A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c19.100

c19.100

On Burhân again invading Bîjâpûr territories, a party was formed to depose Ibrâhîm and raise to the throne his brother Abdullah. This prince, finding that the conspiracy had been discovered, fled for safety to Goa, where he was well received. But when Ibrâhîm promised certain provinces to the Portuguese if they would send Abdullah away to a place where he could no longer disturb the peace of the Bîjâpûr territories, De Sousa accepted the conditions; receiving the gift of Salsette and Bardes for the crown of Portugal, and the whole of the vast treasures accumulated by Asada Khân at Belgaum as a personal present for himself. Having pocketed as much as he could of the bribe, however, he only took Abdullah as far as Cannanore and then brought him back to Goa; and when, at the end of the next year, De Castro succeeded De Sousa as Governor, the former refused to surrender the rebel prince. This duplicity placed the Sultan in great difficulty, and in February 1546 he executed a treaty of peace, one of the terms of which was that no person belonging either to the Dakhan, or to the territories of the Nizâm Shâh, or to those of the king of Vijayanagar, with certain others specially mentioned, should be permitted to have any communication with Abdullah or his family until the reply of the king of Portugal was received to an embassy which the Âdil Shâh proposed to send to him. There were other terms also, and these not being acted up to by the Portuguese, the Sultan in 1547 sent some troops into the provinces of Salsette and Bardes, which were driven out by the Viceroy after a stubborn fight.