deavouring to form an union of the Indian princes to expel them not
only from Diu but from all India.

In the course of this year 1544, the great Khan of the Tartars invaded
China and besieged _Peking_ with a prodigious army, amounting to
millions of men. A large detachment from this vast army, among which
were 60,000 horse, was sent against the city of _Quamsi_, which was
plundered, and an immense number of the inhabitants put to the sword.
While on his return with this part of the army, _Nauticor_ the Tartar
general attempted to reduce the fortress of _Nixiancoo_, but was
repulsed with the loss of 3000 men, on which he was disposed to desist
from the enterprise, deeming the place impregnable. Among the prisoners
taken at Quamsi were nine Portuguese, one of whom named George Mendez
made offer to the Tartar general to put him on a plan for gaining the
fortress of _Nixiancoo_, on condition that he and his companions were
restored to liberty. The general agreed to his proposal, and gained the
fort by the advice of Mendez, with the slaughter of 2000 Chinese and
Moguls. In pursuance of his promise, the general obtained the liberty of
the Portuguese from his sovereign, but prevailed on Mendez to continue
in his service by a pension of 6000 ducats. The Tartar emperor was
constrained to raise the siege of Peking and retire to _Tuymican_ his
residence in Tartary, after having closely invested the metropolis of
China for almost seven months, with the loss of 450,000 men, mostly cut
off by pestilence, besides 300,000 that deserted to the Chinese.

In 1545, Martin Alfonso de Sousa became exceedingly dissatisfied with
his situation as governor-general in India, being threatened on every
side by a combination of the native princes, and having no adequate
means of defence either in men or money. Only a few days before the
arrival of his successor, he declared to Diego Silveyra who was going to
sail for Portugal, that if the king did not immediately send out a
successor, he would open the patents of succession, and resign the
government to whoever he might find nominated for that purpose. He was
soon afterwards relieved by Don Juan de Castro, whose journal of the
expedition into the Red Sea we have laid before our readers in the
preceding chapter, and who arrived at Goa in August or September 1545,
to assume the government of India.

SECTION IV.

_Government of India by Don Juan de Castro, from 1545 to 1548._

Khojah Zofar, w