consequence declined to land, and as soon as
their determination was made known, the Malays set upon the factory,
and made Ruy de Araujo and about twenty men whom he had with him
prisoners.

They defended themselves gallantly, but Sequeira made no effort to
assist them, and sailed away out of the harbour. He was obliged
before leaving the peninsula to burn two of his ships for want of men
to navigate them, and with the other three he made his way to India.
When he reached the Malabar coast and touched at Caecoulao
(Kayenkolam), he heard that the Marshal had placed Albuquerque in
power, and that Almeida had departed. Sequeira, fearing the vengeance
of Albuquerque, at once set sail for Portugal, sending his other two
vessels under the command of Nuno Vaz de Castello-Branco to join the
Governor at Cochin. It was to wreak vengeance on the Sultan of
Malacca and to open up trade there that the squadron of Diogo Mendes
de Vasconcellos had been sent from Portugal in 1510; but, as has been
related, in spite of the captain's wishes, he and his men had been
detained by Albuquerque to take part in the second capture of Goa.

Ruy de Araujo wrote a pathetic letter to Albuquerque, describing the
manner in which he and his companions were treated. He told his
friend that {99} there were nineteen Portuguese alive at Malacca, who
had been greatly tortured to make them turn Muhammadans. He also said
that they had been very kindly treated by a Hindu merchant, named
Ninachatu, who had secured the means for the despatch of the letter.
He begged Albuquerque, for the love of God, to keep them in
remembrance, and rescue them out of their captivity; and he also
requested that the kindness of the Hindu merchant should not be made
known for fear that the Moslems of the Malabar coast should give
information to their co-religionists at Malacca.

It may well be imagined that Albuquerque was not sorry to go to the
rescue of the Portuguese prisoners. He would have postponed this duty
in order to obey the king's express commands; but now that the winds
forbade him to sail East, he determined to sail West. He started with
eighteen ships, carrying 1400 men; and though he lost one galley at
sea, he arrived safely at the port of Pedir in the island of Sumatra
in May 1511 with the rest of his fleet. At that place he found nine
of the Portuguese prisoners, who had escaped from Malacca, and he
then made his way slowly to the great city, which was said to co