188
HLSTORY OF INDIA,
[Book I.
A.I). l.Vil
Xative coin- )>iii:it.i(>us
- i(?iiiii«t tlie
I'ortugueso.
Naval fight off Choul.
Kxpeditioii against Diu.
Its faUure.
coui'se of the same year tin; Purtuji^uese .saw .several foniiiflahle conibination.s formed against them. Mullik. Eiaz deemed it unnecessary any longer it) seek the protection of his batterie.s at Diu, and, sailing out, converted the Portuguese retreat into a Hight, taking one of their ships and disperaing the rest. Not satisfied with this success, he continued his course to (Jlioul, where the Portu- guese were engaged in building a factory, again defeated them, and remained off the port fni- twenty days, cutting ott' all communication Vjetween the fact^jry and the Portuguese fleet, which kept iiovering outside, without offering battle, or attemi)ting to force a pa.s.sage. In ])roportion as Portuguese pasillanimit increased, their assailants became emboldened, and Adel Khan, in 1522, ma«L' his appearance once more in the vicinity of Goa. The city was too well fortifier 1 to run much risk, but all the adjoining territory was occupied, and once more acknowledged the supremacy of the King of Bejapoor.
In 1 527 the hopes of the Portuguese were much revived by a decisive victors' gained at Ohoid over the Gujerat fieet, which consisted of eighty-three ve.ssel.-s Of these, seventy-three were burned, destroyed, or driven ashore. Hector de Silveira, the victor, following his advantage, proceeded up to the head of the bay, where Bombay now stands, to Tannah, and then northwards to Bas.sein, levying contributions from both places, and compelling both to become tributary. Three years after, his brother, Antonio de Silveira, with a fleet of fifty-one vessels, crossed the bar of the river Taptee, and, forcing his way up to Surat. sacked and burned it. In the following year Daman, a large town situated on the same coast, shared the same fate.
These, however, were only desultory attacks, preparatory to a gi-eat effcjrt about to be made for the capture of Diu. The King of Portugal, iiTitated at having been so often baffled in his attempts to take it, sent out peremptory orders to obtain possession of it on any terms! The preparations were on a scale far exceeding in magnitude anything that the Portuguese had ever before attempted. The expedition had its rendezvous in Bombay harbour, where it mustered 400 vessels of aU descriptions, having on board 22,200 men. Of these, 3600 soldiers and 1400 sailors were Europeans. On the 16th February, 1531, the expedition, commanded by Nmino de Cunha, governor of India, arrived off" Diu. Nine days before, it had attacked the town and island of Bet, or Be}t, which lies not far from the south side of the entrance to the Gulf of Cutch. and was strongly fortified both by nature and art. It was taken with a loss of 18,000 men and sixty cannon to the enemy, and with the loss of only twelve men to the Portuguese. The victory, however, great as it seemed, was in fact a disaster. Among the twelve slain was Hector de Silveira, the hero of the fleet ; while the time lost was so diligently improved by the enemy, that Diu was rendered all but impregnable. The defence was conducted by Mustapha Khan, an European Turk, with so much courage and ability, that all the efforts of the besiegers proved fruitless, and they found it necessary, at the end of a month,
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