put down peculation, and
insisted on the obedience of his officers. In 1560 he made an
expedition with a powerful armament to Ceylon, where he took
Jaffnapatam, which became the capital of the Portuguese power in that
island. The high character of the young prince, no less than his
courage and his enterprise, caused the Rajas of India to treat him
with great respect, and he was begged by the Queen Regent to continue
in office, and even to accept the post of Viceroy of India for life.
He refused, and in 1561 was succeeded as Viceroy by Dom Francisco de
Coutinho, Count of Redondo.

After the resignation of Dom Constantino de Braganza few events of
importance happened for some years to the Portuguese in India. The
Muhammadan King of Bijapur, Ali Adil Shah, who had succeeded his
father Ibrahim in 1557, was at first more concerned with his scheme
to break the power of the last great Hindu sovereign, the Raja of
Vijayanagar, than to attack the Portuguese. Freed from danger on this
side, the Portuguese governors were able to scatter their power over
small but successful expeditions. The most notable of these was to
Ceylon, which was gradually brought entirely under the control of the
Portuguese. The Count of Redondo died in March, 1564, at Goa, and was
succeeded as Viceroy, after a short administration as Governor by
Joao de Mendonca, by Dom Antao de Noronha.

{197} The new Viceroy commenced his government by the capture of
Mangalore, but the important events which occurred during his tenure
of office took place without his active intervention. The first of
these was the siege of Malacca by the King of Achin. The defence of
Albuquerque's conquest ranks with that of Diu. It is true that the
savage Achinese were not such formidable soldiers as the Turks or the
Gujaratis; but, on the other hand, Malacca was further from Goa, and
it was more difficult to obtain reinforcements. The Captain who
maintained the defence was Dom Leonis Pereira, who held out for
several months and eventually beat off his enemies after killing more
than 4000 of them.

The other event was the defeat of the Raja of Vijayanagar in 1565, at
Talikot, by the allied Muhammadan kings of the Deccan. It may fairly
be conjectured that Albuquerque would have assisted the last powerful
Hindu monarch against the Muhammadans, for it was a part of his
policy to pose as the protector of the Hindus. But his successors did
not appreciate his policy, and, disgusted by a