him on all occasions.

While these transactions were going on in Pegu, Don Martin Alfonzo de
Castro came to Goa as viceroy, to replace Ayres de Saldanna, in 1604.
Ximilixa, king of Aracan, sent to treat with Nicote for the ransom of
the prince, his son, and accordingly paid 50,000 crowns on that account,
although Nicote was ordered by the viceroy to set the prince free
without any ransom. Ximilixa afterwards besieged Siriam in conjunction
with the king of Tangu, who brought a great army against the town by
land, while Ximilixa shut it up by sea with 800 sail, in which he had
10,000 men. Paul del Rego went against him with 80 small vessels; and
failing of his former success, set fire to the powder and blew up his
ship, rather than fall into the hands of the enemy. The siege continued
so long, that the garrison was reduced to extremity, and on the point of
surrendering, when the king of Tangu retired one night with his army
upon some sudden suspicion, on which Ximilixa was likewise obliged to
draw off with his fleet. Several of the neighbouring princes were now so
much alarmed by the success of Nicote, that they solicited his
friendship, and to be admitted into alliance with the king of Portugal.
The first of these was the king of Tangu, and afterwards the king of
Martavan, who gave one of his daughters as a wife to Simon the son of
Nicote. Soon after, the king of Tangu being overcome in battle by the
king of _Ova_, and rendered tributary, Nicote united with the king of
Martavan, and invaded the dominions of Tangu, though in alliance with
that prince, took him prisoner and plundered him of above a million in
gold, although he protested that he was a faithful vassal to the king of
Portugal.

About this time another low adventurer, Sebastian Gonzalez Tibao, raised
himself by similar arts to great power in Aracan. In the year 1605,
Gonzalez embarked from Portugal for India, and going to Bengal, listed
as a soldier. By dealing in salt, which is an important article of trade
in that country, he soon gained a sufficient sum to purchase a _Jalia_,
or small vessel, in which he went with salt to Dianga, a great port in
Aracan. At this period, Nicote, who had possessed himself of Siriam, as
before related, wishing to acquire Dianga likewise, sent his son with
several small vessels thither on an embassy to the king of Aracan, to
endeavour to procure a grant of that port. Some Portuguese who then
resided at the court of Aracan, per