[Footnote 100: In a plan of Ormuz given in Astley's Collection, the isle of Kishoma or Kishmis is placed at a small distance from that of Ormuz or Jerun, and is said to be the place whence Ormuz is supplied with water. In fact the island of Kismis or Kishom is of considerable size and some fertility, though exceedingly unhealthy, while that of Jerun on which Ormuz was built, though barren and without water, was comparatively healthy. It was a commercial garrison town of the Arabs, for the purpose of carrying on the trade of the Persian Gulf, and at the same time withdrawing from the oppressive rule of the Turkoman conquerors of Persia.--E.]
When Albuquerque arrived at Ormuz about the end of September 1507, Sayf Oddin a youth of twelve years of age was sovereign, under the guardianship of a slave named Khojah Attar, a man of courage but of a subtile and crafty disposition. Hearing what had been done by Albuquerque at the towns upon the coast, Attar made great preparations for resisting the new enemy. For this purpose he laid an embargo on all the ships in the port, and hired troops from all the neighbouring countries, so that when the Portuguese entered the port there were 30,000 armed men in the city, of whom 4000 were Persians, the most expert archers then in the world. There were at that time 400 vessels in the harbour, 60 of which were of considerable size, the crews of which amounted to 2500 men. Albuquerque was not ignorant of the warlike preparations which had been made for his reception; but to shew his determined resolution, he came immediately to anchor in the midst of five of the largest ships riding in the harbour, firing his cannon as he sailed along to strike a terror into the inhabitants, and the shore was soon lined by 8000 troops. As no message was sent to him by the king, he commanded the captain of the largest ship, which seemed admiral over the rest, to repair on board of him, who immediately complied, and was received with much civility, but in great state. He then desired this man to go on shore and inform the king of Ormuz, that he had orders from the king of Portugal to take him under the protection of that crown, and to grant him leave to trade in the Indian seas, on condition that he submitted himself as vassal to the crown of Portugal, and agreed to pay a reasonable tribute: But if these proposals were rejected, his orders were to subdue Ormuz by force of arms. It was assuredly no small presumption to offer such degrading terms to a king who was at the head of above 30,000 fighting men, and 400 ships, while all the force he had against such prodigious force, was only 460 soldiers and seven ships. The Moorish captain, who was from Cambaya, went on shore and delivered this insolent message to the king and his governor Attar; who immediately sent Khojah Beyram with a message to Albuquerque, excusing them for not having sent to inquire what the Portuguese wanted in their port, and promising that the governor should wait upon him next day. Attar however did not perform this promise, but endeavoured to spin out the time by a repetition of messages, in order to strengthen the fortifications of the city, and to receive farther supplies. Albuquerque immediately perceived the purport of these messages, and told Beyram that he would listen only to the acceptation of peace on the terms proposed, or an immediate declaration of war. To this insolent demand, Beyram brought back for answer, that Ormuz was accustomed to receive, and not to pay tribute.
During the night, the noise of warlike instruments, and the shouts of the troops collected in Ormuz were heard from all parts of the city; and when morning came, the whole walls, the shore, and the vessels in the harbour were seen crowded with armed men, while the windows and flat tops of all the houses were filled with people of both sexes and all ages, anxious to behold the expected events. Albuquerque immediately began to cannonade the city and the large Moorish ships, and was spiritedly answered by the enemy, who took advantage of the obscurity occasioned by the smoke to send a large party of armed men in 130 boats to attack the ships, and did some damage among the Portuguese by incessant and prodigious discharges of arrows and stones. But as many of the boats were sunk by the Portuguese artillery, and numbers of the men slain and drowned, they were forced to retire. They returned again to the charge with fresh numbers; but after a severe conflict were again obliged to retreat with prodigious loss, the sea being dyed with blood, and great numbers of them slain. By this time, Albuquerque had sunk two of the largest ships in the port and taken a third, not without considerable opposition on the part of the enemy, forcing the surviving Moors to leap into the sea; and the other captains of his squadron had captured three ships, and had set above thirty more on fire. The crews of these cut their cables and drifted over to the Persian shore to enable themselves to escape; but by this means communicated the conflagration to other vessels that were lying aground. These disasters struck such terror into the people of Ormuz that they all fled in dismay within their walls, and Khojah Attar sent a message to Albuquerque offering to submit to his proposals; on which he put a stop to farther hostilities, yet suspecting the governor of treachery, he threatened to inflict still heavier calamities on the city unless the terms were performed with good faith. Thus, with the loss only of ten men on the side of the Portuguese, most of the numerous vessels belonging to the enemy, full of various rich commodities, were taken, burnt, sunk, or torn to pieces, and above seventeen hundred of the Moors were slain, numbers of whose bodies were seen floating in the harbour. Many of these were seen to have ornaments of gold, which the Portuguese anxiously sought after, and on this occasion it was noticed that several of the enemy had been slain by their own arrows, none being used by the Portuguese.
Khojah Attar, dismayed by the prodigious injury sustained in the conflict, and afraid of still heavier calamities, called a council of the chief officers of the kingdom to deliberate on what was best to be done, when it was agreed to submit for the present to the demands of Albuquerque; after which articles of pacification were drawn up and sworn to between the parties. The two principal articles were, that the king of Ormuz submitted to pay a tribute to the king of Portugal of 15,000 Xerephines yearly[101], and that ground should be allowed for the Portuguese on which to build a fort. The fort was accordingly immediately commenced, and considerable progress was made in its construction in a few days. On purpose to avoid the payment of the tribute, Khojah Attar dressed up a pretended embassy from the king of Persia demanding payment of the usual tribute, and required that Albuquerque should give them an answer, as the king of Ormuz was now subject to the crown of Portugal. Albuquerque penetrated into this design, and desired Attar to send some one to him to receive the answer. The pretended Persian ambassador accordingly waited upon him, to whom he gave some spears and bullets, saying such was the coin in which the tribute should be paid in future. Finding this contrivance fail, Attar endeavoured to corrupt some of the Portuguese, and actually prevailed on five seamen to desert, one of whom had been bred a founder, who cast some cannon like those belonging to the Portuguese. Being informed by these deserters that Albuquerque had only about 450 soldiers, Attar began to pick up fresh courage, and entered into contrivances for breaking the peace, pretending at the same time to lay the blame on Albuquerque, and refused to deliver up the deserters.
[Footnote 101: A Xerephine being worth about half a crown, this tribute amounted to about L. 1875 sterling.--Astl. I. 66. a.--According to Purchas a Xerephine is worth 3s. 9d; so that the yearly tribute in the text is equal to L. 2812 20s. sterling.--E.]
The high spirit of Albuquerque could not brook this conduct, and determined upon taking vengeance, but had little success in the attempt being badly seconded by the officers serving under him. Taking advantage of this spirit of insubordination, of which he had ample intelligence as it was occasioned by his own intrigues, Attar one night set fire to a bark which the Portuguese were building on the shore; and at the same time one of the deserters called aloud from the wall on Albuquerque, to defend his boat with his 400 men, and he should meet 7000 archers. At this time some of the Portuguese captains gave intelligence to the enemy, and had even assisted the five renegades to desert. Enraged at this affront in burning his bark, Albuquerque endeavoured to set some ships on fire which were building or repairing in the arsenal of Ormuz, but failed in the attempt. He next undertook to besiege the city; and having taken several persons who were carrying provisions thither, he cut off their hands, ears, and noses, and sent them into the city in that miserable condition, to the great terror of the inhabitants. About this time there was a hot dispute between the Portuguese and the garrison of Ormuz, about some wells which supplied the inhabitants with water, which Albuquerque endeavoured to fill up, in which the Moorish captain and the guard over the wells were all slain, and the wells filled with the carcasses of their men and horses. The young king and his governor sallied out from the city to drive the Portuguese away, and actually cut off the retreat of Albuquerque; but a lucky cannon-ball opened the way, by throwing the cavalry of the enemy into confusion.
In these actions with the Ormuzians, Albuquerque was ill seconded by his people, three of his captains having resolved to leave him and to sail for India. These men drew up a letter or remonstrance, assigning reasons why he should desist from his present enterprise; which Albuquerque ordered one of the masons to lay beneath a stone in the wall of the fort, saying that he had there deposited his answer, and would be glad to see if any one dared to remove the stone to read what he had written. Though much offended by this, these captains did not venture to make any reply; yet jealous about the command of the fort, when it should be built, the three captains actually sailed away for India. Though much troubled at this shameful desertion, Albuquerque determined upon continuing his enterprise, notwithstanding that two other captains who still remained opposed him, and were desirous to follow the example of the other three; but by proper severity he deterred them from executing their designs. Learning that a fleet was on its way from Bahrayn for Keyshom with a reinforcement of men and provisions, Albuquerque endeavoured ineffectually to intercept it. After failing in this, he fell upon a country palace belonging to the king which was guarded by three hundred foot and sixty horse, whom he defeated with the loss of one man, killing eighty of the enemy. He then fell upon Keyshom or Queixome, which was defended by five hundred archers sent to Ormuz by the king of Lar or Laristan in Persia under the command of two of his nephews, both of whom were slain with most of their men, and the bodies of the two slain princes were sent by Albuquerque as a present to Attar. The town of Keyshom was plundered and burnt. Among the plunder was taken a large Persian carpet, which the soldiers were going to cut in pieces to divide among them, and for the greater convenience of removal, which Albuquerque purchased from them, and sent afterwards to the shrine of St Jago in Gallicia.
Having but few men left who were much harassed, and winter approaching, Albuquerque resolved to go to Socotora, and gave leave to Juan de Nova to sail for India, where he had formerly had the command of a fleet. He accordingly wintered at Socotora, where he relieved the Portuguese garrison, then much distressed by famine; for which purpose he went in his own ship to Cape Guardafu, and sent others to Melinda and Cape Fum, to seize some ships for the sake of their provisions. When winter was over, be resolved to return to Ormuz, though too weak to carry his designs into execution, yet to see in what disposition were the young king and his governor. On his way thither he determined to take revenge upon the town of Kalayat, for some injury that had been done there to the Portuguese. Kalayat is situated on the coast of Arabia beyond Cape Siagro, called also Cape Rasalgat, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Behind this town there is a rugged mountain, in which are some passes which open a communication with the interior; and by one of these opposite the town almost all the trade of Yemen or Arabia Felix, which is a fertile country of much trade and full of populous cities, is conveyed to this port. Immediately on his arrival, Albuquerque landed his troops and took possession of the town, most of the inhabitants escaping to the mountains and some being slain in the streets. He remained here three nights, on one of which a thousand Moors entered the town by surprise and did considerable damage before the Portuguese could be collected to oppose them, but were at length put to flight with great slaughter. Having secured all the provisions of Kalayat, which was the principal booty, Albuquerque set the place on fire and proceeded to Ormuz, where he arrived on the 13th of September[102]. He immediately sent notice of his return to the king and governor; on which Attar sent him a message, saying they were ready to pay the tribute of 15,000 Xerephins, but would on no account consent to the erection of the intended fort. Albuquerque therefore determined to recommence the siege of Ormuz, and ordered Martin Coello to guard with his ship the point of Turumbaka[103], where the wells are situated, and Diego de Melo to prevent intercourse with the island of Keyshom; while he and Francisco de Tavora anchored before the city. He there observed that Khojah Attar had completed the fort formerly begun by the Portuguese. In this new attempt the success was no greater than it had been formerly. On one occasion Diego de Melo and eight private men were slain; and on another Albuquerque was himself in much danger. Finding himself unable to effectuate any thing of importance, he returned to India, having taken a ship in which was a great quantity of valuable pearls from Bahrayn, and Francisco de Tavora took another ship belonging to Mecca.
[Footnote 102: No year is mentioned in the text of Faria, which is throughout extremely defective in dates; but from the context it was now probably the year 1508--E.]
[Footnote 103: Turumbaka, in the plan of Ormuz mentioned in a former note, is a palace belonging to the king of Ormuz, in the same island with the city. The Isle of Keyshom has already been stated as the place whence Ormuz was supplied with water; but there may have been tanks or cisterns at Turumbaka.--E]