(1462?-1515)
Aquelle invencivel e espantoso capitão Affonso de Albuquerque.—Heitor Pinto, Imagem da Vida Christam.
O sem segundo Affonso de Albuquerque, honra de todos os advertidos e scientes capitães que teve o mundo.—João Ribeiro, Fatalidade historica da Ilha de Ceilão.
Albuquerque terribil, Castro forte.—Camões, Os Lusiadas.
Had Affonso de Albuquerque died five or six years before he did the world would never have realised that it had lost one of the greatest men of all nations and ages. Born of an ancient family[12] about the year 1460,[13] Albuquerque had in 1514 seen thirty-eight years’ service. He won the regard of Prince João in the campaign against Spain in which that prince saved his father from irretrievable defeat, and he became his equerry when he had succeeded to the throne as João II. He also served with distinction in Africa.
It was in 1503, when he was over forty, that he first went to India. In April of that year he sailed with his cousin Francisco de Albuquerque in command of six ships, the chief object of the expedition being to establish the friendship existing between the King of Cochin and the Portuguese and to build a fort at Cochin. Albuquerque made no long stay in India, and in July of the following year was back in Lisbon. But he remained long enough to see the vast possibilities there of failure or success for Portugal, and when, two years later, he again went out, although he sailed as the subordinate of Tristão da Cunha, it was on the understanding that he should soon obtain independent command and with the provisional appointment as Governor of India in his pocket.
Smooth co-operation with other officials was not Albuquerque’s strong point, and he felt no doubt that if he was to serve his King and country as he would wish he must be able to act freely. It is significant of his commanding personality that during his two years’ presence at Court he succeeded in imposing his views. In his absence later his enemies were often able to tie him hand and foot even though he was Governor of India.
There were two opposed policies. Hitherto the Portuguese in India had been confined to the sea, and many considered that this situation should continue. In a sense they were right, since it was obviously impossible in so vast an empire to conquer and hold large tracts of land. But Albuquerque considered that this floating empire should be nailed down at cardinal points by capturing important towns and building strong forts, and it was with this purpose that he went out to India.
In the summer of 1507 he separated, according to his instructions, from Tristão da Cunha, and when the latter returned to Portugal with the rest of the fleet Albuquerque with his six ships remained in India. Of these ships he has left a vivid description: there were no provisions, the lances and other arms were few and rotten, with great scarcity of cables, sails, and rigging; the powder was all wet, of bombardiers there were but few, of carpenters one or two, and a hundred and fifty men were dying of disease.
Even so he set to work to strike terror into the Moors and hammer the Portuguese Empire into shape. Coasting down Arabia he sacked various cities, spreading desolation with fire and sword and mercilessly mutilating the Moors who surrendered. The poet Antonio Ferreira called Albuquerque “clement.” It is not a clemency that we would wish to encounter in ordinary life, and even among his contemporaries some condemned his cruelty. Bishop Osorio, for instance, considered it as unworthy of so great a man: illius rebus gestis indignum.