h a part of their nature as it was typical of the century in which
they lived.

Albuquerque's own character counted for much in his success. He was
comparatively an old man when he took up his governorship, and his
scheme of policy was by that time carefully matured. To that policy
he adhered unflinchingly from the beginning to the end of his career.
His extraordinary tenacity of purpose was one of his most remarkable
characteristics. He swore at the time of his first repulse at Ormuz
that he would return, and he did. He insisted on the capture and
retention of Goa, in spite of many varieties of opposition, and he
gained his point. There can be little doubt that had he survived he
would have succeeded in his cherished ambition of conquering Aden and
closing the Red Sea to the commerce of the East.

With this tenacity of purpose went a wide and {169} remarkable
tolerance. The favourable countenance he showed to the Hindus was due
to his nature as well as to his scheme of policy. With regard even to
the Muhammadans, whom he hated, he could show a certain tolerance
which would not have been found in a crusader. He sent embassies to
Shah Ismail, and the Kings of Gujarat and Bijapur, and was ready to
bear with the Moslems in Malacca and in India, until he grasped the
irreconcilable nature of their enmity to the Portuguese. He possessed
an intuitive knowledge of the best way to deal with Asiatic peoples.
He understood the importance of pomp and ceremony, and the influence
exerted by the possession of the prestige of victory.

Throughout there was something of the grandiose in his nature and his
views. His project of establishing an empire in India naturally
seemed absurd to his contemporaries. And the attempt to realise it
exhausted the Portuguese nation. But the existence of the English
empire in India has shown that Albuquerque's idea was not
impracticable in itself; it was his nation which proved inadequate to
the task. Albuquerque's courage and his cruelty, his piety and his
cunning, were not peculiar to himself; they were shared by other men
of his time and country. But his tenacity of purpose, his broadminded
tolerance, and his statesmanlike views were absolutely unique, and
helped to win for him his proud designation of Affonso de Albuquerque
the Great.

{170}

CHAPTER VII

THE SUCCESSORS OF ALBUQUERQUE

_Nuno da Cunha and Dom Joao de Castro_

It is not intended in this volume to give a complete histor