up, the queen endeavoured to procrastinate till such time as she knew it would be necessary for the governor to retire with his armament to Cochin.  But being aware of this artifice, the governor landed with 1200 men in two battalions, and ordered twenty light vessels to go up the river to attack the city on that side, while he assailed it on the land side.  While marching through a wood, the governor was opposed by a body of musqueteers; but his troops drove them to the gates of the city, which they entered along with the fugitives, in spite of every opposition from the enemy who were encouraged by the queen in person.  It was night when the Portuguese got possession of the city; and in the morning they began to plunder, not even sparing the Portuguese who were settled there.  They even fell out among themselves, and came to blows, in which all were hurt and none enriched.  The enemy noticed this contention among the Portuguese from a neighbouring hill to which they had retired, and endeavoured to take advantage of this circumstance, by discharging incessant flights of arrows into the town.  On receiving orders from De Sousa to march against the enemy, the discontented troops exclaimed, “That the rich gentry might march if they would; but that they only came to make up by plunder for the pay of which they had been unjustly deprived.”  Gracia de Sa went out against the enemy with a few lances; but after several charges, almost the whole of the Portuguese shamefully took to flight, endeavouring in such haste to reimbark that several were drowned in the confusion.  Indignant at this cowardice, the governor reproached them as not being the same brave men he had left in India only two years before.  To this they answered, thinking he meant it as a reflection on his predecessor, “That the men were the same, but the governor was changed; and that this was the fruit of lessening their pay, to enable him to give gratuities to those who knew better how to beg favours than to deserve them.”  De Sousa retired to the ships for the night, but landed next day, when he utterly destroyed the city and surrounding country with fire and sword, and made all the woods be cut down[363].  Unable any longer to resist, the queen purchased peace by submitting to a heavier subjection than before.

[Footnote 363:  The cutting down of the woods mentioned in the text, probably refers to cocoa nut trees, on which the natives of the coast of India appear to have greatly depended for food.—­E.]

The king of Ormuz had fallen into arrears of life tribute, and was due 500,000 ducats, which he was unable to pay; for the tribute had been successively raised from 12,000 ducats originally imposed by Albuquerque, to 100,000, so that from a tributary he became a slave, not having even a competent maintenance remaining.  Finding him unable to discharge the debt, De Sousa proposed to him to make over the customs of Ormuz to the Portuguese, which he agreed to, that he might get rid of the oppression.  But the Persians soon afterwards deprived them of this source of revenue, which they had unjustly appropriated to themselves.