Portuguese portraits

by Aubrey F. G. Bell

But although Albuquerque could be harsh and grim enough (his suggestion to King Manoel that Spanish and Portuguese Jews in India should be extinguished one by one is most sinister), and was quick to anger and a stern disciplinarian, he had no delight in cruelty for cruelty’s sake. He wished to reduce the Moors throughout India to subjection, and considered that such acts would best spread the terror of his name and conceal the difficulties of his position. He would have been the first to admit that his policy in this respect was a sign of weakness.

Albuquerque’s first great achievement was the bombardment and capture of the important city of Ormuz, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, and in October he set about building a fortress. Milton in the following century wrote of “the wealth of Ormuz.” To Albuquerque it was but the first stone in the vast edifice of his projects, but to his captains it was already more than enough. They wished to be making prizes on the high seas, not to be bottled up in Ormuz building a fort as if they were masons. Albuquerque, to whom in their complaints they were very much like gnats in a thunderstorm, went on with his work, tore up their first petition and placed a second under a jamb of one of the fort’s doorways as it was being built. This was too much for the vanity of his captains and several of them sailed away to India.

The result of this desertion was that Albuquerque was obliged temporarily to abandon Ormuz. Small wonder that he wrote of their conduct with extreme bitterness. “Without shame or fear of the King or your Lordship,” he says in his letter to the Viceroy, Dom Francisco de Almeida, “they deserted me in time of war, and during actual hostilities with this city they left me and fled.... Portuguese gentlemen have been guilty of no such vileness these three hundred years, nor have I read of any such in the ancient chronicles.”

Even if they had all the right in the world on their side, these men had deserted in the presence of the enemy; and had they been shot by order of the Viceroy there and then, Portuguese rule would have been greatly helped and strengthened and not only many troubles but many lives spared in the future.

But no such salutary discipline prevailed in India; the instructions given to the captains were partly independent, and the Viceroy received them courteously and bade them draw up a document of their complaints. When Albuquerque arrived in India his enemies took care to foster differences between him and the Viceroy, who was opposed to Albuquerque’s policy and methods, and, after being treated with great discourtesy, Albuquerque was placed under arrest. One of the accusations of his captains was that he wished to make himself King of Ormuz.

They little knew their man. To expect Albuquerque, whose dreams of conquest were as wide and magnificent as those of Alexander, to vegetate as King of Ormuz was a mistake as colossal as to believe that Napoleon could be content to rule Elba. There can be no doubt that Albuquerque was unjustly treated by men incapable of understanding him, all the more so in that Almeida’s term of office was up and by right it was Albuquerque and not he who should have been governing India. Albuquerque for his part disdained to be conciliatory.

Fortunately for Albuquerque and for India his imprisonment only lasted a few weeks. The arrival of the Marshal, Fernando Coutinho, from Portugal put a new face on the situation; he released Albuquerque and installed him as Governor of India. Almeida set out for, but never reached, Portugal.

The year 1509 was almost out, and it is 1510 which marks the beginning of Albuquerque’s victories. With the Marshal he attacked Calicut, but the Marshal’s impetuous rashness (he was so nettled by a first success of the impetuous but wise Albuquerque that he said he would take Calicut with no other arm than a stick in his hand) involved the expedition in disaster, and, although they sacked Calicut, the Marshal and many of the Portuguese lost their lives in a disorderly retreat to the ships, Albuquerque himself receiving a wound which permanently disabled his left arm.

The rest of the year was occupied with Goa.[14] He obtained possession of this city after a mere show of resistance, but a large and ever-growing army of Turks forced him to abandon it after being reduced to great straits and danger. Albuquerque had had fresh trouble with his captains, but on the arrival of a few ships from Portugal he returned to Goa in the autumn and stormed it. Most of the Moors were put to the sword in a massacre which lasted four days. Some Moorish women of almost white complexion he married to Portuguese soldiers. This was a deliberate policy, approved by the King of Portugal, in order to provide a peaceful settled population.

The possession of Goa changed the whole position of the Portuguese in India. Remote kings who had hitherto looked on the new-comers as passing freebooters now sent ambassadors offering friendship and treaties.