d birth and
known worth, and had gone a short while before to assume the command at
Basseen. He was very unwilling to assume the government, as it deprived
him of the command which he was to have held for four years, and was
afraid that another would soon come from Portugal to supersede him in
the supreme authority; but his lady Donna Lucretia Fiallo, prevailed
upon him to accept the honour to which he seemed so averse, and which
she ardently desired; and he accordingly returned to Goa to assume the
high office. Cabral deserved to have long enjoyed the post of
governor-general, and Portuguese India was indebted to his wife for the
short period of his rule. Soon after his installation, news was brought
that the Turks were fitting out an hundred sail at Suez to transport an
army to India; on which Cabral diligently prepared to meet the storm, by
collecting ships from the different ports.

At this time the zamorin and the rajah of Pimienta entered into a league
against the rajah of Cochin. The rajah of Pimienta took the field with
10,000 Nayres, and was opposed by the rajah of Cochin with his men,
assisted by 600 Portuguese troops under Francisco de Sylva, who
commanded in the fort at Cochin. Sylva pressed for an accommodation,
which was consented to by the rajah on reasonable terms; but the treaty
was broken off by the rash and violent conduct of Sylva. The armies
engaged in battle, in which the rajah of Pimienta was mortally wounded
and carried off the field, upon which his troops fled and were pursued
into their city with great slaughter, and the royal palace set on fire.
This was considered as a heinous affront by the Nayres of Pimienta, who
rallied and fell with such fury on the victors that they were forced to
a disorderly retreat, in which Sylva and above fifty Portuguese were
slain. About 5000 of the Pimienta Nayres, who had taken an oath to
revenge the death of their rajah or to die in the attempt, made an
irruption into the territory of Cochin where they did much damage; and
while engaged with the Cochin troops, Henry de Sousa marched against
them with some Portuguese troops, and defeated them with great
slaughter. The joy occasioned by this victory was soon damped by the
approach of the zamorin at the head of 140,000 men. The zamorin
encamped with 100,000 of these at _Chembe_, while the tributary or
allied Malabar princes with the other 40,000 took post in the island of
_Bardela_.

Upon the first advice of thi