en a very remarkable captain. He
was a man of the strictest veracity, and so pure in the justice he
administered that the Hindus and Moors after his death, whenever
they received any affront from the Governors of India, used to go
to Goa to his tomb and make offerings of choice flowers and of oil
for his lamp, praying him to do them justice. He was very
charitable to the poor, and settled many women in marriage in Goa.
For he was of such a generous disposition that all the presents and
gifts which the kings of India bestowed on him--and they were
numerous and of great value--he divided among the captains and
fidalgos who had assisted him in obtaining them. He was very
honourable in his manner of life, and so careful over his language,
that the greatest oath which he ever took when he was very much
enraged was this: "I abhor the life that I live." He died at the
age of sixty-three years, having governed India for six years.'[13]

[Footnote 13: Albuquerque's _Commentaries_, vol. iv. pp. 199, 200.]

{145}

CHAPTER VI

THE RULE OF ALBUQUERQUE (_continued_)

_His Internal Policy_

The relations of Portugal with Asia were in their origin, and
throughout the reign of King Emmanuel, based on the desire to
monopolise the commerce of the East with Europe. The idea of the
universal conversion of the heathen to Christianity did not develop
itself until the reign of King John III, Emmanuel's eldest son and
successor. The idea of empire preceded that of proselytism, and was
first enunciated by Albuquerque. The three conceptions are all
closely united in the later history of the Portuguese in India, but
they were evolved separately, had separate origins and distinct aims.

The establishment of direct commerce after the voyage of Vasco da
Gama, led inevitably to the imperial notions of Albuquerque. The
history of the Dutch and English power in the East followed the same
lines, and the parallels which can be drawn are numerous and
striking. But the idea of universal conversion to Christianity was a
purely Portuguese and sixteenth-century idea. The Dutch and the {146}
English East India Companies discouraged Christian missionaries; the
Portuguese, on the other hand, in the later days of their ascendancy,
made their whole system of government subservient to the propagation
of the Christian faith. It is not necessary here to draw deductions
from this striking contrast. It is purely a matter of spe