Towards the close of 1511, orders came to India for Don Jerome de Azevedo to succeed Tavora as viceroy.  Azevedo had acquired a high character by many years service, eighteen years of which he had spent in Ceylon, where he had acquired great riches, and yet preserved a good name.  The report of his riches contributed, as much as the fame of his valour, to his present promotion, as it was thought that he who had so much already, would be less inclined to covetousness; though experience shews, that those who have much still covet more.  Azevedo had likewise offered to serve the office of viceroy without the usual salary, but afterwards accepted it.  Among the first actions of his administration was to send home Danish Beg, ambassador from Shah Abbas, king of Persia, who had been in Spain at the court of King Philip.  Shah Abbas treated, at the same time, both with King Philip, and James king of England, endeavouring to influence both to the furtherance of his own designs; having taken the island of Bahrayn from the Portuguese, and was now endeavouring to gain Ormuz.  Along with this Persian ambassador, Antonio de Guovea, titular bishop of Sirene, went for the purpose of propagating Christianity in Persia; but, finding that the Persian government was inimical to his mission, he went no farther than Ormuz.  Shah Abbas was so much displeased with his ambassador for not succeeding in his negotiation for the surrender of Ormuz, that he caused him to be beheaded; and was so much exasperated against the Christians, that he forced many of his Armenian subjects to renounce the faith.

The fortune of Nicote in Pegu now declined as swiftly as it had risen.  In 1513, the king of Ova, being provoked at the violence which Nicote had been guilty of against the king of Tangu, who was under his protection, made a vow that he would revenge his injuries.  Having assembled an army of 120,000 men, and 400 vessels of considerable strength, in which were above 6000 of those Moors so noted for valour, called Caperuzas from their wearing caps, he marched against Siriam, where he burnt every thing beyond the walls of the fort.  Nicote made a brave resistance though taken unawares, as he had suffered most of his men to go to India, and was very scarce of powder.  In this distress, he sent a soldier to purchase powder at Bengal, who ran away with the money; and sent likewise to San Thoma for the same commodity, but was refused any supply.  For want of powder he was unable to fire his cannon against the enemy, and was reduced to the expedient of pouring boiling pitch and oil on their heads.  At length, Nicote was taken and carried to the king of Ova, who ordered him to be impaled on an eminence in view of the fort, where he lived two days in torment.  His wife, Donna Luisa de Saldanna, was kept three days in the river to be purified, as the king designed her for himself; but when brought before him, she upbraided him for his cruelty, and he ordered her leg to