1,
with nine gallies, five gallions, eight galliots, and ninety smaller
vessels. On his arrival with this large armament in the river of Daman,
the Mogul, who was encamped at the distance of two leagues from that
place, was so much dismayed by the power and military reputation of the
Portuguese, that he sent an ambassador to the viceroy to treat of peace.
The viceroy received the Mogul ambassador in his gallery with great
state, and after listening to his proposals sent Antonio Cabral along
with him to Akbar, on which a peace was concluded to the satisfaction of
both parties. The viceroy then returned to Goa, and the great Mogul
settled the government of his new kingdom of Guzerat, cutting off the
head of the traitor Itimiti Khan, a just reward of his villany.

[Footnote 381: Named by DeFaria, Gelalde Mamet Hecbar Taxa; probably a
corruption of Gelal 'oddin Mahomet Akbar Shah.--E.]

The king of Acheen was one of the Indian princes who had entered into
the grand confederacy against the Portuguese, and had agreed to lay
siege to Malacca, but did not execute his part of the league till about
the middle of October 1571, when he appeared before Malacca with a fleet
of near 100 sail, in which he had 7000 soldiers with a large train of
artillery and a vast quantity of ammunition. Landing on the night of
his arrival, he set fire to the town of _Iller_, which was saved from
total destruction by a sudden and violent shower of rain. He next
endeavoured to burn the Portuguese ships in the harbour; but failing in
this and some minor enterprizes he sat down before the city, intending
to take it by a regular siege, having been disappointed in his
expectations of carrying it by a _coup de main_. At this time Malacca
was in a miserable condition, excessively poor, having very few men and
these unhealthy and dispirited, having suffered much by shipwreck,
sickness, and scarcity of provisions, not without deserving, these
calamities; for Malacca was then _the Portuguese Nineveh in India_, I
know not if it be so now. In this deplorable situation, incessantly
battered by the enemy, cut off from all supplies of provisions, Malacca
had no adequate means and, hardly any hopes of defence. In this
extremity Tristan Vaz accidentally entered the port with a single ship,
in which he had been to Sunda for a cargo of pepper. Being earnestly
intreated by the besieged to assist them, he agreed to do every thing in
his power, though it seemed a rash att