EXPEDITION OF SOLEIMAN PASHA TO INDIA.
Spain had just completed the conquest of the New World; and so early as the year 900 (A. D. 1494.) the Portuguese, emboldened by her success, proceeded from the Western to the Eastern Ocean, and passing along the Mountains of the Moon, (where the blessed Nile has its source,) and the coasts of Abyssinia and Zanguebar, penetrated into India, and took possession of the fortresses of Sind. The kings of that country being too weak to resist them, the king of Guzerat applied for assistance to Sultan Soleiman Khan. This zealous monarch, with the view of driving the oppressive infidels from the coasts of Yemen and India, equipped a fleet of thirty galleys in the road of Suez, and gave the command of them to Khadem Soleiman Pasha, chief of the emirs of Egypt, who left the port of Suez about the end of Moharrem (940 A.D. 1533), and arrived on the seventh of Rabi-al-avul at the city of Aden, on the coast of Yemen, the fortresses of which, under the command of Amar Ben Davud, he took possession of, and having considerably strengthened them, gave them in charge to Behram Beg. He then proceeded towards Div, an Indian port in the possession of the Portuguese, which was the principal object of his efforts. The winds being favourable, he arrived in the beginning of Rabi-al-avul at the citadels of Goa and Kari, situate in the neighbourhood of Div, and also in the possession of the Portuguese, where he landed his men and artillery, and took both these fortresses; a thousand infidels falling by the sword. He next laid siege to Div, the citadel of which was defended on three sides by the sea, and on the land side by very strong fortifications; on which account he deemed it advisable to land twenty thousand men, and a considerable quantity of ammunition. The siege had how lasted a month, and the king of Guzerat had in vain expected the ammunition and provisions he had demanded from Prince Mahmoud. This prince, frightened at the murder of Amar, the emir of Aden, would neither come himself nor send succours. The besieged infidels then, as a last resource, persuaded Mahmoud that the murder was committed by Soleiman Pasha, and that any good the latter might do him would be dictated by treachery. Deceived by these insinuations of the infidels, he decidedly refused the succours. This refusal, together with his open opposition to them in other matters, and the peace he had made with the infidels, obliged the Moslems to raise the siege of the citadel: and they accordingly reimbarked their artillery and departed for Shedjer, where they arrived safely in twenty days. The governor of this city having surrendered, the fleet departed for Aden and Zebid. Emir Ahmed, having taken possession of the country, was then its governor. On the approach of Soleiman, the emir shut himself up in a fortress, which was subsequently taken, and the command of the province of Yemen was given to Mustafa Beg, son of Mohammed Pasha Bikli.[42] Soleiman Pasha, after remaining a month at these places for the defence of Yemen, sailed for Jidda, where he arrived on the twentieth of Sheval. Immediately on his arrival there he undertook the pilgrimage (to Mecca), and whilst the fleet continued its voyage, accompanying the caravan, he proceeded by land to Egypt, and at length reached Constantinople, where he obtained a seat in the divan.