Albuquerque, after his first conquest of Goa and after that of Malacca, showed himself ready to treat the Moslems with clemency. In both instances that clemency was abused. The Muhammadans of Goa undoubtedly favoured the advancing army of Yusaf Adil Sháh; and the Muhammadans of Malacca began to plot against the Portuguese supremacy as soon as it was firmly established. It was for these reasons that he ordered the indiscriminate slaughter of the Muhammadans of Goa on his second conquest of that city, and that he directed the execution of Utemuta Rájá at Malacca. It was impossible that the two rival trading nationalities could co-exist; the one was inevitably led to destroy the other.
The first means devised for the overthrow of Muhammadan commerce was the system of licenses. Before Albuquerque's arrival the Portuguese arrogated to themselves the right of seizing any ship which did not carry a license granted by the Portuguese authorities. When this custom had been thoroughly established, it was followed by the complete prohibition of all licenses to trade with the Red Sea. Even when such a powerful ruler as the king of Gujarát asked permission to send ships to Aden, Albuquerque refused, and every vessel carrying merchandise in that direction was regarded as legitimate prey. The next step to closing the sea by means of the superiority of the Portuguese vessels was to build fortresses in spots commanding the trade routes. This was why Albuquerque laid such weight on the necessity of building a fortress at Ormuz, and of endeavouring to capture Aden.
So far the policy of King Emmanuel, of Almeida, and of Albuquerque agreed. But the latter advanced beyond the notions of his sovereign and his predecessor in his endeavour to found a Portuguese empire in the East. His system rested on four main bases. He desired to conquer certain important points for trading purposes, and to rule them directly; he desired to colonise the selected districts by encouraging mixed marriages with the native inhabitants; where he could not conquer or colonise he desired to build fortresses; and where this was impracticable he desired to induce the native monarchs to recognise the supremacy of the king of Portugal and to pay him tribute. It is not necessary to illustrate Albuquerque's policy on all these points at greater length than has already been done. His building of fortresses has been shown in the instances of Calicut, Malacca, and Ormuz; much has been said of his policy of conquest with regard to Goa; and his effort to induce native monarchs to become tributary has been related with regard to the King of Ormuz, the Zamorin of Calicut, and the Rájá of Cochin.
But Albuquerque's policy of colonisation is unique in the history of the Europeans in India; it has been far-reaching in its results, and has profoundly influenced the present condition of the Portuguese in India. His notion of an Eastern empire differed entirely from that taken in subsequent centuries by the English. He had no horror of mixed marriages, no dislike of half-castes. On the contrary, he did all in his power to create a race of half-caste Portuguese. When Goa was taken for the second time he tried to induce as many Portuguese as possible to marry native women, and especially the wives of the Muhammadans he had killed. He presided at these marriages himself, and gave dowries to couples married as he desired. The class he particularly encouraged were the artisans, who had been sent out from Portugal as ship-builders, rope-makers, and workmen in the arsenals and dockyards. He was also urgent in inducing his gunners to marry.
His aim in this policy was to form a population which should be at once loyal to Portugal and satisfied to remain in India for life. Officers indeed might expect to return to the fatherland, but Europeans of inferior ranks were too valuable to be allowed to escape. In all it is narrated that about 450 Portuguese were married to native women before he left Goa for Malacca. A quaint account of Albuquerque's colonising policy is given in the Commentaries:—
'Those who desired to marry were so numerous, that Affonso de Albuquerque could hardly grant their requests, for he did not give permission, except for men of proved character, to marry. But in order to favour this work, as it was entirely of his own idea, and also because they were men of good character and had deserved by their good services that this privilege should be granted to them, he extended the permission to marry far beyond the powers which had been assigned by the King Emmanuel, for the women with whom they married were the daughters of the principal men of the land. And he granted this favour, among other reasons, in order that when the Hindus observed what he did for their daughters and nieces and sisters they might with better willingness turn Christians; and for this reason he would not suffer any of the women to be enslaved, but ordered that they should be all taken away from the masters who had possession of them; and he divided among the married ones the lands, houses, and cattle and everything else that there was, to give them a start in life; and if the women whom he thus gave in marriage asked for the houses which had been in possession of their fathers or their husbands, he ordered that these should be so given, and therein they found many jewels and gold pieces which had been hidden underground and abandoned when the city was captured.'1
1 Albuquerque's Commentaries, vol. iii. pp. 41, 42.
This colonising policy was carried out by Albuquerque both for moral and political reasons, but it was not approved by all the other Portuguese officers in India. Some of the Catholic clergy objected, in spite of his making baptism a preliminary to marriage, and Diogo Mendes, when Captain of Goa, did all he could to discourage the married men. Albuquerque dwells at length on this subject in the long despatch which he wrote to the king on April 1st, 1512, after his return from Malacca.2 It was one of his favourite schemes, and was well suited to the inclinations of the Portuguese people. Possibly no other nation is so willing to intermarry with alien races as the Portuguese. In Portugal itself there remain many traces in the physiognomy of the people of the intermarriage of the original stock with descendants of the Moors and even of the negro slaves, who were largely imported; in Brazil, an important division of the population is descended from mixed marriages between the Portuguese settlers and the aboriginal tribes; and in India the number of Portuguese half-castes forms a recognised section of the Christian population. These men and women resemble natives more than Europeans, and often appear to have only a very small amount of European blood.
2 Cartas de Albuquerque, vol. i. pp. 29-65.
But however desirous Albuquerque might be to create a body of Portuguese colonists and half-castes, he knew he could not establish a complete power in India by this means alone. The proportion of Europeans must inevitably be small, and some means had to be devised for governing the natives. This was one of the arguments employed by the school of Almeida for abandoning Goa. At Cochin, for instance, the Portuguese authority was only supreme within the limits of the fortress, and the task of governing the city was left to the Hindu Rájá. But the conquest of the island and city of Goa produced a new set of conditions, and for the first time a civilised European state had to provide for the government of Hindus. Albuquerque boldly faced the difficulty. He declared that the expenses of government must be met out of revenue, and that the ownership of Goa should not cause any drain on the king's finances. He did not at first design to administer the island by Portuguese officials, but resolved to farm out its revenues to native chiefs.