escaped were saved by flying on board their vessels; having been
entirely defeated in their designs by the permission of God Most
High. Now, both {70} before this time and after it, they made
various descents upon the dominions of the Zamorin, burning in
these attacks in all nearly fifty vessels that were lying near his
shores, and conferring martyrdom upon upwards of seventy of the
faithful.'[4]

[Footnote 4: _Tohfut-ul-mujahideen_, translated by Lieut. M. J.
Rowlandson for the Oriental Translation Fund, 1833; pp. 97-99.]

After this serious disaster, which seemed an evil omen for
Albuquerque's governorship, the great captain returned to Cochin to
be healed of his wounds. Sickness however could not repress his
energies, and he soon equipped his fleet afresh and took on board
1000 Portuguese soldiers. With this fleet he intended to sail to the
Red Sea. Duarte de Lemos, who had succeeded him as Captain of the
Ethiopian and Arabian Seas, earnestly implored the Governor to bring
him help at once, alleging that his ships were rotten and unable to
defend the island and fortress of Socotra. Albuquerque was well
acquainted with King Emmanuel's desire to put an end to the
Muhammadan commerce by way of the Red Sea. It was the notion which he
had himself advocated to the King, and its execution was one of the
principal aims of his policy. He desired also to return to Ormuz in
order to punish the Minister, Cogeatar, and firmly establish
Portuguese influence in the Persian Gulf. He therefore left Cochin
with twenty-three ships on Feb. 10, 1510, and on his way to the
island of Anchediva [Anjidiv], whence he intended to start for
Arabia, he anchored off the port of Mergeu [Mirjan]. {71} He there
considered an alternative scheme of campaign, namely, to attack Goa,
for it was suggested to him by a native pirate or corsair captain,
named Timoja or Timmaya, that it was a particularly suitable time for
a sudden attack upon that central port.

This man played a most important part in the history of Portuguese
conquest in India. He is reported to have been a Muhammadan by
Correa, and, more correctly, a Hindu in the _Commentaries_ of
Albuquerque. The first Portuguese captain who had relations with this
pirate was Dom Vasco da Gama during his second voyage to India in
1502. Correa says that certain ships--

'were _fustas_ of thieves, which, with oars and sails, got into a
river called Onor (Honawar), where there was a