquered; including accounts of the manners, customs, government, and religion of the natives. This author is remarkable for a concise and clear narrative, and for judicious reflections on the conduct of the Portuguese kings, ministers, governors, and commanders, as well as for his remarks on many other occasions. These are always just, and have often an air of freedom that might not have been expected under an arbitrary government: But in matters regarding religion, he often discovers a surprising reverse of character, full of weak and puerile credulity, the never-failing consequence of education and publication under the influence of that eternal and abominable stain of the peninsula, the _Inquisition_.

[Footnote 64: Astley, I. 87.]

This work of De Faria has gone through various impressions in Portugal, where it is esteemed a curious and accurate performance, though on some occasions it is alleged that he has placed too much reliance on _Mendez Pinto_, a dealer in bare-faced fiction. The first impression of the Portuguese Asia was printed at Lisbon in 1666, in 3 vols. small folio, and it has been often reprinted, and translated into Spanish, Italian, French, and English.

The English translation used on the present occasion, and we know of no other or later edition, was made by Captain John _Stevens_, and published at London in 1695, in 3 vols. 8vo. dedicated to Catherine of Portugal, Queen Dowager of England. In his Preface, Mr Stevens informs the reader, that he had reduced the work to considerably less size than the _Spanish original_, yet without omitting any part of the history, or even abridging any material circumstances; having cut off long speeches, which were only added by the author as rhetorical flourishes, and omitted many tedious lists of the names of officers who were present at the principal actions, and extended reflections of the author which were only useful to increase the size of the work. In this account of the work by the translator, the _Spanish_ is mentioned as the original. Indeed the Portuguese and Spanish original editions appear to have both appeared contemporaneously in 1666.[65]

[Footnote 65: Bibl. Univ. des Voy. IV. 576.]

In the employment of Faria we have followed the example of Astleys Collection of Voyages and Travels, of which Mr John Green is said to have been the Editor. But although in that former Collection, published at London in 1745, an absolutely verbal and literal transcript is used so far as the Editor has been pleased to follow the translation of Stevens, many very curious and important particulars contained in that author are omitted, or slurred over by a hasty and careless abridgement. From where we take up Faria, in consequence of the loss of Castaneda, _we have given his work nearly entire_, only endeavouring to reduce the language of Captain Stevens to the modern standard, and occasionally using the freedom to arrange incidents a little more intelligibly, and to curtail a few trifling matters that seemed to possess no interest for modern readers. We have however availed ourselves of many valuable notes and illustrations of the text by the Editor of Astleys Collection, all of which will be found acknowledged and referred to in their proper places. And we have adopted from the same source some valuable additions to the text of Faria, intimately connected with the subject, which are likewise carefully acknowledged. Thus, like many former articles in this Collection, we trust that the present, as being greatly fuller, will be found more satisfactory and informing than any similar account in former Collections of Voyages and Travels.

After so considerable an interval employed on the Discoveries in America, it may be proper to remark that the former Account of the Discovery of the maritime route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and the commencement of the Portuguese Conquests in the East, as contained in the _Second_ Volume of this Work, Part II. Chap. VI. _Sections I. to IX_. pp. 292-505, comprises only a period of _nine_ years, from the setting out of _Vasco de Gama_ in July 1497, on his adventurous Voyage, by which he completed the discovery of the way by sea to India from Europe, projected by Prince Henry in 1412, _eighty-five_ years before. On that former occasion, following the narrative of Hernan Lopez de Castaneda, we brought down the Transactions of the Portuguese in India to the year 1505; including the almost incredible defence of Cochin by the intrepid Pacheco against the immensely more numerous forces of the Zamorin of Calicut; the relief of the chivalric besieged, by the arrival of Lope Suarez de Menezes in September 1505; and the voyage of Suarez back to Portugal in 1505, leaving Manuel Telez de Vasconcelles as captain-general of the Portuguese possessions in India. It has been formerly mentioned, Vol. II. p.500, note 5, that Castaneda names this person Lope Mendez de Vasconcelles, and that he is named Manuel Telez de Barreto by the editor of Astleys Collection, in which we now find that he had followed the author of the Portuguese Asia. The difference between these authorities is irreconcileable, but is quite immaterial to the English reader.--E.