Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/147

 ALBUQUEKQUE AT ORMUZ 101 in Chief, had dispossessed him by force of arms,"^and agreeing to pay a yearly tribute to the King of Portugal with a sum down at once " to defray the men's pay which the Captain in Chief brought with him." In the autumn of 1508 Albuquerque went on to India, hav- ing vowed not to cut his beard until he built a fort at Ormuz, and leaving the king and his minister to digest these words: " Have I not already many a time ORMCZ ON THE PERSIAN GULF, IN 1574. told thee that I was no corsair, but Captain-General of the King of Portugal, an old man and a peaceable one? " Middle-aged the great admiral certainly was, as he had been born in 1453; but whether peaceable, may be judged from the joint remonstrance which his cap- tains addressed to him at Ormuz on January 5, 1508. " Sir, we do this in writing because by word of mouth we dare not, as you always answer us so passionately." Yet it was a generous fire that burned in those sunken