Rulers of India: Albuquerque Part 10

The Maratha confederacy also found it easy and profitable to plunder Portuguese settlements in India. In 1739 these hardy Hindu soldiers sacked Ba.s.sein, and they extended their incursions to the very walls of Goa. In the eighteenth century a vigorous effort was made by the Portuguese to hold their own with the Marathas, which met with some success, and led to a considerable increase of the province of Goa.

Lastly, it must not be forgotten that in 1661 the Portuguese ceded the island of Bombay to England as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza.

The present condition of the Portuguese in India affords a curious commentary on the high aims and great successes of Albuquerque. The remaining Portuguese possessions, Goa, Daman, and Diu could {205} make no pretence of defending themselves against the English Empire in India. They are maintained by Portugal, not for any benefits to be derived from them, but as relics of the past and witnesses to former glory. The condition of the Portuguese is indicated by the treaty which was signed in 1878 with the British Government, by which the right of making salt and the customs duties were ceded to the Government of India for a yearly payment of four lakhs of rupees.

This sum was hypothecated for the construction of a railway to Marmagao, near Goa, which possesses a fine harbour, and will probably increase in wealth as the port of export for the cotton grown in Bellary and the neighbouring British districts.

One interesting relic of the former supremacy of the Portuguese was the right claimed by Portugal to nominate the Roman Catholic prelates throughout India. This right, natural enough in the sixteenth century, became absurd in the nineteenth. A long quarrel arising from this claim has recently been settled by a Concordat between the Pope and the King of Portugal.

The present volume may appropriately close with two descriptions of the Portuguese in India by a Muhammadan and a Hindu writer in the sixteenth century.

'The Franks beginning to oppress and commit hostilities against the Muhammadans' says Sheik Zin-ud-din, in his historical work the _Tohfut-ul-mujahideen_, 'their tyrannical and injurious usage proceeded to a length that was the occasion {206} of a general confusion and distraction amongst the population of the country.

This continued for a long period, for nearly eighty years, when the affairs of the Moslems had arrived at the last stage of decay, ruin, poverty and wretchedness; since whilst they were too ill-practised in deceit to dissemble an obedience which was not sincere, they neither possessed the power to repel nor means to evade the evils that afflicted them. Nor did the Muhammadan princes and chieftains who were possessed of large armies, and who had at their command great military resources, come forward for their deliverance or bestow any of their wealth in so holy a cause as in the resistance to these tyrant infidels.' ...[1]

'Sorely did these Franks oppress the faithful, striving all of them, the great and powerful, the old and young, to eradicate the Muhammadan religion; and to bring over its followers to Christianity (may G.o.d ever defend us from such a calamity!).

Notwithstanding all this, however, they preserved an outward show of peace towards the Muhammadans, in consequence of their being compelled to dwell amongst them; since the chief part of the population of the seaports consisted of Muhammadans ... Lastly it is worthy of remark that the Franks entertain antipathy and hatred only towards Muhammadans, and to their creed alone; evincing no dislike towards the Nairs and other Pagans of similar description.'[2]

[Footnote 1: _Tohfut-ul-mujahideen_, Rowlandson's translation, pp. 6, 7.]

[Footnote 2: _Tohfut-ul-mujahideen_, Rowlandson's translation, pp.

109, 110.]

In the following terms, according to Dr. Burnell, does Venkatacarya, a Brahman of Conjevaram, speak about the Portuguese:--

'This Brahman wrote about A.D. 1600 a Sanskrit poem called Vicvagunadarca, often printed and once rudely {207} translated (Calcutta, 1825, 4to.) In it he mentions the Portuguese, whom he calls Huna. In abuse of them he says they are very despicable, are devoid of tenderness, and do not value Brahmans a straw, that they have endless faults, and do not observe ceremonial purity. But he praises their self-restraint and truthfulness, their mechanical skill, and their respect for law.'[3]

[Footnote 3: _A Tentative List of Books and some MSS. relating to the History of the Portuguese in India Proper_, by A. C. Burnell, Mangalore, 1880, p. 131.]

Had the Brahman poet known Albuquerque, or the greatest of his successors, he would have praised also their valour, their tenacity, and their disinterested unselfishness. But striking is the contrast between Albuquerque and even the greatest of his successors. His contemporaries felt this, and his son, in the dedication of the second edition of the _Commentaries_ to King Sebastian, in 1574, gives an anecdote which ill.u.s.trates this general opinion.

'I shall say no more,' he says, 'than tell you what a soldier said who always accompanied him in war. This man being very old and staying in the city of Goa, when he reflected upon the disorder of Indian affairs, went with a stick in his hand to the chapel of Affonso de Albuquerque, and, striking the sepulchre wherein he was lying buried, cried out:--"Oh! great captain, thou hast done me all the harm thou couldst have done, but I cannot deny that thou hast been the greatest conqueror and sufferer of troubles that the world has known: arise thou, for what thou hast gained is like to be lost!"'

THE END.