to which they immediately gave chace. But when they came up with them, the Turks proved strongest, and only eleven out of fifty-four Portuguese survived the battle. The captives were carried to Mocha, and paraded through the town chained all together. The people, incited by their priests, vied with each other in insulting the Christians. They were then cast into a dungeon, where they remained seventeen days without any food but a little oatmeal or dry peas soaked in water.

The captives were conducted several times to the market-place, and exposed to sale; but owing to the civil commotions which raged in the town no purchaser came forward, and they were glad to fly back for shelter to their dungeon. At last, when the disturbance was over, the seven Portuguese who still remained alive were sold into slavery and as for Mendez Pinto, fortune, his sworn enemy, as he tells us, made him fall into the hands of a Greek renegado, who used him so cruelly that he was several times upon the point of poisoning himself. But this tyrant, afraid of losing his slave, disposed of him to a Jew, who carried him to Ormuz, where he was ransomed by the Portuguese governor.

He now embarked in the armament of Pedro Vaz Coutinho, to return to India. Being defeated in an attack on a Turkish galley, they seemed disposed to avenge their ill success on their ally the queen of Onore; but she assured them, by her ambassador, "that she was as much afflicted at the notice of their disaster, as she could have been if she had been made to eat cows' flesh at the principal gate of the temple where her father lay interred." The Portuguese squadron hastened after its defeat to Goa, where Mendez Pinto engaged in the service of Pedro de Faria, who was proceeding as governor to Malacca. As soon as Faria arrived at the seat of his government, he was surrounded by the envoys of the neighbouring chieftains, soliciting his favour and protection. Among these was the ambassador from the king of the Battas, a warlike nation of Sumatra, bearing gifts of precious woods, and a letter written on the bark

of the palm-tree; and at the same time praying for the assistance of the Portuguese against the people of Achem. Faria granted his request, and dismissed the ambassador with presents of " fire-pots, darts, and murdering pieces, wherewith he departed from the fortress so contented that he shed tears for joy."

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When the ambassador of the Battas was about to return to Sumatra, it was thought advisable to send a Portuguese agent with him, and Mendez Pinto was the person selected for the purpose. He was instructed to observe carefully the condition of the natives, and especially to learn whatever was to be known respecting the Isle of Gold. While ascending the river in Sumatra, Pinto saw a number of strange animals, which, from the delicate regard that he had to his reputation for veracity, he is fearful to describe. The strange creature which he calls the caquesseitan is probably the cassowary, which he fantastically describes as hopping and flying together like the grasshopper. He saw serpents with heads as large as calves; and was told that they hunted their prey in this manner: -"They get up into a tree, and winding their tails about some branch of it, let their bodies hang down to the root, and then laying one of their ears close to the ground, they hearken whether they can perceive any thing stir during the stillness of the night; so that if an ox, a boar, or any other beast, doth chance to pass by, they presently seize on it, and so carry it up into the tree, where they devour it." In this story it is easy to recognise an embellished description of the boa constrictor. The great baboons, which our author informs us frequently attack and defeat the negroes of the country, are obviously the formidable pongos.

When Pinto arrived at the court of the king of the Battas, he was received with every manifestation of welcome. "Man of Malacca," said the old woman who conducted him to the royal presence, "thy arrival in the king my master's land is as agreeable unto him as a shower of rain is to a crop of rice in dry and hot weather; wherefore enter boldly, and be afraid of no

thing." Pinto made liberal promises to the king, of Portuguese assistance, and vowed not to leave him till such time as he returned the conqueror of all his enemies. The sincerity of his professions may be estimated from his remarking, "This poor king presently believed all that I said to be true, chiefly because it was conformable to his desire; so that, rising out of his throne whereon he sat, I saw him go and fall on his knees before the skeleton of a cow's head set up against the wall, whose horns were gilt, and crowned with flowers." Notwithstanding the encouragement derived from the proffered aid of the Portuguese, the king of the Battas was unable to make head against his enemies, the people of Achem, who exultingly styled themselves "drinkers of the troubled blood of miserable Caffres, who are tyrannical men and usurpers, in a supreme degree, of other men's kingdoms in the Indies and the islands of the sea. Such were the strong terms in which they expressed their well-founded detestation of the Portuguese. Pinto, escaping from this troubled scene, proceeded on an embassy to the king of Aaru. before he left the king of the Battas, he learned from him that the Isle of Gold is situated beyond the river of Callendor, 160 leagues from Sumatra, in 5° south, environed by many shelves of sand and dangerous cur

rents.

"

But

On his return from the king of Aaru, Pinto suffered shipwreck, and was obliged to crawl with his companions through the deep mud that lined the shore, tormented by myriads of insects, and in constant fear of being attacked by the serpents and wild beasts that haunted the neighbouring woods. One of his companions died in his arms. With the remaining three he reached a small river, which it was necessary to cross; but the two foremost of the party had scarcely reached the middle of the stream, when they were seized by alligators and dragged to the bottom. Pinto and his surviving comrade continued standing in the sea, as the safest place they could choose. A small vessel at length

approached the shore, in which they embarked to return to Malacca. The boat's crew, however, soon commenced beating the two Portuguese, to force them to confess where their treasures lay concealed. Seeing that the flogging proved ineffectual, they supposed that their captives had swallowed their gold, and in consequence administered to the companion of Mendez Pinto so violent an emetic, that he died soon after; and Pinto himself escaped similar treatment only from the ill success of this experiment. He was dragged ashore nearly dead from famine and ill usage; but as his weakness made him an unprofitable slave, no food was given to him, and" he was turned," he says, 66 a grazing like a horse." A Mahometan merchant, hearing that he had friends at Malacca, at length put an end to his sufferings, and redeemed him for a sum equivalent to about seventeen shillings and sixpence of our money.

Having recovered at Malacca from the effects of his late ill usage, he returned to proceed to Pan and Patana on a mercantile voyage, in the hopes of mending his fortune. He had hardly arrived at the former place, when a popular commotion broke out, and the mob, freed from authority, attacked the stores of the Portuguese, and carried off all their goods. Our adventurers, therefore, were glad to escape to Patana, where a subscription was made by their countrymen to relieve their present distress, and they obtained permission from the king to indemnify themselves on shipping belonging to the guilty city. In consequence, they soon after attacked and captured three Chinese junks belonging to merchants of Pan, as they declared, though it is probable they were not very scrupulous in their choice. Antonio de Faria, unable to dispose of his large stock of merchan dise at Patana, was persuaded to try the populous city of Lugor. His wealth was all embarked, and Mendez Pinto proceeded with the cargoes. But when near the place of their destination they were attacked furiously by pirates, and quickly overpowered. Pinto and three others, of whom one was soon drowned, jumped over

board to save themselves by swimming. The remainder of the crew were butchered by the pirates, who sunk the Portuguese vessel, having first taken out her cargo. Pinto and his two comrades gained the shore near the mouth of the river of Lugor. Here they made their way with difficulty, through mud and deep marshes, in vain imploring those who passed up and down the river to approach the shore and lend them some assistance. At length they were relieved by a vessel ascending the river; and found, when taken on board, that they were indebted for their preservation to the compassion of a lady who had learned from misfortunes to hearken to the calls of humanity. Her father, sons, and two brothers, had been torn in pieces by the king of Siam's elephants. This charitable lady furnished our adventurers with the means of returning to Patana.

When Antonio de Faria learned the fate of his vessels and the ruin of his hopes, he became furious with despair. It was impossible for him to return to Malacca, and to face his creditors in his present poverty. He preferred rather to take the short but dangerous road to wealth, and to turn pirate; and covering his avarice with a show of honest feeling, he vowed to avenge the death of the fourteen Portuguese who had been murdered by the pirate. The old lady who had so kindly relieved Mendez Pinto likewise informed him that the pirate in question was Coja Acem, a native of Guzerat, an implacable enemy of the Portuguese, in battle with whom his father and two brothers had lost their lives. Faria found no difficulty in collecting fifty-five desperadoes to join him in his enterprise; and Pinto, who was unable to return to Malacca, where he owed five hundred ducats, and who " had been able to save nothing but his miserable carcass, wounded in three places by a javelin, and his skull cracked with a stone," was among the number.

Many were the adventures which our heroes met with at the commencement of their cruise, and in all they came off with success. They pillaged towns, captured