He sent the King a long list of those who had conspicuously distinguished themselves, and for himself he asked for the reward or alviçaras which it was customary to give to a general who had won a battle or taken a city. “And because your Highness may give me one unsuited to my nature and mode of life, I will ask for it specifically, and it is that you should grant me a chestnut-grove which you have in the Serra de Cintra, by the King’s Fountain, bordering on my quinta, that my servants, having chestnuts to eat on my estate, may not go plundering what does not belong to them. Its value may be ten or twelve thousand réis, but to me it will be worth many thousands of crusados.”
There may be something a little theatrical and fantastic (contemporary historians call him bizarro and fanfarrão) in some of Castro’s actions in India, in his Albuquerquian prowess on the coast of Cambaya, the pawning of his beard (again in imitation of Albuquerque), his triumphal entry into Goa, his preparation of stakes on which to spit the Sultan as Pacheco had prepared one for the Samuri of Calicut; but there can be no doubt of the sincerity of his desire to obtain this Cintra castanhal.
After his victory he besought the King not to prolong his term of office beyond the ordinary three years, and to allow him to return to the Serra de Cintra, and in his will he says: “I have near Cintra a quinta, called the Quinta of the King’s Fountain, which I made, and to which I am greatly devoted because I made it and because it is in a country where my father and ancestors were born,” while his letters contain several pathetic references of the same kind.[20]
After his victory over the Moors, Dom João de Castro set about rebuilding Diu, and to obtain money sent an appeal to the citizens of Goa with some hairs of his beard in pawn,[21] since it was impossible to send the bones of his son, as he had first intended, his death being but recent. The citizens of Goa responded nobly to the appeal, and when the Governor returned to Goa in the spring of 1547 received him with great rejoicing. His barbaric “triumph” has been often described.
“He was richly Cloath’d, giving the season its due, and became them as well and sprightly as his Arms. He had on a French suit of crimson satin, with Gold twist about the Slashes and Seams, and, not to forget he was a Souldier, he put on a Coat of Mail wrought on Cloth of Gold with Buttons of Plate [i.e. silver].
“The Magistrates of the City received the Governour under a Canopy and presently a Citizen of Quality, reverently bowing, took his Hat from his Head, putting him on a Crown of Triumph and in his Hand a Palm.
“The ladies from their Windows sprinkled the Triumpher with distilled Waters of diverse Spices.”[22]
In Portugal, too, the news of the victory before Diu was received with universal exultation. The King raised Castro to the dignity of Viceroy—the fourth Viceroy of India—granted him ten thousand crusados, and gave his son Dom Alvaro the command of the Indian Sea. But instead of allowing him to return he prolonged his term of office for another four years. Castro was ill at the time, and shortly afterwards this “saint and hero,” as the modern Portuguese historian Oliveira Martins calls him, died at Goa in the arms of his friend St. Francis Xavier (June 1548).
Thus Albuquerque, whose ties with Portugal had been gradually replaced by those that bound him to Goa, which he had made, as Castro his quinta, died with the bitter knowledge that, if he lived, he must spend his years in Portugal, a whale among minnows, and watch his work being undone by others; Castro, with his thoughts ever turning to the rocks and woods of Cintra and the study of philosophy in his beloved quinta, died in a foreign grandeur at Goa. He died in poverty, for, ever disinterested and humane and generous towards others, he had spent his money on the soldiers whom the State neglected to pay, and himself remained penniless.
The last scene of his life in which he addressed the chief officials and magistrates of Goa is almost as famous as the pawning of his beard. “I am not asham’d, gentlemen, to tell you that the Vice Roy of India wants in this sickness those Conveniences the meanest Souldier finds in the Hospitals. I came to Serve not to Traffick in the East, I would to your Selves have pawn’d the Bones of my Son and did pawn the Hairs of my Beard to assure you I had no other Plate or Hangings in the House to buy me a Hen, for in the Fleets I set forth the Souldiers fed upon the Governour’s Salary before the King’s pay, and ’tis no wonder for the Father of so many children to be poor. I request of you during the time of this Sickness to order me out of the King’s Revenue a proportionable maintenance and to appoint a Person of your own who may provide me a moderate allowance.”[23]