Firishta's History (Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī) 187: TOME III. PART II. CHAP. I.

187

1595. Don Francis de Gama viceroy. The Dutch, the first European rivals to the Portuguese, arrive in India in two vessels. Necessity requires the Portuguese to send two formidable fleets from Goa annually, the one to command the coast on the north, and the other on the south, as far as Ceylon. The squadron of the north consists of ten large ships. The two Dutch vessels fall in with a Portuguese fleet of six sail off Malacca, where, after fighting for eight days, one vessel is abandoned and the other escapes, but is eventually cast away on the coast of Pegu.