Yet Bontaybo Went Off Secretly, And Gave
Warning To The General Not To Venture On Shore Or To Permit Any Of The
People To Land; As He Had Learned From The Moors, That Any Who Might Do
So Would Surely Lose Their Lives.
Bontaybo said farther, that all the
fair words of the king proceeded from dissimulation, that he might entice
the
General and his people on shore to kill them all; all which evil
intentions were occasioned by the Moors, who made the king believe that
the Portuguese were thieves and pirates, who had come to Calicut to steal
such merchandize as should be brought there; and who had come to spy out
the land, that they might return with a great armament to invade his
dominions. All this was confirmed by two Malabar idolaters, and the
general was in great uncertainty how best to proceed on the present
emergency. That same night, after dark, a Negro slave belonging to Diaz
came off, with the information that Diaz and Braga were made prisoners,
and with an account of the answer which the king had given to his message,
what he had ordered to be done with the present, and of the proclamations
which were made through the city. Diego Diaz, being anxious to have these
things communicated to the general, had bribed a fisherman to carry this
man on board, as he could not well be recognized in the night owing to
his colour. The general, though much offended at these injurious
proceedings, was unwilling to depart till he might see the end of these
things, and therefore waited to see whether anyone might come off to the
ships.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 575 of 812
Words from 159325 to 159604
of 224388
