A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Vii Part 1

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels.

Volume VII.

by Robert Kerr.

PART II. BOOK III. CONTINUED.

CONTINUATION OF THE DISCOVERIES AND CONQUESTS OF THE PORTUGUESE IN THE EAST; TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY VOYAGES Of OTHER EUROPEAN NATIONS TO INDIA.

CHAPTER IV. CONTINUED.

CONTINUATION OF THE PORTUGUESE TRANSACTIONS IN INDIA, AFTER THE RETURN OF DON STEPHANO DE GAMA FROM SUEZ IN 1541, TO THE REDUCTION OF PORTUGAL UNDER THE DOMINION OF SPAIN IN 1581.

SECTION XIII.

_Account of an Expedition of the Portuguese from India to Madagascar in 1613._

Being anxious to find out a considerable number of Portuguese who were reported to exist in the island of St. Lawrence or Madagascar, having been cast away at different times on that island, and also desirous of propagating the ever blessed gospel among its inhabitants, and to exclude the Hollanders from that island by establis.h.i.+ng a friendly correspondence with the native princes, the viceroy Don Jerome de Azevedo sent thither, in 1613, a caravel from Goa commanded by Paul Rodrigues de Costa, accompanied by two Jesuits, some interpreters, and a competent number of soldiers. This island is about 260 leagues in length and 600 in circ.u.mference[1], its greatest extent being from N.N.E. to S.S.W. It is 80 leagues from E. to W. where widest, but considerably less towards the north, where it ends in a point named St Ignatius which is about 15 leagues from east to west[2]. It may be considered as divided into three parts. The first or northern portion is divided from the other two by an imaginary line from east to west at Cape St Andrew[3]. The other two divisions are formed by a chain of mountains running nearly south from this line to Cape St Roma.n.u.s, otherwise Cape St Mary, but much nearer the east coast than the west. The island is divided into a great number of kingdoms, but so confusedly and ill-defined, that it were endless to enumerate them. It is very populous, the inhabitants having many cities and towns of different extent and grandeur[4]. The country is fertile and well watered, and everywhere diversified with mountains, vallies, rivers, bays, and ports.

The natives have no general name for the island, and are entirely ignorant of those of Madagascar and St Lawrence, which are given to it by strangers. The general population of the island consists of a nation called _Buques_, who have no religion and consequently no priests or places of wors.h.i.+p, yet all their youth are circ.u.mcised at six or seven years old, any one performing the operation. The natives are not all of one colour; some being quite black with crisp or curled hair like negroes; others not quite so black with lank hair; others again resembling mulatoes; while some that live in the interior are almost white, yet have hair of both kinds. They are of large stature, strong and well made, of clear judgment, and apt to learn. Every man has as many wives as he pleases or can maintain, turning them off at pleasure, when they are sure to find other husbands, all of whom buy their wives from their fathers, by way of repaying the expence of their maintenance before marriage. Their funeral obsequies consist chiefly in feasting the guests; and their mourning in laying aside all appearance of joy, and cutting off their hair or daubing their faces and bodies with clay.

Their government is monarchical, their kings or chiefs being called _Andias_, _Anrias_, and _Dias_, all independent of each other and almost continually engaged in war, more for the purpose of plunder than slaughter or conquest. On the Portuguese going among them, no arms were found in their possession except a few guns they had procured from the Moors and Hollanders, which they knew not how to use, and were even fearful of handling. They have excellent amber[5], white sandal, tortoises, ebony, sweet woods of various kinds, and abundance of slaves, with plenty of cattle of all kinds, the flesh of their goats being as sweet as mutton. The island likewise produces abundance of sea cows, sea-horses, monkeys, and some say tigers, with a great many snakes which are not very venomous. It has no elephants, horses, a.s.ses, lions, bears, deer, foxes, nor hares.

[Footnote 1: Madagascar, between the lat.i.tudes of 12 30' and 35 45' S.

and the longitudes of 44 and 53 W. from Greenwich, rather exceeds 1000 statute miles from N.N.W to S.S.E. and is about 220 miles in mean width from east to west. This island therefore, in a fine climate, capable of growing all the tropical productions in perfection, and excellently situated for trade, extends to about 200,000 square miles, or 128 millions of acres, yet is abandoned entirely to ignorant barbarians.--E.]

[Footnote 2: The north end of Madagascar, called the point of St Ignatius, is 70 miles from east to west, the eastern headland being Cape Natal or de Ambro, and the western Cape St Sebastian.--E.]

[3][Footnote 3: 3 Cape Antongil on the east coast is probably here meant, in lat. 15 45' S. as at this place the deep bay of Antongil or Manghabei penetrates about 70 mile inland, and the opposite coast also is deeply indented by port Ma.s.sali. It is proper to mention however, that Cape St Andrew is on the west coast of Madagascar, in lat. 17 12'

S.--E.]

[Footnote 4: There may be numerous villages, or collections of huts, in Madagascar, and some of these may possibly be extensive and populous; but there certainly never was in that island any place that merited the name of a city.--E.]

[Footnote 5: More probably Ambergris thrown on their sh.o.r.es.--E.]

The first place visited by de Costa on this voyage of discovery was a large bay near _Masilage_[6] in lat. 16 S. in which there is an island half a league in circ.u.mference containing a town of 8000 inhabitants, most of them weavers of an excellent kind of stuff made of the palm-tree. At this place the Moors used to purchase boys who were carried to Arabia and sold for infamous uses. The king of this place, named _Samamo_, received the Portuguese in a friendly manner, and granted leave to preach the gospel among his subjects. Coasting about 40 leagues south from this place, they came to the mouth of a large river named _Balue_ or _Baeli_ in about 17 S. and having doubled Cape St Andrew, they saw the river and kingdom of _Casame_, between the lat.i.tudes of 17 and 18 S. where they found little water and had much trouble[7]. Here also amity was established with the king, whose name was Sampilla, a discreet old man; but hitherto they could get no intelligence of the Portuguese whom they were sent in search of. On Whitsunday, which happened that year about the middle of May, ma.s.s was said on sh.o.r.e and two crosses erected, at which the king appeared so much pleased that he engaged to restore them if they happened to fall or decay. During the holidays they discovered an island in lat. 18 S. to which they gave the name of Espirito Santo[8], and half a degree farther they were in some danger from a sand bank 9 leagues long. On Trinity Sunday, still in danger from sand banks, they anch.o.r.ed at the seven islands of _Cuerpo de Dios_ or _Corpus Christi_[9] in 19 S. near the kingdom and river of _Sadia_ to which they came on the 19th of June, finding scarcely enough of water to float the caravel. This kingdom is extensive, and its princ.i.p.al _city_ on the banks of the river has about 10,000 inhabitants. The people are black, simple, and good-natured, having no trade, but have plenty of flesh, maize, tar, tortoises, sandal, ebony, and sweet woods. The name of the king was _Capilate_, who was an old man much respected and very honest. He received the Portuguese kindly, and even sent his son to guide them along the coast.

All along this coast from _Ma.s.salage_ to _Sadia_ the natives speak the same language with the Kafrs on the opposite coast of Africa; while in all the rest of the island the native language called _Buqua_ is spoken.

[Footnote 6: On this bay is a town called New Ma.s.sah to distinguish it from Old Ma.s.sah on the bay of Ma.s.sali, somewhat more than half a degree farther north. Masialege or Meselage is a town at the bottom of the bay of Juan Mane de Cuna, about half a degree farther south.--E.]

[Footnote 7: They were here on the bank of Pracel, which seems alluded to in the text from the shallowness of the water; though the district named Casame in the text is not to be found in modern maps--E.]

[Footnote 8: Probably the island of the bay of St Andrew in 17 30' is here meant; at any rate it must be carefully distinguished from Spiritu Santo, St Esprit, or Holy Ghost Island, one of the Comoros in lat. 15 S.--E.]

[Footnote 9: Perhaps those now called _barren isles_ on the west coast, between lat. 18 40' and 19 12' S. The river Sadia of the text may be that now called _Santiano_ in lat. 19 S.--E.]

Continuing towards the south they came to the country of the _Buques_, a poor and barbarous people feeding on the sp.a.w.n of fish, who are much oppressed by the kings of the inland tribes. Pa.s.sing the river _Mane_[10], that of _Saume_[11] in 20 15'; _Manoputa_ in 20 30', where they first heard of the Portuguese; _Isango_ in 21; _Terrir_ in 21 30'; the seven islands of _Elizabeth_ in 22; they came on the 11th of July into the port of _St Felix_[12] in 22, where they heard again of the Portuguese of whom they were in search, from _Dissamuta_ the king of that part of the country. On offering a silver chain at this place for some provisions, the natives gave it to an old woman to examine if it was genuine, and she informed the Portuguese that at the distance of three days journey there was an island inhabited a long while before by a white people dressed like the Portuguese and wearing crosses hanging from their necks, who lived by rapine and easily took whatever they wanted, as they were armed with spears and guns, with which information the Portuguese were much gratified. Continuing their voyage past the bay of _St Bonaventura_ and the mouth of the river _Ma.s.simanga_, they entered the bay of _Santa Clara_, where _Diama.s.suto_ came to them and entered into a treaty of friends.h.i.+p, wors.h.i.+pping the cross on his knees.

They were here told that white people frequented a neighbouring port, and concluded that they were Hollanders. Going onwards they found banks of sand not laid down in any chart, and entered a port in lat. 24 S.

The king of this place was named _Diacomena_, and they here learnt that there were Portuguese on the opposite coast who had been cast away, and now herded cattle for their subsistence. They said likewise that the Hollanders had been three times at their port, and had left them four musketeers with whose a.s.sistance they had made war upon their enemies.

On some trees there were several inscriptions, among which were the following. _Christophorus Neoportus Anglus Cap_. and on another _Dominus Robertus Scherleius Comes, Legatus Regis Persarum_.

[Footnote 10: It is singular that the large circular bay of Mansitare in lat. 19 30' S. is not named, although probably meant by the river _Mane_ in the text.--E.]

[Footnote 11: Now called Ranoumanthe, discharging its waters into the bay of St Vincents.--E.]

[Footnote 12: Now Port St James.--E.]

In the lat.i.tude of 25 S. they entered a port which they named St Augustine[13] in a kingdom called _Vavalinta_, of which a _Buque_ named _Diamacrinale_ was king, who no sooner saw the Portuguese than he asked if these were some of the men from the other coast. This confirmed the stories they had formerly heard respecting the Portuguese, and they were here informed that the place at which they dwelt was only six days sail from that place. In September they got sight of Cape _Romain_ or St _Mary_ the most southern point of Madagascar, where they spent 40 days in stormy weather, and on St Lukes day, 18th October, they entered the port of that name in the kingdom of Enseroe. The natives said that there were white people who wore crosses, only at the distance of half a days journey, who had a large town, and _Randumana_ the king came on board the caravel, and sent one of his subjects with a Portuguese to shew him where these white people dwelt, but the black ran away when only half way.

[Footnote 13: In lat. 23 30' or directly under the tropic of Capricorn, is a bay now called St Augustine. If that in the text, the lat.i.tude 1s erroneous a degree and a half.--E.]

Among others of the natives who came to this place to trade with the Portuguese, was a king named _Bruto Chembanga_ with above 500 fighting men. His sons were almost white, with long hair, wearing gowns and breeches of cotton of several colours with silver b.u.t.tons and bracelets and several ornaments of gold, set with pearls and coral. The territory of this king was named _Mataca.s.si_, bordering on _Enseroe_ to the west.

He said that the Portuguese were all dead, who not far from that place had built a town of stone houses, where they wors.h.i.+pped the cross, on the foot or pedestal of which were unknown characters. He drew representations of all these things on the sand, and demanded a high reward for his intelligence. Some of his people wore crosses, and informed the Portuguese that there were two s.h.i.+ps belonging to the Hollanders in port _St Lucia_ or _Mangascafe_. In a small island at this place there was found a _square stone fort_[14], and at the foot of it the arms of Portugal were carved on a piece of marble, with this inscription

REX PORTUGALENSIS O S.

[Footnote 14: This is unintelligible as it stands in the text. It may possibly have been a square stone pedestal for one of the crosses of discovery, that used to be set up by the Portuguese navigators as marks of possession.--E.]

Many conjectures were formed to account for the signification of the circle between the two last letters of this inscription, but nothing satisfactory could be discovered. King _Chembanga_ requested that a Portuguese might be sent along with him to his residence, to treat upon some important affairs, and left his nephew as an hostage for his safe return. Accordingly the master, Antonio Gonzales, and one of the priests named Pedro Freyre, were sent; who, at twelve leagues distance, came to his residence called _Fansaria_, a very populous and magnificent place.

At first he treated them with much kindness, after which he grew cold towards them, but on making him a considerable present he became friendly, and even delivered to them his eldest son to be carried to Goa, desiring that the two Jesuits and four other Portuguese might be left as hostages, to whom he offered the island of _Santa Cruz_ to live in. These people are descended from the Moors, and call themselves _Zelimas_; they have the alcoran in Arabic, and have faquirs who teach them to read and write; they are circ.u.mcised, eat no bacon, and some of them have several wives. The king said that in the time of his father a s.h.i.+p of the Portuguese was cast away on this coast, from which about 100 men escaped on sh.o.r.e, some of whom had their wives along with them, and the rest married there and left a numerous progeny. He repeated several of their names, and even showed a book in Portuguese and Latin which had belonged to them, and some maps; and concluded by saying that there were more Portuguese on that coast, seven days journey to the north. On farther inquiry, a man 90 years of age was found, who had known the Portuguese that were cast away there, and could still remember a few detached words of their language.

The Portuguese set all hands to work to build a house and chapel for the two Jesuits and four Portuguese who were to remain, and when the work was finished, ma.s.s was solemnly said on sh.o.r.e, many of the natives coming to learn how to make the sign of the cross. One day while the king was looking on, and saw several men labouring hard to carry a cross that was meant to be set upon a rock, he went half naked and bareheaded, and carried it without a.s.sistance to the place appointed. The Portuguese might well say they had found another emperor Heraclius; for after this pious act of gigantic strength, he became very wicked; for being ready to sail, De Costa demanded that the king's son who had been promised should be sent, but he denied having ever made any such promise, and offered a slave. On this the captain sent the master and pilot with some men to enforce the demand, and safe conduct for some Portuguese to go to port _St Lucia_ to see an inscription said by the natives to be at that place. The peace was thus broken, and a party of Portuguese soldiers was sent armed against the king, who endeavoured to resist, and the king's son, a youth of eleven years of age was brought away, the natives being unable to contend against fire-arms. Several messages were sent offering a high ransom for the boy; but on being told by the captain that he would lose his head if he did not carry him to the viceroy, they went away much grieved. This happened about the end of 1613; and towards the middle of 1614, de Costa arrived safe at Goa with the boy, whom the viceroy caused to be instructed in Christianity by the jesuits, and stood G.o.d-father at his baptism on St Andrews day, when he was named Andrew Azevedo.

The viceroy treated him with much honour and magnificence, in hopes that when he succeeded to his father, he might encourage the propagation of the gospel in Madagascar; and when he was supposed to be sufficiently instructed, he was sent away, accompanied by four Jesuits. On this occasion a pink and caravel were sent to Madagascar, commanded by Pedro de Almeyda Cabral, and Juan Cardoso de Pina, who sailed from Goa on the 17th of September 1616. On the 20th of March 1617, they discovered a most delightful island, watered with pure springs, and producing many unknown plants besides others already known, both aromatic and medicinal. To this island, in which were two mountains which overtopped the clouds, they gave the name of _Isola del Cisne_ or swan island, and on it the jesuits planted some crosses and left inscriptions commemorative of the discovery[15]. The wreck of two s.h.i.+ps of the Hollanders were found on this island. On the arrival of the two Portuguese s.h.i.+ps in the port of St Lucia in Madagascar, the king and queen of _Mataca.s.si_ received their son with the strongest demonstrations of joy, and gave back the hostages left on taking him away. The four jesuits with six soldiers accompanied the young prince to his father's court at _Fansaria_, where, and at every place through which he pa.s.sed, he was received with demonstrations of joy, which to the Portuguese seemed ridiculous, as no doubt those used by the Portuguese on similar occasions would have appeared to them. The king made a similar agreement with the two commanders on this voyage with that formerly made with De Costa, which was that the fathers should inhabit the inland of Santa Cruz and have liberty to preach the gospel in Madagascar. Upon this the fathers went to the fort at Santa Cruz, where Don Andrew, the king's son, sent them workmen and provisions.

[Footnote 15: The text gives no indication by which even to conjecture the situation of this island, unless that being bound towards the southern part of the east coast of Madagascar, it may possibly have been either the isle of France, or that of Bourbon.--E.]

The captain, Pedro de Almeyda, had orders to bring another of the king's sons to Goa, and if refused to carry one away by force; but the king declared that he had only one other son, who was too young for the voyage, on which Almeyda satisfied himself with Anria Sambo, the king's nephew, who was carried to Goa, and baptized by the name of Jerome. When sufficiently instructed in the Christian religion, he was sent back to his country in a pink, commanded by Emanuel de Andrada, together with two Jesuits, 100 soldiers, and presents for the king and prince, worth 4000 ducats. They set out in the beginning of February 1618; and being under the necessity of watering at the _Isola de Cisne_, they found three s.h.i.+ps sunk at the mouth of the river. On landing, twenty Hollanders were found about two leagues from the sh.o.r.e, guarding the goods they had saved from the wreck. They made some opposition, but were forced to submit to superior numbers, and were found to have a large quant.i.ty of cloves, pepper, arms, ammunition, and provisions. Andrada carried the prisoners, and as many of the valuable commodities on board his pink as it could contain, and set fire to the rest, though the Hollanders alleged that they had come from the Moluccas, with a regular pa.s.s.

When Andrada arrived in the port of St Lucia, the two Jesuits came to him both sick, declaring that it was impossible to live in that country, where all the men who had been left along with them had died. Andrada sent the letters with which he was intrusted to the king and prince, by the servants of Don Jerome; and in return, the king sent 100 fat oxen, with a great quant.i.ty of fowls and honey, and six slaves, but would not come himself, and it was found that his son had reverted to Mahometanism. The tribes in Madagascar called _Sadias_ and _Fansayros_ are _Mahometan Kafrs_[16], and are attached to the liberty allowed by the law of Mahomet, of having a plurality of wives. The king was of the _Fansayro_ tribe, and was now desirous to destroy Andrada and the Portuguese by treachery; incited to this change of disposition by a _Chingalese_ slave belonging to the Jesuits, who had run away, and persuaded the king, that the Portuguese would deprive him of his kingdom, as they had already done many of the princes in Ceylon and India. The Kafrs came accordingly to the sh.o.r.e in great numbers, and began to attack the Portuguese with stones and darts, but were soon put to flight by the fire-arms, and some of them slain, whose bodies were hung upon trees as a warning to the rest, and one of their towns was burnt.

[Footnote 16: In strict propriety, this expression is a direct contradiction, is Kafr is an Arabic word signifying _unbelievers_; but having been long employed as a generic term for the natives of the eastern coast of Africa, from the Hottentots to the Moors of Zeyla exclusively, we are obliged to employ the ordinary language.--E.]

Andrada carried away with him Don Jerome, the king's nephew, and a brother of his who was made prisoner in a skirmish with the natives, who was converted, and died at Goa. All the Jesuits agreed to desist from the mission of Madagascar, and departed along with Andrada much against his inclination; and thus ended the attempt to convert the natives of Madagascar to the Christian religion.

SECTION XIV.

_Continuation of the Transactions of the Portuguese in India, from 1617 to 1640; and the conclusion of the Portuguese Asia of Manuel de Faria._

Towards the end of 1617, Don Juan Coutinno, count of Redondo, came to Goa, as viceroy, to succeed Azevedo. During this year, three s.h.i.+ps and two fly-boats, going from Portugal for India, were intercepted near the Cape of Good Hope by six English s.h.i.+ps, when the English admiral declared that he had orders from his sovereign to seize effects of the Portuguese to the value of 70,000 crowns, in compensation for the injury done by the late viceroy Azevedo to the four English s.h.i.+ps at Surat.

Christopher de Noronha, who commanded the Portuguese s.h.i.+ps, immediately paid the sum demanded by the English admiral, together with 20,000 crowns more to divide among his men. But Noronha, on his arrival at Goa, was immediately put under an arrest by the viceroy, for this pusillanimous behaviour, and was sent home prisoner to Lisbon, to answer for his conduct.

In the year 1618, the Moor who had been seen long before, at the time when Nunno de Cunna took Diu, and was then upwards of 300 years old, died at Bengal now 60 years older, yet did not appear more than 60 years old at his death. In 1619, a large wooden cross, which stood on one of the hills which overlook Goa, was seen by many of the inhabitants of that city, on the 23d of February, to have the perfect figure of a crucified man upon it. The truth of this having been ascertained by the archbishop, he had it taken down, and got made from it a smaller cross, only two spans long, on which was fixed a crucified Jesus of ivory, and the whole surrounded by a golden glory; the rest of the cross being distributed to the churches and persons of quality. Ten days after this cross was removed, water gushed from the hole in which it was formerly fixed, in which cloths being dipped wrought many miraculous cures. A church was built on the spot to commemorate the miracle. At this time it was considered, in an a.s.sembly of the princ.i.p.al clergy, whether the threads, worn by the bramins across their shoulders, were a heathenish superst.i.tion or only a mark of their n.o.bility, and, after a long debate, it was determined to be merely an honourable distinction. The reason of examining this matter was, that many of the bramins refused to embrace the Christian faith, because obliged to renounce these threads.

In November 1619, the count of Redondo died; and, by virtue of a patent of succession, Ferdinand de Albuquerque became governor-general, being now 70 years of age, 40 of which he had been an inhabitant of Goa, and consequently was well versed in the affairs of India, but too slow in his motions for the pressing occasions of the time. During his administration, the Portuguese were expelled from Ormuz by the sultan of s.h.i.+ras, a.s.sisted by six English s.h.i.+ps.