place, was so much dismayed by the power and military reputation of the Portuguese, that he sent an ambassador to the viceroy to treat of peace.  The viceroy received the Mogul ambassador in his gallery with great state, and after listening to his proposals sent Antonio Cabral along with him to Akbar, on which a peace was concluded to the satisfaction of both parties.  The viceroy then returned to Goa, and the great Mogul settled the government of his new kingdom of Guzerat, cutting off the head of the traitor Itimiti Khan, a just reward of his villany.

[Footnote 381:  Named by DeFaria, Gelalde Mamet Hecbar Taxa; probably a corruption of Gelal ’oddin Mahomet Akbar Shah.—­E.]

The king of Acheen was one of the Indian princes who had entered into the grand confederacy against the Portuguese, and had agreed to lay siege to Malacca, but did not execute his part of the league till about the middle of October 1571, when he appeared before Malacca with a fleet of near 100 sail, in which he had 7000 soldiers with a large train of artillery and a vast quantity of ammunition.  Landing on the night of his arrival, he set fire to the town of Iller, which was saved from total destruction by a sudden and violent shower of rain.  He next endeavoured to burn the Portuguese ships in the harbour; but failing in this and some minor enterprizes he sat down before the city, intending to take it by a regular siege, having been disappointed in his expectations of carrying it by a coup de main.  At this time Malacca was in a miserable condition, excessively poor, having very few men and these unhealthy and dispirited, having suffered much by shipwreck, sickness, and scarcity of provisions, not without deserving, these calamities; for Malacca was then the Portuguese Nineveh in India, I know not if it be so now.  In this deplorable situation, incessantly battered by the enemy, cut off from all supplies of provisions, Malacca had no adequate means and, hardly any hopes of defence.  In this extremity Tristan Vaz accidentally entered the port with a single ship, in which he had been to Sunda for a cargo of pepper.  Being earnestly intreated by the besieged to assist them, he agreed to do every thing in his power, though it seemed a rash attempt to engage a fleet of 100 sail with only ten vessels, nine of which were almost rotten and destitute of rigging.  Among these he distributed 300 naked and hungry wretches; and though confident in his own valour, he trusted only in the mercy of God, and caused all his men to prepare for battle by confession, of which he set them the example.