[Footnote 19:  This is evidently erroneous, as we know certainly from the travels of Marco Polo and other authorities, that Cathay was the northern part of China, once a separate kingdom.—­E.]

After having governed five years, the Count of Vidugueyra was ordered by the king to resign to Don Francisco de Mascarennas in 1628; but as that gentleman had left India for Europe, the viceroy resigned the charge of government to Don Luis de Brito, bishop of Cochin, and went home to Portugal.  In this year the king of Acheen made an attempt to gain possession of Malacca, against which he sent a fleet of 250 sail, with 20,000 soldiers and a great train of artillery.  In this great fleet there were 47 gallies of extraordinary strength, beauty, and size, all near 100 feet long and of proportional breadth.  The king embarked with his wife, children, and treasure; but upon some ill omen the fleet and army sailed without him, and came before Malacca in the beginning of July 1629, the former under the command of Marraja, and the latter of Lacsamana, an experienced general who had made many conquests for his master.  Having landed the troops, they were attacked by Antonio Pinto de Fonseca with only 200 men, who slew above 300 of the enemy without losing a man, and then retreated into the city.  Juan Suarez Vivas with 350 Portuguese, who commanded at Iller, defended that post for some time with great gallantry and did great execution among the enemy; but at length, overpowered by numbers, was forced to retire.  Having gained an eminence called mount St Juan, the enemy erected a battery there from which they played furiously against the fort, which answered them with great spirit.  The Capuchin convent dedicated to the Mother of God, being considered as of great importance for the defence of the fort, was gallantly defended for 50 days by Diego Lopez de Fonseca, who on one occasion made a sally with 200 Portuguese and defeated 2000 of the enemy.  On Lopez falling sick, Francisco Carvallo de Maya took the command of that post, and defended it till the convent was entirely ruined, so that he was obliged to withdraw into the city, on which the enemy converted it into a strong post in which Lacsamana took up his quarters with 3000 men. Marraja occupied mount St Juan, on which he erected a large fort; others were established at the convent of St Lawrence, at Iller and other places, having strong batteries and lines of communication, so that the city was invested on all sides by land, while a number of armed boats presented all access by sea for relief.  Fonseca, who commanded in the besieged city, sent out Vivas with 220 Portuguese troops to dislodge Lacsamana from his head-quarters on the ruins of the Capuchin convent, on which occasion Vivas gained possession of the post by a night attack, killing 100 of the enemy, and retired with several cannon.  The King of Pam, who was in alliance with the Portuguese, sent a fleet of paraos with 2000 men to the assistance of the town; and Michael Pereyra Botello brought five sail from the city of San Thome:  Yet these reinforcements were insufficient to induce the enemy to retire, though they had lost above 4000 men during the siege, while 60 were slain on the side of the defenders.