At this time Juan de Sylveira returned from the Maldives, where he had taken two ships belonging to Cambaya, and had got permission of the king of the Maldives to erect a fort at the principal harbour.  Sylveira went upon a similar mission to Bengal, where he was in great danger; as a young man of Bengal who sailed there with him, gave notice of his having taken these two ships, so that he was considered as a pirate.  He had fared worse than he did, but for the arrival of Juan Coello from Pisang, sent by Andrada to the king of Bengal.  After passing the winter in Bengal with great difficulty on account of famine, Sylveira set sail, being invited by the king of Aracan to come to his port of Chittagon by a messenger who brought him a valuable present; but all this kindness was only intended to decoy him to his ruin, at the instigation of the king of Bengal.  He escaped however from the snare, and arrived at Ceylon as Soarez had finished the fort of Columbo, of which he appointed Sylveira to the command, leaving Azevedo with four ships to guard the sea in that neighbourhood.

About the same time Menezes secured the safety of Malacca, as mentioned before, by supplying it with men and ammunition, and appointed Alfonso Lopez de Costa to the government, in place of Brito who was dying.  Duarte de Melo was left there with a naval force; and Duarte Coello was sent with an embassy and present to the King of Siam, to confirm a treaty of peace and amity, and to request of him to send a colony of his subjects to inhabit the city of Malacca, so that the Moors whom he hated as much as the Portuguese, might be for ever excluded from that place.  All this was agreed to, and as a testimonial of his friendship to the Christians, he caused a great cross, ornamented with the arms of Portugal, to be erected in a conspicuous part of the city of Hudia, where he then resided.  Having thus succeeded in his mission, Coello was forced by stress of weather upon the coast of Pahang, where he was received in a friendly manner by the king, who voluntarily submitted to become a vassal to the crown of Portugal, and to pay a cup of gold as an annual tribute.  This was done more from hatred to the king of Bintang, than from love to the Portuguese.

The kingdom of Siam was at this time one of the greatest in the east, the two others of greatest consequence being China and Bisnagar.  The great river Menam runs through the middle of the kingdom of Siam from north to south, having its source in the great lake of Chiamay in lat. 30 deg.  N. and its mouth in 13 deg., so that the length of this kingdom is 330 leagues.  On the west it joins Bengal, on the south Malacca, on the north China, and on the east Cambodia.  Its territory contains both mountains and plains, and it is inhabited by many different races of people, some of whom are extremely cruel and barbarous, and even feed on human flesh.  Among these the Guei ornament themselves with figures impressed