The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c20.32

v1.c20.32

At the end of the same year, the Queen of Gersoppa manifested her desire to come to terms with the Viceroy 3; but in the meanwhile she was secretly making preparations to carry on war against the invader of her possessions. On receiving this information, Captain Luiz de Mello burnt many of her towns and laid waste the country around 4. Nevertheless the Viceroy was not without anxiety about Honavar, as the enemy had endeavoured to annihilate the Portuguese, and to effect by treachery what they had failed to do by force. The Queen or her generals bribed some Kanarese, who were there in the service of the Portuguese, to poison them with the fruit of the Stramonium, which "has the effect", says Faria y Sousa, "when eaten, of making men forget all things, and of rendering them insensible even to their wounds”. The treachery was discovered, and the conspirators hanged over the walls as a warning to those who had bribed them. That was the cause of open hostility; but at about the same time a galley and three other small vessels with some picked troops entered the port of Honavar to relieve the fortress ¹.