The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c27: Chapter XXI. Venkata II's Relations with the Portuguese, Dutch and English
The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c27
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Contents
- v1.c27.169 — 5 parts
Chapter XXI. Venkata II's Relations with the Portuguese, Dutch and English
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SUMMARY.—1. St. Thome under Venkata II.—2. Contemporary description of the town.—3. Formation of the Portuguese, Dutch and English Trading Companies.—4. Spain against England and the Netherlands.—5. Embassy of Venkata II to the Viceroy Ayres de Saldanha.—6. Embassy of Ayres de Saldanha to Venkata II.—7. Differences and riots at St. Thome.—8. Erection of the Diocese of Sao Thome de Meliapor.—9. Destruction of the city of Madras and fortress of Mylapore.—10. Great distress of the Portuguese in India in 1608.—11. Venkata II causes the Dutch to be expelled from Devanapatnam.—12. Correspondence between Venkata II and Philip III of Spain.—13. Siege of St. Thome by Venkata II.—14. Decision to fortify St. Thome and necessity of a Governor.—15. The Dutch obtain Pulicat from Venkata II.—16. First attempt of the English to settle at Pulicat.—17. Embassy of Venkata II to the English at Masulipatam. Their second voyage to Pulicat.—18. Portuguese designs against Pulicat.
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CONTEMPORARY SOURCES.—1. Moncoes do Reino (Pangim Archives).—2. Jesuit letters.—3. Travels of Gasparo Balbi and Ludovico de Barthema, Anquetil du Perron.—4. Du Jarric, Guerreiro, Queyroz.—5. Documents concerning the Mylapore Diocese.—6. Letters of the E. I. C.
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THE history of the dealings between Venkata II and the Portuguese chiefly centres round St. Thome and Pulicat; and in the meantime, Dutch and English traders appear in the southern seas, boldly challenging the Portuguese monopoly and trying to make friends with the local rulers.
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The city of St. Thome, from its position within the territory of Vijayanagara, paid at this time an almost nominal tribute to the Emperor: it consisted of a quarter per cent of the merchandise imported by sea¹. Nevertheless, its administration was immediately under the authority of the Nayak of Tanjore ¹; and accordingly it paid an additional tribute to him, at least from the year 1600 ². It was the Nayak of Tanjore who appointed the governor or *adigar* of St. Thome; the Jesuit annual letter of 1604-1606 tells us that in 1600 the Tanjore Nayak nominated to this place one Puley or Pillai, a noble of Kanchivaram. ³.
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¹ From King Philipp III to the Viceroy Don Jeronymo d'Azevedo, March 7th, 1613, Ap. B, No. XIII.
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¹ Du Jarric, I, p. 638. Cf. Hay, *De Rebus Iaponicis*, p. 740.
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² *Litterae Annuae* of the Province of Malabar, 1604-1606, Ap. C, No. XXII.
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³ Ibid.
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This governor did not reside at St. Thome, but at the ancient city of Mylapore. "The Portuguese", says the Jesuit annual letter of 1606-1607, "have a captain or *ouvidor*, to govern and administer justice. In another separate town, but in its vicinity, there is a captain of the King (of Vijayanagara), who collects the taxes and governs the Hindus" ⁴. Mylapore is the same city that Gasparo Balbi speaks of in the account of his travels through India in 1582: "Without the Citie of Saint Thomas is another Citie invironed with walls, made of earth, and inhabited with Gentiles Souldiers, whose Chieftaine is called Adicario (*adigar*), who hath power to execute justice" ⁵. Apparently Mylapore was then fortified and garrisoned by the Emperor of Vijayanagara; hence it receives the appellation of a fortress in several Jesuit letters of those years ⁶. All these letters distinguish between this fortress and a Hindu town which was a little farther away. We have suggested elsewhere that this Hindu town might be the one called Madarasa, next to which the Fort St. George was constructed several years after by the English traders, who called it Black Town, as inhabited by coloured people ¹. The Bevinahalli grant of Sadasiva Raya mentions both Mailapura and Madarasa as connected with the father of one of the Brahmans favoured with the grant ².
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⁴ *Litterae Annuae* of the Province of Malabar, 1606-1607, Ap. C, No. XXVI.
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⁵ Purchas, X, p. 148.
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⁶ From Fr. M. Roiz to Fr. J. Alvarez, St Thome, November 1st, 1606, Ap. C, No. XII; From Fr. B. Coutinho to Fr. C. Aquaviva, St. Thome, November 4th, 1606, Ibid., No. XIII; From the same to the same same date, Ibid., No. XIV; *Litterae Annuae* of the Province of Malabar, 1606-1607, Ibid., No XXVI.
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¹ Cf. Heras, Venkatapatiraya I and the Portuguese, Q.J.M.S., XIV, p. 316, note 9.
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² Ep. Ind., XIV, p. 215. Several of the Brahmans' names in the list of this grant are connected with the territory. Cf. Ibid., p. 216.
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2. The above mentioned Gasparo Balbi has an interesting description of St. Thome which deserves to be quoted in full. It runs as follows: "The Front is towards the West, very strong by reason of the Blockehouses, which are upon the Port, along towards the sea. This port is so low that elephants cannot enter in at it, for the horses enter with not a little trouble. There are three Churches: one very fair, of Saint Thomas, which is well served with Priests, the chiefe of them is a Vicar (for so they call him) who was sent thither by the Archbishop of Goa. There is another of Saint Francis, very well served with Capuchins and another of Saint John the Baptist, where the Fathers of Saint Paul of the Companie of Jesus are in continuall prayer; to build this they had not so many transomes as were sufficient, when miraculously a great piece of timber was cast up by the Sea, which seemed to be made by the line and measure of that Church. I was here when this piece of timber was cast up; for one day going to Masse to the Church of our Lady, I saw great concourse of people running to the Sea-side, and I went also to see what was the matter, and saw this piece of timber cast upon the shoare. Then the Church of St. John the Baptist was finished, but because they wanted transomes to make the roofs they covered it with straw. The foresaid Fathers of Saint Paul have another Church in the Citie dedicated to our Lady, where they baptise the Gentiles, and exhort and instruct them in matters of Faith ³. There is another Church called of Our Lady of Light, which (is) served by Saint Thomas his Priests...Saint Thomas is as faire a Citie as I saw any in that Countrie, and the houses joyne one to the other, so to be able to succour one another" 1.
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³ The congregation of this Church consisted of five thousand recently made Christians, in 1606-7. Cf. Guerreiro, Relacam Annal... no ano de 606. & 607., p. 105.
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³ Purchas, X, p. 310.
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Such was the city of St. Thome in the begining of Venkata's reign. At about the same time several events took place in Europe, which were to influence much the future history of Vijayanagara.
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3. Up to the year 1587, the monopoly of Portuguese commerce had rested with the Government; but in this year the whole trade was handed over to a newly established company called 'Companhia Portugueza das Indias Orientaes', a definite step towards the 'Comercial Company', 'Companhia do Comercio', which was created in 1630 2. This new organization was intended to meet the fresh needs which were beginning to face Portuguese trade in the eastern seas.
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A little earlier, on April 8th, 1583, the Dutchman John Huighen Van Linschoten had sailed from Lisbon to the East Indies; and after visiting the Portuguese colonies and some other places inland, returned home and published the account of his travels ten years later. Linschoten's account excited the enthusiasm of his fellow countrymen, who had shortly before thrown off the Spanish yoke. One chapter of his narrative in particular, "of the Spices, Drugs, Plants, and Stuffes for Physicians and Apothecaries, ordinarily used in India, and of their growing" 3, had the effect of launching several trading companies in the Netherlands, which sent about fifteen expeditions to the East between 1595 and 1601 4. On March 20th, 1602, the various Companies of the Flemish States, became united under the name of 'De Algemeene Geoctroyeerde Oest-Indische Compagnie' 5. During the next year the new United Company sent out a great expedition of thirteen ships to the East Indies under Steven van der Hagen, and in the instructions furnished to him made special mention of the piece-goods trade of Pulicat and Masulipatam on the East coast 1. But neither of these places was to house the first Dutch factory on the eastern coast. We have seen elsewhere that in 1608-9, through the benevolence of the Nayak of Jinji, the Dutch were building a factory in Devanapatnam 2. We shall speak later of the transactions between the Emperor Venkata, the Nayak of Jinji and the Portuguese which resulted from the building of this fort.
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¹ Purchas, X, p. 147-8.
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² Danvers, Report, p. 12.
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⁴ Galletti, The Dutch in Malabar, p.
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⁶ See A Collection of Voyages Undertaken by the Dutch East India Company, Introduction.
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⁵ Galletti, l. c.
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But the Dutch were not then the only rivals of the Portuguese in the Eastern seas. Early in 1527, Robert Thorne, a merchant of Bristol, had addressed a memorandum to King Henry VIII of England advising the opening of a route to India by the North-West 3. But the attempts made through this route proved a failure. Subsequently, from 1580 to 1584, several letters were received in London, spurring the merchants of the place once more to try a new route to India: such letters had been written by the Jesuit Father Thomas Stephens, the first Englishman who set foot in India. In one of them, dated October 24th, 1583, he describes several kinds of fruits and other productions of Salsette and Goa 4. Such a description was a tacit invitation to the enterprising British traders. Accordingly, after an unsuccessful attempt of Sir Robert Dudley in 1596, a large number of English merchants formed themselves into an association and subscribed upwards of £ 30,000 in support of the undertaking. A Charter of Incorporation was granted by Queen Elizabeth to George, Earl of Cumberland, and two hundred and fifteen Knights, aldermen and merchants, under the name of 'The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies'. The first expedition of this Company, under Captain Lancaster, sailed from Wollwhich, on February 13th, 1601, but it did not reach India. In 1604 a second attempt was made under the command of Henry Middleton but with no better results. Finally a third expedition was sent, and Captain Hawkins its commander, landed at Surat, proceeding thence to the court of the Mughal Emperor. New voyages to the East Indies were subsequently made almost every year ¹.
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¹ Ibid.
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² Cf. Ch. XIX, No. 12.
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³ Cf. Basu, Rise of the Christian Power, I, p. 16.
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⁴ "We have here a tree oftener seen than the elm or the vine, called the Palm on account of its likeness to it, or perhaps because it is really so, if you admit that Palm is a generic word and consists of two species. It gives oil, liquor (vinum), toddy (lac), syrup (mel), sugar and vinegar. Coir rope is also made from it to tie with, and its branches are used to protect huts from rain. It gives fruit all the year round, which are rather nuts than dates, resembling a man's head. When the exterior rind has been removed, they equal the size of two fists. Inside the fruit contains water like beer and good to quench one's thirst. It is so plentiful that, after drinking from one fruit, you would not look for another. In the interior of the nut is a kernal lining it all over like a covering and forming a prized article of food. The shell furnishes the blacksmiths with charcal. Those that live near the sea not only load their boats with the tree, but also utilise it for making ropes and sails. You will find hardly any piece of writing except on its leaves. Those that live on land invariably make use of them to shelter themselves from rain", etc. Saldanha, The Christian Purana, p. XXIII-XXXVIII.
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¹ Cf. Letters Received by the East India Company, I, p. XV-XLI; Das Gupta, India in the Seventeenth Century, p. 26-67; Roberts, History of British India, p. 21-22; Hawkins, Voyages, p. 379-419.
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4. These Dutch and English activities were by no means propitious to the prospects of the Portuguese in the East. Since 1584, the relations between Spain and England had become daily more and more strained in the European seas. Moreover in 1566 the Netherlands had rebelled against the Spanish sovereign. And Portugal, now united to the Spanish crown, was destined to taste in India the bitter fruits of this disagreement between her conqueror and these two enterprising nations ². True, a treaty of peace between Spain and England had been made in 1604, one of the articles of which, the 9th, provided that the English were not to go to India, nor carry on commerce in any part of it ³. But the British traders went on acting as though there were no such treaty. Precisely at this time John Mildenhall was in the court of Akbar, deputed by Queen Elizabeth, and trying to persuade the Mughal Emperor to allow the British to trade in his dominions on the same terms as those enjoyed by the Portuguese. Moreover he asked Akbar not to take offence if the English captured Portuguese vessels or ports on his coasts ¹. They however endeavoured to avoid open hostilities with the Portuguese, while they competed with them for the Eastern trade ². Early in 1604 Fr. A. Laerzio wrote that there were in the gulf of Bengal "many Dutch and British ships, our enemies, who had captured some Portuguese vessels " ³.
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² Danvers, Report, p. 15-7.
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³ Torre do Tombo, Livros das Moncoes, Livro 32, fol. 72; Livro 33, fol. 72. Cf. Danvers, o. c., p. 29.
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¹ Cf. Smith, *Akbar*, p. 292-3.
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² Danvers, o. c., p. 21.
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³ From Fr. A. Laerzio to Fr. C. Aquaviva, Cochin, January 15th, 1604, Ap. C, No. IX.
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5. But at this time the influence of the Portuguese in southern India had reached its zenith, through their ancient friendship with the Emperor of Vijayanagara. Early in 1600, when the Superior of the Province of Malabar, Fr. A Laerzio, passed through Chandragiri and was received in audience by Venkata, the sovereign ordered all the courtiers to leave the hall and remained alone with the Fathers; then taking the Provincial apart, he told him he wanted to send his ambassadors to the new Viceroy of Goa "in order to renew and strengthen the old friendship with the Portuguese". Now he wished that Fr. Simao de Sa, who was then Rector of the College of St. Thome, should accompany them; hence he begged Fr. Laerzio to give him permission to do so. "Then the Provincial replied that when the news of the landing of the Viceroy should arrive, he would consider the cause. But the King urged again (saying):--
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"And when this news comes nobody will be here to give this permission to the Rector (Fr. de Sa). We must make our decision now; afterwards we shall not be able to do so."
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" Then Fr. Provincial gave his permission according to the wishes of the King, who betraying his joy (in his countenance), told Fr. Rector in a loud voice:--
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" You have already permission to go to Goa along with my ambassadors" ⁴.
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⁴ *Litterae Annuae* of the Province of Malabar, 1604-1606, Ap. C, No. XXII.
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The new Viceroy Ayres de Saldanha landed in Goa in the same year 1600; and, according to a letter of Fr. Pimenta dated December 21st, 1602, shortly after his arrival wrote to the Emperor Venkata "announcing by this letter his landing in India, thanking him for the benevolence with which he treats the members of our Society" ¹. This news probably reached Venkata's court early in 1601; and it was then that Venkata sent to Goa his legation briefly mentioned by Anquetil du Perron ².
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¹ Litterae Annuae of the Province of Goa, written by Fr. N. Pimenta, Goa, December 21st, 1602, Ap. C, No. V.
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² Anquetil du Perron, l. c., p. 168.
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The ambassadors, along with Fr. de Sa and another Father, left Venkata's court in the same year 1601. Fr. Ricio, who remained at Chandragiri, wrote on October 20th, of the same year: "The King wishes to be in close friendship with the Portuguese, and sends his ambassadors to the Viceroy along with two of our Fathers, who are Fr. Simao de Sa and Fr. Belchior Coutinho, and presents (the Viceroy) with two rings that cost five thousand pagodes, along with a message showing his desire to be the brother in arms (ally) of the King of Portugal" ³. This extract shows clearly Venkata's purpose in sending such an embassy to the Poruguese Viceroy; it was to establish firmly a defensive alliance with Portugal, probably against the Mughal Emperor Akbar, whose designs were at least suspected at Venkata's court ⁴.
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³ From Fr. F. Ricio to Fr. C. Aquaviva, Chandragiri, October 20th, 1601, Ap. C, No. I.
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⁴ Cf. Ch. XVI, Nos. 9 and 10.
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In a letter of December 21st, 1602, Fr. Pimenta, who was still at Goa when the two Jesuits reached the city with the ambassadors, writes: "I could write a long account of this legation, as well as of the earnest entreaties of the Prince (Tirumala), whose country (Seringapatam) they had to pass through, that one of the Fathers should stay with him on his return" ⁵. Unfortunately Pimenta did not set down this account at length; he only says that the embassy passed through Seringapatam; hence it would proceed to Mangalore, and from Mangalore would perhaps reach Goa by sea.
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⁵ Litterae Annuae of the Province of Goa, referred to in note 1.
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The success of this embassy seems to have been extraordinary. In another Jesuit letter of 1602 we read: "The ambassadors, after having left Goa full of gifts and honours from the Viceroy, went by land to Chandegri (Chandragiri), where in the presence of the King and of the nobles of his court they extolled all our things and the honours and favours they had received from the Viceroy and our Fathers in Goa; this was highly esteemed by the King, who showed himself hereafter more inclined to our interests" ¹. Even Philip III congratulated the Viceroy on the success of this legation; he wrote to him from Valladolid on December 23rd, 1604: "I was very glad to know that the ambassadors of this king (of Vijayanagara) were gallantly entertained and heard by you, as you wrote to me that you did" ².
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¹ Litterae Annuae of the Province of Malabar, 1602, Ap. C, No. VIII.
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² From King Philip III to the Viceroy Ayres de Saldanha, Valladolid, December 23rd, 1604, Ap. B, No. VII.
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6. The Viceroy naturally returned this courtesy with an embassy of his own, the account of which is also found in one of the Jesuit letters that runs as follows: "The ambassador was received by the King (Venkata) with great respect and splendour, as on his arrival at Chandegri (Chandragiri) one of the chiefs of the Royal Council, accompanied by elephants, camels, horses, kettle-drummers and other signs of joy and meriment, went out to fetch him and lodge him in the best palaces and houses of that city. The King was at that time at Tripeti (Tirupati), two leagues from Chandegri. The King determined to receive our ambassador in this city, for which he sent his favourite with great show and reverence to bring him there. The King was outside a very great court; not dressed in rich clothes, because it is not customary, but covered with precious stones, armlets and strings of pearls from his feet to the crown of his head: he wore among others two jewels of great beauty, one of which was an emerald surrounded by big pearls and brilliant diamonds, and the other a ruby of high price and extraordinary greatness. The ambassador knelt down, but the King ordered him to get up and sit down. He (the King) joyfully received the letter and the gift of the Viceroy, and spoke of the friendly relations he wished to have with the Portuguese, and of other things concerning the welfare of the State. Then he sent back the ambassador loaded with honours and presents" 1.
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Thus the old alliance which Venkata's predecessors had made with the Portuguese was renewed 2. "It had been almost forgotten at the time", says the above-quoted letter 3. Venkata himself in a letter to Fr. Pimenta, who was then at Goa, wrote as follows: "My old love for the Portuguese was sufficiently proved at Goa. I have determined to send a ring with other gifts to the Viceroy; my interpreter Condogor will be charged with handing them over to him. Kindly inform the Viceroy about my purpose, in order that the old friendship may be renewed" 4.
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7. In the meantime in the city of St. Thome there were continuous differences between the Portuguese themselves, and even sometimes between them and the neighbouring Hindus. This uneasy state of affairs is indicated in a letter of the Viceroy Dom Jeronymo d' Azevedo to his sovereign, in the year 1613: "The inhabitants of the city of Meliapor (viz. Sao Thome de Meliapor) were accustomed to live in the most absolute freedom. Justice has no other meaning than the one those citizens, and specially those who are reputed as powerful, are pleased to give it. For since that land belongs to the King of Bisnaga (Vijayanagara), and there is no garrison nor authority to be respected, such-and many other troubles take place there every day" 5.
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Venkata was aware of these dissensions, and felt how hard the task of the governor or *adigar* of that city must be. The one appointed in 1599 was, it seems, a man without the experience of years or of affairs; hence Venkata wrote to Fr. Simao de Sa to look carefully after the welfare of the city, and also ordered his adigar to take no serious steps without previously consulting the Jesuits ¹. As a matter of fact, one of the Jesuit letters of 1600 relates that some differences between the governor and the Portuguese were settled through the deligence of Fr. de Sa and Fr. Manoel de Veiga ².
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¹ Litterae Annuae of the Province of Malabar, 1602, Ap. C, No. VIII.
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² Cf. Ch. IV, No. 5.
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³ See Ap. C, No. VIII.
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⁴ Litterae Annuae of the Province of Goa, written by Fr. N. Pimenta, Goa, December 21st, 1602, Ap. C, No. V.
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⁵ From the Viceroy Dom Jeronymo d' Azevedo to King Philip III, 1613, Ap. B, No. XVII.
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¹ Du Jarric, I, p. 682.
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² From Fr. B. Coutinho to Fr. N. Pimenta, Chandragiri, July 17th, 1600, Ap. C, No. V.
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Nevertheless, the riots in the city of St. Thome continued in the following years. "When I reached this country on September 3rd, 1606", writes Fr. M. Roiz from St. Thome itself, "I found the Portuguese quarrelling and fighting among themselves, as they were doing two or three years ago" ³. And another letter, recounting the affairs of the same year 1606, states: "This city of Sao Thome is for the best divided into factions and there are often terrible fights, as in times of civil war. No remedy can be found for that, since it is situated in the country of the Hindu King, and far from the capital; and neither the judicature nor the captain is so provided with military force as to arrest and punish the criminals. Great troubles however have been checked by our (fathers). One Friday during Lent the preacher spoke so fervently and zealously against hatred and strife that the chief of one of those factions, who was hearing the sermon together with other people carrying arms and muskets, was so deeply moved that he determined to change his life at once and to become a friend of his foe; as he did in the Mother Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, where he made amends for the damage and loss he had caused and went to confession with signs of contrition and amendment. At present there is no hatred nor strife" ⁴.
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³ From Fr. M. Roiz to Fr. J. Alvarez, St. Thome, November 1st, 1606, Ap. C, No. XII.
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⁴ Litterae Annuae of the Province of Malabar, 1606-1607, Ap. C, No. XXVI.
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8. In order to put an end to these continual disturbances, it seems that the appointment of a Bishop for Sao Thome was proposed, as is clear from a letter of the Viceroy Dom Jeronymo d' Azevedo to the King written in 1613. In this letter the Viceroy states that experience has shown that the citizens of Sao Thome have not improved after the appointment of a Bishop there 1. On the other hand, the Bishop of Cochin was unable to make his pastoral visit through the whole of his diocese on account of its extent 2. Hence Philip III of Spain, moved by these two reasons, requested His Holiness Paul V, to erect a new Bishopric in Sao Thome 3. His Majesty's petition was presented to the Pope by Cardinal Eduardo Farnesse 4. Paul V finally erected the Church of St. Thomas at Mailapur (Mylapore) as the Cathedral of the new Bishopric on January 9th, 1606; and on the same day appointed the Augustinian Friar Fr. Sebastiao de Sao Pedro as its first Bishop, according to the King's request 5. The new Diocese embraced the whole Coast of Coromandel and the kingdoms of Bengal, Orissa and Pegu 6.
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XVII. India and Burma according to the ‘Carta Marina’ of 1516 by M. Waldseemuller.
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The new Bishop reached St. Thome late in 1608. "The new Bishop sent by Holiness and His Majesty", writes Fr. Coutinho, "has reached St. Thome. And our Fr. Rector entertained him very kindly in our own house, where he resided; and when he went through the streets on foot, he was received with great pageant, dancing, garlands, triumphal arches, etc. He is our sincere friend" 7.
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1. From the Viceroy Dom Jeronymo d' Azevedo to King, Goa, December, 1613, Ap. B, No. XIV. It seems that Dom Jeronymo even proposed to abolish the Bishopric of St. Thome, for on March 2nd, 1615, Philip III wrote to him as follows: "Na mesma carta me pro-pondes que os bispados da China y Meliapor se devem tornar a unir aos de Malaca e Cochim......e por quanto os inconvenientes que aportaes nao me parecerem bastantes para alterar o que, tao pouco ha, tenho ordenado, hei por bem que assy se continue". Bulhao Pato, Documentos, III, p. 284.
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2. Noticia deste Bispado de Mailapur, Ap. D, No. II.
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3. Ibid. Cf. Mitras Lusitanas, p. 95.
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4. Copia do mais essencial da bulla da ereccao do Bispo de S. Thome, Ap. D, No. I.
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5. Noticia deste Bispado de Mailapur, l. c.
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6. Copia do mais essencial, l. c.
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9. Precisely in the very year of the establishment of the Diocese of Mylapore, an event took place in St. Thome which enraged Venkata II against the Portuguese. The occasion was a fight the Portuguese had with the Hindus, owing to the death of a Portuguese gentleman married at St. Thome, who was stabbed by the Hindus at night in their own city (probably Madras). He had gone fully armed to it in search of a girl, who either had run away from him or had been stolen from his house by a soldier of the *adigar*¹. A fight having ensued there, many Hindus joined this soldier, and the Portuguese was killed and a brother of his wounded. News reached St. Thome at once. "Our men", says Fr. Coutinho, "rioted and wanted to set out during night to attack the fort. The captain stopped them till next day, when at dawn they went well armed to the captain's house; and the counsels of the young men prevailed over those of the Priests and the old people of the city". The captain, moreover, was forced by the relatives of the deceased to take revenge. At last, gathering together a strong force of armed people, he marched against the Hindu town (Madras), by storming and sacking it and slaying a number of people; and as the *adigar* had taken shelter in a fortress close to St. Thome (Mylapore) the Portuguese set the fort on fire.
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¹ The sources we use for the narrative of this fact are not concurrent on this point.
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News of this rising was reported to Venkata by the same *adigar*. But his letter "related the events falsely", says the same Coutinho, "and the Queen, who has paramount power all over the country at present, excited the King against the Portuguese on account of this affair; so that, after the aforesaid letters (of the *adigar*) were read in the presence of the whole court, the sovereign...became so furious that, though usually as meek as a lamb, on that occasion he looked like a lion, and said several times that he would destroy even the foundations of our city; to do which he appointed some captains, declaring that he did not want friendship with the Portuguese any more, and that he would call the Dutch, and so on." One of the things he said, according to another Jesuit letter, was that "if the *adigar* had committed anyoffence, they (the Portuguese) ought to have represented it to him and he would have punished him”. “His courtiers said”, continues Coutinho, “that they had never seen him so much excited as on this occasion”.
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“The inhabitants of St. Thome”, says another letter, “fearing that the King might send an army to besiege them, deputed Fr. Rector, Nicolas Levanto, to go to the King and appease him with reasons and presents. The King on hearing of his arrival sent him a message inviting him, in case he had come to talk on the Fathers’ business; but if he had come to talk on the affairs of Maleapor (Mylapore) he would not listen, seeing that they had offered him such a great affront; nor would he receive their presents”. Nevertheless Venkata gradually relented; and being ‘naturally meek and benevolent’, after two months he sent for Fr. Levanto, who was received by the Sovereign with signs of great affection. Then the Rector of the college of St. Thome offered to the King all the presents he was carrying on behalf of the Portuguese, and obtained everything he had asked for, “even to remove that adigar or captain of the fort, placing in his stead another one according to the wishes of the Portuguese”. Such was the end of that unpleasant incident, which might easily have been the ruin of the city of St. Thome¹.
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¹ From Fr. M. Roiz to Fr. J. Alvarez, St. Thome, November 1st, 1606, Ap. C, No XII; From Fr. B. Coutinho to Fr. C. Aquaviva, St. Thome, November 4th, 1606, Ibid., No. XIII; From the same to the same, same date, Ibid., No. XIV; From the same to Fr. J. Alvarez, Vellore, November 11th, 1607, Ibid., No. XVIII; Litterae Annuae of the Province of Malabar, 1606-1607, Ibid., No. XXVI. Two years later Venkata received in his court at Vellore a Portuguese merchant dealing in emeralds. From Fr. B. Coutinho to Fr. C. Aquaviva, Vellore, October 11th, 1608, Ap. C, No. XXIII; Guerreiro, Relacam Annal...... no anno de 606. & 607., p. 105. It is worth while to compare this account based on impartial contemporary documents with the following extract from Whiteway, The Rise of the Portuguese Power, p. 28: “When St. Thome was held to ransom for the intolerant acts of some Jesuits and Franciscans, the Raja of Vijayanagara kept such faith with the Portuguese that, as one of them says, such humanity and justice are not to be fund among christians”.
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10. It was their very good fortune not to lose for ever the friendship of the powerful monarch of Vijayanagara, in those days of great trials and dangers for the Portuguese in India; their cause was in great distress, and the success of their enterprises was then first thwarted by the enemies who finally ruined their once flourishing State.
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Fr. Alberto Laerzio, an Italian and hence an impartial witness, in a letter to Fr. J. Alvarez dated Cochin, November 20th, 1608, says that the causes of these troubles were two: the maladministration of Archbishop Menezes, who was then acting as Governor General since the death of Dom Martim Affonso de Castro¹, and the increasing power of the Dutch and the English traders; "the Dutch ships", he says, "are cruising in these eastern seas, checked by nobody"². At the same time the English had taken possession of Masulipatam; and Philip III, in a letter dated December 10th, 1607, recommends his Viceroy to do his best with Venkata in order to obtain their expulsion from the place³. At the end of the same year, the new Viceroy Conde da Feira was eagerly expected at Goa; but the Dutch were interested in impeding his arrival. He had left Lisbon with a fleet of fourteen ships, one of which, says Fr. Laerzio in the above mentioned letter, "parted from the Viceroy and reached Mozambique in the month of August; and finding there thirteen Dutch ships that had besieged our fortress, was conquered by them after one day's hard fight". The Dutch were then informed that the Viceroy was coming behind; hence they raised the siege and went to Goa, where they anchored off the mouth of the river. "During our stay there", continues Laerzio, "news reached us that a ship, *Oliveira* by name, belonging to the Viceroy's party, had also arrived and was six miles away on the North and even within sight: our ships went there from Goa, threw all money and goods overboard and, before the arrival of the Dutch, had set the ship on fire and reduced the whole of it to ashes, that the enemy might have nothing of it. "Of the other twelve ships with the Viceroy no news whatsoever is heard", so Laerzio says at the end ¹. As a matter of fact Conde da Feira never saw the shores of India: he died on the way.
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¹ In 1606 the Archbishop Governor sent the gift of a horse to Venkata II. From Fr. B. Coutinho to Fr. C. Aquaviva, St. Thome, November 4th, 1606, Ap. C, No. XIV.
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² From Fr. A. Laerzio to Fr. J. Alvarez, Cochin, November 20th, 1608, Ap. C, No. XXIV.
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³ From Philip III to the Viceroy Martin Affonso de Castro, Lisbon, December 10th, 1607, Bulhao Pato, *Documentos*, I, p. 146. Another letter of the same sovereign, dated Lisbon, February 21st, 1610, speaks of the same expulsion of the English traders from Masulapatao (Masulipatam). Ibid., p. 359.
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¹ From Fr. A. Laerzio to Fr. J. Alvarez, Cochin, November 20th, 1608, Ap. C, No. XXIV.
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II. At the end of the year 1608 the Dutch obtained from Krishnappa Nayaka of Jinji permission to build a fort in Devanapatnam, as we have stated in one of the preceding chapters ². It seems that in the place selected by them there was formerly an old fort ³. They soon started to construct their own. But according to a letter of Venkata to Philip III of Spain, which we shall quote later on, no sooner did the Emperor hear of the construction of this fort, than he sent an envoy to the Nayak of Jinji, ordering the expulsion of the Dutch from his territory. It seems that Krishnappa Nayaka did not obey his sovereign's order; for in the following year 1609, Fr. Nicolas Levanto was deputed by the Bishop and the Municipality of St. Thome to obtain from Venkata the expulsion of the Dutch from Devanapatnam. Levanto went to Venkata's court and easily obtained from him a new order for the Nayak of Jinji, to whom he personally presented it. He was also well received by Krishnappa. Matters however were seriously discussed; "the nut was a hard one to crack", says the Jesuit letter we are transcribing here, "because of the large profit he was hoping to get from the new guests; hence he (Krishnappa) told the Father to hope for the best, but at the same time delayed giving him a definite reply". Venkata in the meantime suspected the cause of this delay, and accordingly issued a third letter of his own accord, in which he scolded the Nayak for his disobedience, and ordered him again “to do according to the demand of the Father, and expel from his territory the foes of the Portuguese, who are better friends than the Dutch”.
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² Cf. Ch. XIX, No. 12.
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³ Rea, Monumental Remains, p. 13.
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² Cf. Ch. XIX, No. 8.
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³ Memorial against the Jesuits of Vijayanagara, Ap, C, No. XXXVII.
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As soon as Krishnappa received this letter he sent for Fr. Levanto; and after assuring him that he was ready to obey the Emperor’s order, gave him letters for the Bishop, the Captain and the Municipality of St. Thome. In these letters he announced his final resolution that the fort already in construction should be delivered to the Portuguese. Fr. Levanto himself went there, by the Nayak’s express command, to witness the expulsion of the Dutch. “The foundations and the walls of the citadel had already been built on all sides to some height. There was a huge amount of lime and a good supply of bricks, for the fort was going to be of brickwork. One of our priests remained there” 1.
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Great was the success of the Portuguese on this occasion, thanks to the benevolence of Venkata; and equally great was the disappointment of the Dutch. But they did not relinguish all hopes; for once more before Venkata’s death they demanded from Krishnappa Nayaka permission to settle in Devanapatnam and Porto Novo, the new city founded by Krishnappa 2, but this time without success 3. Probably it is on account of these constant refusals on his part to allow the Dutch to settle in his territory, that Krishnappa is said in a letter of the Portuguese Viceroy, Dom Francisco da Gama, dated November 28th, 1634, to be “very fond of the Portuguese” 4.
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12. This friendship of Venkata with the Portuguese was confirmed in the same year on receipt of a letter from Philip III, King of Spain and Portugal, in which His Catholic Majesty thanked the Vijayanagara Emperor for his royal protection of the Missionaries of the Society of Jesus. The text of this letter runs as follows, according to a copy we have found in the Pangim Archives :—
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¹ Litterae Annuae of the Province of Malabar, 1609, Ap. C, No. XXX. Cf. Figueroa, Historia y Anal Relacion...Los anos passados de 607 y 608, p. 114-5.
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⁴ This letter will be published in Vol. II.
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" Very Noble King of Bisnaga (Vijyanagara).
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" I, Dom Phelippe, etc., make you aware that I have come to know the good hospitality you have extended to the Religious of the Society who dwell in your kingdom, and the favour and assistance you have bestowed on them, as to things concerning Christianity; for which I deemed that it was my duty to thank you, as I do by this letter of mine, and to inform you of the good will with which I shall be pleased, for the sake of all this, to oblige you in all your things.
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" And thus I command my Viceroy to carry it out in whatsoever way you may want from him. And I expect from your nobility that you will keep up this your excellent treatment of the said Religious, so that I may ever feel more and more indebted to you, the Very Noble King of Bisnaga.
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" May Our Lord enlighten you with the light of His grace, and with the same keep you under His protection.
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" Written in Madrid, January 27th, 1607 " ¹.
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¹ Ap. B, No. X. In a letter of King Phelippe to his Viceroy dated December 10th, of the same year, the Spanish sovereign refers to this letter to Venkata II: "Pelo que me escrevestes do bom procedimento del-rey de Bisnaga e favores que faz em suas terras aos padres da companhia, mandei escrever as gracas d'isso nas naus que este anno foram". Bulhao Pato, *Documentos*, I, p. 146.
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This letter from such a powerful sovereign deeply affected the old Emperor of Vijayanagara. From the latter's answer we deduce that the Viceroy of Goa also wrote proposing to him on behalf of his sovereign an alliance against the Muhammadans, with special reference to the Mughal Emperor. This was precisely Venkata's desire. Witness his answer to Philip III as follows :—
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" Letter of the King of the Kings, Great Lord, Great Knight, King Vencatapati, very great King, to the most powerful Lord of sea and land, Dom Phelipe, King of Portugal, etc.
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" I received Your Majesty's letter and I enjoyed its reading very much. Your Majesty spoke of two things in it: the first was about the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who are living at my court, and Your Majesty's joy on hearing how I was myself honouring and entertaining them. The second was about Your Majesty's Viceroy at Goa, viz. that Your Majesty had already written to him, ordering him to help me when the welfare of my kingdom should require it. I was very glad to know both things, because, as far as the Fathers are concerned, they, in these eleven years they have spent at my court, have always been good, religious, very chaste, prudent, learned people and preachers of their own faith; and I shall treat them in the way Your Majesty desires and they are worthy of. As regards the Viceroy, I am always ready to help him with the whole of my army and power, when necessary, against our old common enemies the Moors (Muhammadans).
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"I learned how the Dutch, rebel subjects of Your Majesty came to Girola (Jinji), to talk with the Nayque (Nayak), and they requested from him the harbour of Tauana Patan (Devanapatnam), where they were already building a fortress. I sent at once a messenger of mine with some letters for the Nayque; and later on Fr. Nicolas Levanto, Rector of the College of St. Thome of the Society of Jesus, at my request went there taking with him letters of mine on the same object. And I saw that the Nayque forbade the building of a fortress by them, and expelled them from my possessions, since they, being rebels against Your Majesty, so they are also to my person.
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"The old friendship which existed between the Kings my ancestors, and the Kings of Portugal, from the time of Narsinga (Narasimha), must continue at present between Your Majesty and myself, and I beg Your Majesty to write me at once whenever necessary.
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"From my Kingdom,
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"Venkataja, King "¹.
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¹ Figueroa, *Historia y Anal Relacion......Los anos passados de 607 y 608*, p. 113-4.
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The Spanish monarch was naturally extremely glad to receive Venkata's letter, and to know his attitude towards the Dutch traders at Devanapatnam. Simultaneously he addressed a number of letters to several Princes of the East against his rebel subjects of the Netherlands, copies of which are to be found in the Government Archives at Pangim ¹. King Phelippe was made aware of the conduct of Venkata the Dutch by a letter of Archbishop Menezes, as one of the former’s letters to his Viceroy testifies. Even before he had received this letter of Venkata, he had again written to the old Emperor thanking him for his loyal friendship ².
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¹ See one of these letters to the king of Cananor in Ap. B, No. IX. In 1613, the Spanish monarch ordered his Viceroy to thank the Kings of Calicut and Cananor for the expulsion of the Dutch from their ports. Ap. B, No. XVI. In the same year he gave a detailed account of the Dutch and British ships, which had left Europe for the East. Ap. B, No. XVI. In the volume *Moncoes do Reino*, No. 6, (la. pte.) in the *Arquivo da Secretaria Geral do Governo*, Pangim, there are several documents on this subject. A letter to the King of Cochin, dated Madrid, January 17th, 1607 (fol. 117), another to the King of Melinde, Lisbon, December 22nd, 1606 (fol. 120), another to the Prince of Carnate (sic), Lisbon, December 23rd, 1606 (fol. 123), another to the King of Porqua, Lisbon, December 22nd, 1606. A letter of the same sovereign to his Viceroy dated January 16th, 1607, laying down their attitude towards the petty chiefs of Canara runs as follows “E porque o estado das cosas mostram ser necessario conservar a estes reys em paz e amisade, vos encommendo trateis com que assi se faca lembrando-lhe a elles que nao tenham commercio nem amisade com os rebeldes de Hollanda, por serem aleuantados.” *Bulhao Pato, Documentos*, I, p. 73.
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² “E porque o dito arcebispo governadar me escreve na mesma conformidade e o bem que o dito rey se tem avido em nao consentir que os hollandezes sejam recebidos em nenhum porto seu, lhe mandei escreuer a carta que vae nestas vias.” Lisbon, December 10th, 1607, *Bulhao Pato, Documentos*, I, p. 146.
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13. This friendship between Venkata and the Portuguese seems to have come to an abrupt end in 1611, when the former besieged the city of St. Thome. The Viceroy, Dom Jeronymo d’Azevedo, in a letter to his sovereign dated 1613, (month not given), says that the origin of this war ‘was due to the absence of the Jesuits’ from Venkata’s court ³. They had been removed from it shortly before ⁴. A Jesuit letter of 1611 gives a full account of this unfortunate affair.
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³ Ap. B, No. XII.
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⁴ Cf, Ch. XXII, No. 11.
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“Its cause”, says the letter, “was greed of money; for the old King dotes sometimes, and on such occasions those who govern the kingdom do as they please. Once they demanded from the citizens of St. Thome an enormous amount of money. They (the Portuguese) refused (to pay) such an extraordinary exaction; then they were attacked (by the King's soldiers), and defended themselves; both parties fought courageously; many of the enemies and some Portuguese were killed" 1. In the city, which was not yet fortified 2, the besiegers resisted for several months, according to a letter of Fr. Laerzio 3. Fr. Queyroz, who supposes that Venkata himself was commanding the beleaguering army, relates that in the course of the siege, his Queen brought forth a child whose legitimacy was doubtful 4; this seems to indicate that the siege lasted about nine months. The same author records that the army of Venkata contained two hundred and twenty thousand soldiers, who were finally repulsed with heavy losses by the Portuguese under the command of Manoel de Frias, Captain of St. Thome 5. From a letter of Philip III to his Viceroy, dated March 6th, 1613, it appears that the Bishop Fr. Sebastiao de Sao Pedro had a large share in the hardships of the siege, the success of which was partly due to him: "I highly appreciate the person and the services of the Bishop", says His Majesty, "and his conduct during the siege" 6. And on February 20th, 1614, the King writes again to his Viceroy as follows: "The Bishop of Meliapor (Mylapore) wrote to me describing his action in my royal service during the siege of that city" 7. The same letter speaks of the aid given to the Portuguese by Raghunatha Nayaka of Tanjore:
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2. From King Philip III to the Viceroy Dom Jeronymo d' Azevedo, Lisbon, March 7th, 1613, Ap. B, No. XIII.
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3. From Fr. A. Laerzio to Fr. C. Aquaviva, Cochin, November 25th, 1611, Ap. C, No. XXXII.
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4. Queyroz, Conquista de Ceylao, p. 309.
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5. Ibid.
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6. Philip III's letter mentioned in note 2, Ap. B, No. XIII.
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7. From Philip III to the Viceroy Dom Jeronymo d'Azevedo, Lisbon, February 20th, 1614, Ap. B, No. XI. Fr. Sebastiao de Sao Pedro is also said to have defended St. Thome and Sadras against the Dutch. Cf. Noticia deste Bispado de Mailapur, Ap. D, No. II.
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"And since I have also been told of the good conduct of the Nayak of Tanjaor (Tanjore) in my service during the aforesaid siege, I am sending by this mail a letter thanking him, entrusting you with the charge of forwarding it to him" 1. Unfortunately neither this letter nor a copy of it has hitherto reached our hands; we know only that it was sent to the Bishop of Mylapore, by whom it had to be dispatched to Tanjore: "The letter of Your Majesty to the Nayak of Tanjaor (Tanjore)", says the Viceroy in his answer to the King, "is being sent to the Bishop (of Mylapore), who will hand it over to him" 2.
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Finally the Bishop and the Captain of St. Thome deputed Fr. Antonio Rubino, and two of the chief men of the city to propose terms of peace to Venkata. "But since they did not bring the sum demanded, they were seized and cast into prison. We are still ignorant of what will be the end of this affair" 3. So does a Jesuit letter, written at the close of 1511, end its narrative of this war. At any rate we know that Fr. Rubino and his companions remained in prison for two months, and were eventually released on the Portuguese promising to pay 401 pagodas; half to be paid at once and the other half by instalments during the following six months. Rubino's return to St. Thome was a solemn triumph: he was received and acclaimed as the liberator of the country 4.
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14. The siege of St. Thome by the army of Venkata II clearly showed the imperative necessity of fortifying the city. No walls had surrounded the settlement till then; it was really a tour de force to resist the attack of the imperial army for several months, without walls, bastions or ditches. In a letter of Philip III of March 7th, 1613, we read: "The same Viceroy wrote to me that the inhabitants of the city of St. Thome were demanding aid and permission, not only for fortifying themselves, but also for incorporating their city into the jurisdiction of that State (of Portuguese India), and establishing a custom-house and a tax-collector to gather the ‘one fourth per cent’, which is now paid to the King of Bisnaga (Vijayanagara), for my treasury ” 1. The second item which the King speaks of shows the disaffection the inhabitants of St. Thome felt towards Venkata. It had been the natural result of his recent siege of their own city. This was the first indication of their desire to be independent of the sway of the Vijayanagara Sovereign. Great discussions ensued on this point after the death of Venkata, which will be narrated in the following volume. As to the first point of the King’s letter, his decision to fortify St. Thome was not carried out until after Venkata had passed away; his letter did not reach India before that event. This may be seen from the answer of the Viceroy 2.
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¹ Ibid.
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² From the Viceroy Dom Jeronymo d' Azevedo to Philip III, January 21st, 1613, Ap. B, No. XIII.
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³ Litterae Annuae of the Province of Malabar, 1611, Ap. C, No. XXXV.
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⁴ Cf. Saroglia, Vita del Venerabile P. Antonio Rubino, p. 30.
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There was still another problem about St. Thome, which required prompt solution. The Viceroy, in a letter of 1613, after relating the differences and brawls between the citizens of St. Thome, adds: “For this reason I wish to appoint a *hidalgo* of authority as captain of that city, and at the head of a garrison able to wage war ” 3. Dom Jeronymo d’ Azevedo, when writing these words, had no doubt in mind the recent war with Venkata. At the end of the same year he again urged his sovereign to nominate a respectable *hidalgo* for that task, “because, owing to the want of such a respectable person there, many riots take place and the citizens are divided and fighting among themselves; and specially (he is necessary) to be there ready to check the Dutch if they intend to settle again on that coast ” 4. The Bishop himself also wrote to the Viceroy requesting the appointment of a person for that post ¹. To put an end to such troubles, Dom Jeronymo d'Azevedo wrote to the King on December 31st, 1614, that perhaps he would himself proceed to St. Thome ². But his project was not carried out.
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¹ From Philip III to the Viceroy Dom Jeronomo d’ Azevedo, Lisbon, March 7th, 1613, Ap. B, No. XIII.
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² Ibid.
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³ From the Viceroy Dom Jeronymo d’ Azevedo to Philip III 1613, Ap. B, No. XVII.
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⁴ From the same to the same, Goa, December 26th, 1613, Ap. B, No. XV.
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¹ From the same to the same, Ilhas, December 31st, 1614, Ap. B, No. XVIII.
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² Ibid.
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In the meantime, he wished to appoint Dom Bernardo de Noronha, Captain of St. Thome; for he wrote to the King to this effect on December 26th, 1613. On the matter being proposed to his councillors, Dom Bernardo was elected and "thus I declared to him", says Dom Jeronymo, "that I would give him as much (money) as I could take from the State, with the same regulations as the Captain of Ormuz has, and the authority over that city and the whole of that coast, which is ordinarily given to the Captain-Generals of the fleet". But in spite of the earnest entreaties of the Viceroy, of the Archbishop and of other nobles such as Dom Luiz da Gama, Dom Bernardo de Noronha refused the appointment ³. The Viceroy, however, still hoped to send Dom Bernardo to St. Thome; but at the end of the following year he received two letters from his sovereign, in which Philip III disapproved of such an appointment. "Hence" says the Viceroy, "I did not think of it any more" ⁴. Nothing further touching this matter is found during the life of Venkata II.
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- Chandrāvatī plate of Chandra-dēva, V.S. 1156 — Sanskrit