Storia do Mogor 180: Battle between Sambh\={a} J\={\i} and the Viceroy of Goa, and how Some Portuguese asserted I was a Traitor.

Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 180

Language: English

Battle between Sambh\={a} J\={\i} and the Viceroy of Goa, and how Some Portuguese asserted I was a Traitor.

180.1

Finding that by using the chance afforded by the matter of the ship he could not carry out his design, Sambh\={a} J\={\i} sent to the viceroy tutored spies, who told him that in the fortress of Ponda were great treasures. His object was to get the viceroy to leave Goa with a large force for the conquest of that fortress. Then he meant to cut off the Portuguese retreat and prevent their return, in this way making himself master of Goa. The facts became known to a French trader then in Rajapur, and he wrote to me to warn the viceroy of Sambha Ji's purpose. He was coming down with his army.

180.2

I told His Excellency, but he would not heed my words. He issued forth with eight hundred white soldiers and eight thousand Canarese. He crossed with them to the other side of the river and began his campaign. With him went five pieces of heavy artillery. The men inside Ponda defended themselves until the arrival of Sambha Ji along with Akbar's men. They attacked with great fury the viceroy's army, and gave him as much to do as he could manage. His best troops were killed, and if he had not used wooden obstructions with which to impede the onset of the cavalry, he would never have been able to get back to Goa, nor could he have made any defence. The rainy weather impeded the discharge of his matchlocks; thus, coming on still closer, a trooper among the Rajputs dealt His Excellency [208] a sword-blow on the ribs. Retreating slowly, he reached the river bank with great difficulty, and once more entered Goa. He recognised, although too late, that he had been misled. Great grief was caused in the city from the fruitless loss of so many lives.

180.3

In the interval Goa was governed by the archbishop, Dom Manoel de Souza de Menezes. There came a boat sent by the general of Aurangzeb's fleet, which was on the watch to prevent Akbar leaving Vingorla in the ship he had built. It brought a message for the viceroy, urging him to make a valiant fight of it, and before very long he (Aurangzeb) would arrive to his assistance. But the archbishop would not listen to the envoy, and gave the answer that he must go and deal direct with the viceroy. I knew this because I translated the letters, and I did not wish to forsake the viceroy at such a time, so that he might have no cause of complaint against me. I therefore demanded permission of his lordship, and with great difficulty he granted me a boat to travel in. We in Goa did not then know the miserable plight of the viceroy.

180.4

I left, but the archbishop, I know not why, sent an order to the guards posted on the river to seize me. Thus, while I disbursed my coin to aid and serve the Christians against the power of the Mogul, they made me out to be a traitor. They persuaded the archbishop that I was taking with me five hundred Shivajls (i.e., Mahrattahs) to cut off the viceroy's retreat, and prevent his returning again to Goa. For this reason he directed my arrest. The captains of the guards knew quite well I was innocent, for when I reached them I had with me no one but a servant. In spite of this, as the orders were absolute, they civilly made me a prisoner without communicating to me their orders. I made pretence of not recognising that the way they were treating me betrayed suspicion of my acts. At this time I saw the arrival of several boat-loads of dead and wounded, a proof that Sambha Ji had defeated the viceroy.

180.5

But if I took as a joke this treatment of me by the archbishop, it was not really such. Nor did the envoy look upon the manner in which he had been received as any joke; for wishing to make him out greater than he was, they placed him in danger of losing his head. They began to spread a rumour that he was not an envoy, but the very Sambha Ji himself. This story was so much accepted that men were already in search of him to slay him. Such is the power of fear when it enters into people who are otherwise of good sense! When I saw what their purpose was, I did my very best that they should not kill him, but only arrest him. I assured them he was not Sambha Ji, but a Mogul, as he really was. For if they had killed him, I, too, ran a very great risk of losing my life, and that for nothing else than trying to help His Excellency at the time the said envoy arrived. It pleased God that at last the viceroy should arrive, and he, too, was at first persuaded that the man was Sambha Ji in person. But after I had spoken with him, I assured him that even if he were really Sambha Ji in person, no violence could be done by him, for I would keep close to him when the letters were presented. Thus I conducted the envoy into the presence of the viceroy, who was already in a fright.

180.6

Then, taking myself the letters from the envoy's hands, I presented them to His Excellency. Thereupon he recognised the great mistake which had held the whole island in perturbation. He (the envoy) had with him only two servants.