aja of Cochin and the Zamorin. He
had taken and sacked Tiracol and Ponani, and was just about to attack
Calicut, when he received information of the arrival of Dom Affonso
de Noronha as Viceroy. This nobleman was the second son of the
Marquis de Villa Real, and had been selected for the office of
Viceroy by John III, though no Viceroy had been sent out from
Portugal with full powers since Dom Garcia de Noronha in 1538. The
Viceroy, on taking over office from Cabral, declined to attack
Calicut and ordered the fleet back to Goa. He ruled for four years,
during which time he greatly extended the Portuguese power in the
island of Ceylon.

Dom Affonso de Noronha was succeeded as Viceroy in 1554 by Dom Pedro
Mascarenhas, an aged nobleman who had filled the office of ambassador
to the Emperor Charles V and the Pope, and had since {195} acted as
governor to the heir-apparent. He was over seventy years of age when
he was sent to India, and held office but nine months. On his death
the sealed orders were opened, and the first name found in them was
that of Francisco Barreto, a most experienced officer. This governor
is chiefly known from his persecution of the poet Camoens, whom he
sent to the little island of Macao as a punishment for a satire he
had written on the pride and immorality of the officials at Goa. But
Barreto was a very vigorous governor. He did much to strengthen the
various Portuguese fortresses throughout Asia, and showed himself a
skilful and daring general.

During Barreto's government King John III of Portugal died, leaving
the throne to his infant grandson, the ill-fated King Sebastian. One
of the first acts of the widow of John III, Queen Catherine, who
became Regent of the kingdom, was to appoint a prince of the blood
royal, Dom Constantino de Braganza, to be Viceroy. This young prince
was only thirty years of age, but he soon showed that he surpassed
his predecessors in ability as well as in rank. He reached Goa in
1558, and one of his earliest measures was to capture Daman, where he
erected a fortress. This place and Goa and Diu are at the present
time the only relics of the Portuguese power in India. On his return
from Daman he dispatched powerful fleets to Malacca, to Ormuz, and to
Ceylon, and placed the position of affairs in all parts of Asia in a
most favourable condition for the Portuguese.

{196} Dom Constantino de Braganza's internal reforms resembled those
of Joao de Castro; he endeavoured to