Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/225

 Chap. VIII] SIEGE OF DIU. 191

Turkish artillery. It is told of one lady, Anna Fernandez, wife of a physician, a.d. 1545. that by night she viewed all the posts, and during the assaults stood by encouraofino- the soldiers. She even saw lier own son struck down by a cannon- ball, but, instead of giving way to the agony she must have felt, drew his body jiside, retin-ned to lier post, and only after the assault had been repulsed went to bury him.

It was imi)ossible, however, that the defence could last much longer. The siege ot

. ° Diu raised

Every new assault thinned the numbers of the garrison, and scarcely as many remained as could make even a show of resistance, when a breach was nuide. The governor saw nothinij befoie him but death or surrender, and was ffivino- way to the gloomiest forebodings, when, to his uns])eakable delight, the siege was raised. The Turkish commander, when dispirited by the failure of one of his greatest efforts, received the startling intelligence that a powerful Portuguese fleet was at hand ; and, without staying to ascertain its accuracy, made ofi' with the utmost precipitation. It turned out to be a false rumour, invented and circulated, strange to say, by Khojah Zofar, a renegade Turk, of Italian origin, who commanded the Gujerat forces. His pride had been repeatedly offended by the arrogance of Solyman Pacha; and he had, moreover, ascertained that the Turks were determined, if they gained the place, to retain it as a permanent ])ossession. There was thus only a choice of mastere ; and as the Portuguese seemed the more tolerable of the two, Zotar had given them the preference.

After Khojaii Zofar had rid himself of his Turkish allies by this stratagem, Attcinptto

^ I'Oisoii the

he entered into friendly communications with the Portuguese, but at the same gmrisou. time took several steps which convinced them that enmity was rankling at his heart He was in the highest possible favour with the King of Gujerat; and feeling satisfied that that sovereign's complete ascendency in the peninsula wouUl best secure his own aggrandizement, was prepared to adopt any means, however unscrupulous, that promised to expel the Portuguese. His first attempt was an infamous plot, in which he endeavoured to poison the water of an immense cistern which supplied the garrison, and to set fire to the magazine. When this plot failed, he attempted to build a wall which would have comj)letely isolated the fort from the town The Portuguese objected ; and the foundation foi- a quarrel being thus laid, he had no sooner completed his preparations, in 1545, than he made an open declaration of war.

Mascarenhas, the commander of Diu, made the best aiTanorements iios-sible R<^'»»'^' »«■ m the cn-cumstances ; but his means being inadecpiate, he lost no time in acquainting Juan de Castro of his danger. Zofar, at the same time, aware of his advantage, resolved to assault the place before succour could an-ive. With this view he prepared an immense floating battery, and, filling it with heavy artil- lery, caused it to be steered opposite to the .sea-bastion, in the hope of making such a breach in it as would give him access into the fort. It proved a very clumsy device, for before he could bring it to bear the garrison made a night