Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/334

 290 PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE ministration of two years, removed from his trust ; and, on his return to Portugal, permitted to die from want in a prison. The conqueror, Albuquerque, was a brave officer, and endowed with the great and high qualities necessary for the government of men in the turbulent and violent career pursued by the first Portuguese conquerors ; but his conquest of Ma- lacca is not among the most distinguished events of his brilliant administration. The conquest was, in itself, an act of palpable injustice ; it was carried into effect with peculiar ferocity ; and such was the want of wisdom and moderation which marked his own short administration of the new acquisition, that he laid the seeds of much of the misfortunes w^hich attended the future history of the ill fated city. The apostle of the Indies deserves to be consi- dered as one of the greatest men, and one of the most disinterested, virtuous, and useful, that ever visited the Indies. It is impossible to read his true story without forming this conclusion. The Dutch, from their more extensive power, we might be led to expect, would have produced a long list of eminent individuals, but this has not been the case. Not an illustrious name has been handed down to us, from the ranks of inferior a- gents ; and we hear only of those at the head of the government, a circumstance that may excite a