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 god-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 ships of the
Hollanders were found on this island. On the arrival of the two
Portuguese ships in the port of St Lucia in Madagascar, the king and
queen of _Matacassi_ 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 passed, 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 ships sunk at the mouth of the river. On landing, twenty
Hollanders were found about two leagues from the shore, 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
quantity 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
pass.
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 quantity 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.
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