was the cause of unnecessary expense, being of no use except to
give trouble to the soldiers; (2) that therein there must always be
continual war, for the King of Bijapur was so powerful, that he would
be sure to try his utmost to recover it, because it was the chief
port of his dominions; (3) that the revenues of the island, upon
which Albuquerque laid great importance, could not be collected,
except by maintaining a great number of people with heavy expenses
for the collection of these revenues, since the King of Bijapur
himself could not collect them without the assistance of a large
army; (4) that the King of Bijapur would be glad to agree to any
proposal, and to become tributary to His Highness the King of
Portugal, provided that Goa was restored to him.

These articles were laid before the captains, who unanimously
condemned them and stated--

'That they were amazed at His Highness desiring to surrender, in
pursuance of the advice of men who had never donned a suit of
armour for the sake of experiencing the trouble it would involve, a
place so commodious and important {120} as Goa, which had been
acquired at the cost of so much Portuguese blood.'[1]

[Footnote 1: Albuquerque's _Commentaries_, vol. iii. p. 264.]

It may be doubted whether the council would have come to this
decision had Albuquerque laid the subject before it before the relief
of Goa, but he carefully left the point undecided, until after his
great victory over Rasul Khan and the capture of Benastarim.

Albuquerque's despatch upon the retention of Goa reveals the whole of
his policy, and it must be carefully studied by anyone who wishes to
understand the greatness of his views.

'Sire,' he wrote to the King, 'I captured Goa, because Your
Highness ordered me to do so, and the Marshal had orders to take it
in his instructions; I took it also, because it was the
headquarters of the league which was set on foot in order to cast
us out of India; and if the fleet which the Turks had prepared in
Goa river (with a large force of men, artillery, and arms specially
assembled for this object) had pushed forward, and the fleet from
Egypt had come at this juncture, as they had expected, without
doubt I should have been utterly discomfited; yea, even if ever so
great a fleet had come from Portugal they would not have allowed it
to make good its arrival in this country. But when once Goa was
conquered, everything else was