After Passing The Winter In
Bengal With Great Difficulty On Account Of Famine, Sylveira Set Sail,
Being Invited By The
King of Aracan to come to his port of Chittagon by
a messenger who brought him a valuable present; but
All this kindness
was only intended to decoy him to his ruin, at the instigation of the
king of Bengal. He escaped however from the snare, and arrived at Ceylon
as Soarez had finished the fort of Columbo, of which he appointed
Sylveira to the command, leaving Azevedo with four ships to guard the
sea in that neighbourhood.
About the same time Menezes secured the safety of Malacca, as mentioned
before, by supplying it with men and ammunition, and appointed Alfonso
Lopez de Costa to the government, in place of Brito who was dying.
Duarte de Melo was left there with a naval force; and Duarte Coello was
sent with an embassy and present to the King of Siam, to confirm a
treaty of peace and amity, and to request of him to send a colony of his
subjects to inhabit the city of Malacca, so that the Moors whom he hated
as much as the Portuguese, might be for ever excluded from that place.
All this was agreed to, and as a testimonial of his friendship to the
Christians, he caused a great cross, ornamented with the arms of
Portugal, to be erected in a conspicuous part of the city of Hudia,
where he then resided. Having thus succeeded in his mission, Coello was
forced by stress of weather upon the coast of Pahang, where he was
received in a friendly manner by the king, who voluntarily submitted to
become a vassal to the crown of Portugal, and to pay a cup of gold as an
annual tribute. This was done more from hatred to the king of Bintang,
than from love to the Portuguese.
The kingdom of Siam was at this time one of the greatest in the east,
the two others of greatest consequence being China and Bisnagar. The
great river Menam runs through the middle of the kingdom of Siam from
north to south, having its source in the great lake of Chiamay in lat.
30 deg. N. and its mouth in 13 deg., so that the length of this kingdom is 330
leagues. On the west it joins Bengal, on the south Malacca, on the north
China, and on the east Cambodia. Its territory contains both mountains
and plains, and it is inhabited by many different races of people, some
of whom are extremely cruel and barbarous, and even feed on human flesh.
Among these the Guei ornament themselves with figures impressed by hot
irons[143]. Siam abounds in elephants, cattle, and buffaloes. It has
many sea-ports and populous cities, Hudia being the metropolis or
residence of the court. The religion of the Siamese agrees in many
considerable points with Christianity, as they believe in one God, in
heaven and hell, and in good and bad angels that attend upon every
person[144]. They build sumptuous temples, in which they have images of
vast size.
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