Chap. VIII. J BAHADUR SHAH. 180
to retire. According to the Portuguese accounts, tlie strength of the place was ad. 1534 the sole cau.se of failui-e ; but the Mahometan historians add that the immediate cause of raising the siege was the approach of Bahadm- Shah, then ruler of Gujerat, at the head of a formidable army. This so frightened the Portuguese, that they made a precipitate retreat, leaving their gmis behind them. One of tiiese is said to have been " the largest ever before seen in India, and recjuired a machine to be constructed for conveying it to Champanere." The Portuguese, ti) avenge themselves for their defeat, bm-ned a great number of towns upon the coast and committed fearful devastation
Notwithstanding their discomfiture, the Portuguese had not abandoned the naiu-uiur,
k" f
liope of being yet able to make themselves masters of Diu. If direct force Gujemt failed, policy might yet succeed. Chand Khan, a brother of Bahadur, was at first set up as a competitor for the throne, and when this failed, a league was formed with Hoomayoon, King of Delhi, who, regarding Bahadur as a revolted vassal, had invaded Gujerat. Bahadur, thus pressed on all sides, was obliged to make his choice between submission to the King of Delhi, and submission to the Portuguese. He preferred the latter; and accordingly, in 1534, concluded a treaty by which he ceded Bassein, which was thenceforth to be the only port at which vessels sailing from India were to pay duties and take out clearances. He further engaged not to assist the Turkish fleets in the Indian seas.
This treaty gave him only a very partial relief It made the Portuguese ^ir aiii.an.-e
. . . . vrith thu
his friends, but made him more obnoxious than ever to the King of Delhi, who, portugtieso following up the advantages which he had gained, obliged him to take refuge in Diu. Here, as the assistance of the Portuguese was indispensable to him, he was obliged to purchase it by giving them permission to build a fortified factory. As the work proceeded Bahadur became more and more uneasy, and besides entering into communication with the Turks, is said to have formed a plot for the destruction of his Portuguese allies. The stjxtements on the subject by the Portuguese and the Mahometans vary so much, that it is difficult to pronoimce between them. The probability is, that both parties were anxious to be quit of each other, and that thus there were plots and counter-plots. All that can now be considered certain is, tlmt a frav commenced, and that Bahadur, who was on a visit to the Portuguese admiral, having fallen or leaped into the sea, a Portuguese sailor threw a boarding-pike at him, which pierced his skull, and hu death killed him on the spot. Were the question to be decided on the principle of ciii bono, the decision would necessarily be given against the Portuguese; for wlille Bahadur lost his life, they gained the island of Diu.
They had not been long in possession when an attem])t was made to wrest it from them. It has been mentioned that when Bahadur repented of his cimcession to the Portuguese, he applied for aid to the Turks. Solyman the Magnificent was then upon the throne of Constantinople. The application therefore could not have been made under more favourable circumstances.
