Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/446

 402 PORTUGUESE HISTORY sures pursued by Albuquerque, the greatest and wisest of the Portuguese conquerors of India, to secure this acquisition ; and from the spirit of his regulations, we may gather how little can be looked for in the sequel from meaner agents. To secure his possession, he built a strong citadel, and, with the religious zeal which belonged to his age, one of his first cares was the construction of a church. Malacca, at the moment of the conquest, consisted of a mixed population of Mahomedan natives, Pagan natives, Mahomedans of Western India, and Ma- homedan Javanese. Of the first and third classes, those who were not massacred in the sack of the town, or did not follow the fortunes of their natu- ral prince, were condemned, without exception, to slavery, Albuquerque saw Malacca an useless and dreary solitude, and resolved to repeople it with strangers. He, for this purpose, pursued the wise and salutary conduct of leaving the natives to their domestic laws and usages. He intrust- ed Raja Utimutis, a Javanese chief, with the ad- ministration of the Mahomedan part of the popu- lation, and Ninachetuan"^ over the Pagan portion, the former an ambitious chief, who long aimed at the sovereignty of Malacca, and the latter, one corruptions of genuine names, which are so altered that cannot guess at them.
 * These names are neither of them native, but Portuguese