118 THE PORTUGUESE POLICY IN THE EAST sewed up in sails into the sea, although they had not defended themselves and held a Portuguese passport. Almeida " blew his prisoners from guns before Canna- nore, saluting the town with their fragments." On the capture of Brava, the Portuguese soldiers " barbarously cut off the hands and ears of women, to take off their bracelets and earrings, to save time in taking them off. ' ' These were not exceptional barbarities. The perma- nent attitude of the Portuguese to all Asiatics who resisted was void of compunction. To quote a few examples from contemporary manu- scripts: a letter from Joao de Lima to the King of Portugal in 1518 speaks of the people of Daibul as " dogs " who " do not want but the sword in hand." In 1535, at the capture of the petty island of Mete near Diu, " all were killed, without allowing a single one to live, and for this reason it was henceforward called the Island of the Dead." In 1540 the Zamorin was com- pelled to agree to cast out of his dominions all who would not accept the terms imposed, " and if they should not wish to go, he will order them to be killed." In 1546, says the official report of the siege of Diu, " we spared no life whether of women or children." I cut short the list of horrors. The Portuguese cru- elties were deliberate rather than vindictive. Even a high-minded soldier and devout cavalier of the Cross like Albuquerque believed a reign of terror to be a necessity of his position, and that, in giving no quarter, he best rendered service to Christ and acted with the truest humanity in the long run to the heathen. So
