Part IV
Part IV
My Prince and Master,
Now that you read these very lines, I’m convinced that God the Almighty is truly with us, for I could only trust in God when I gave these pages to an Arab trader of dubious reputation.
Hundreds of miles of hostile heathen land separate me from my father’s my lands, but I always knew, that someday you will restore the meaning of the lines I will write by using the code we created almost four years ago. Four years, since King Jao’s only son died and you were proclaimed heir to the throne of Portugal, soon to be King Manuel I. Four years, since you sent me on this mission, to scout the route to India for our brave sailors who will follow the great Bartholomeu Diaz.
Disguised as a trader from our Moroccan stronghold Tangier I crossed North Africa, always in danger of being recognized as Christian. But somehow I survived, learned to speak the infidel’s tongue, imitate their customs and rituals and finally I arrived in Alexandria. I left this city as soon as possible, joining a caravan heading further South, always following the spice trading routes.
Now I live in a city called Ormuz, which is located on the eastern shore of the Arabian Peninsula. Being the infidel’s centre of the trade with India it is a rich and exotic place. But as the privileged Arab merchants jealously guard their secrets, it is also a very dangerous place for a foreigner with many questions about the lands in the East.
Till now I have not been able to get my feet on ship bound for India, but I surely will sooner or later. In the meantime I will trust in God’s blessing and look out for every piece of information I may be able to obtain. The blank page I added to this letter is a copy of a map I stole from a drunken captain, showing the seas to the south of the infidel’s heartlands and the coasts of Africa. I used a special, invisible ink, but my old friend Vasco da Gama knows how to make the drawings visible again.
It was the same captain who first mentioned a place called Malacca, but his comrades immediately stopped him talking. Something I will have to investigate.
Written in the city of Ormuz, in the year of our lord 1496,
Damião de Góis, Knight of the Order of Christ
Manuel I. of Portugal
My King,
I’m honoured to have the possibility to write you again after three years of forced silence. I left Ormuz shortly after I wrote my first letter to your Royal Highness, which I now know arrived in Lisbon in 1497. But the ship that should bring me to the dreamed coast of India was destroyed in a terrible storm and I owe my life solemnly to God’s mercy. But together with all my possessions and all my gold I lost every hope for being of any use for the Order and for my King.
Stranded in a foreign land, I had to live with the poorest of the poor. India is a strange land, where birth determines everything. But I will not bore my King with lamentations and stories about the years I spent as a beggar. Now, with da Gama’s and Coelho’s ships controlling the Indian Ocean I will continue with my mission. The couriers surely have brought detailed news of Don Francisco de Almeida’s failed attempt to conquer the city of Goa. The reason for this setback has one name: Malacca.
This city developed from a small fishing village to a powerful sultanate, which nowadays controls most of what lies east of India, and the heart blood of this empire is spice. The plantation on the mysterious pepper and cinnamon islands are owned by the same Malaccan merchants that control almost all aspects of the spice trade. A status, they furiously defend.
For a long time, Malacca seemed to be satisfied with controlling those yet unknown islands in the east, but this changed twenty years ago. It was Sultan Ala’ud-Din Ri’Ayat Shah who forged the great alliance between Malacca, Delhi, Gujarat, Hyderabad and Bengal. Together these nations waged three wars against those Indian kings who did not pray towards Mecca. After ten years of war this alliance finally succeeded in bringing all of India under Muslim control, with Malacca controlling the southern part of this rich land. It is ironic: during the same time our great explorers established colonies in Africa to secure the route to India, this land of desire was lost to an unknown enemy.
Now, another ten years later, thousands of Malaccan settlers live in the Sultanate’s Indian provinces.
I told Don Francisco all the above and I told him, that Malacca will not tolerate any competition for their economic control over India. But he had not believed in anything I said since I introduced myself to his men as a fellow Portuguese in the streets of Goa.
Of all the things I told him about a land completely unknown to him, he was only interested in the reports of the dubious loyalty of the city’s governor. At first, it seemed to be possible to bribe this totally corrupt man into giving Don Francisco complete control over Goa, but then everything went wrong. Mercenaries led by loyal servants of the sultan of Delhi appeared out of nowhere and took control of the citadel; the gold the spent several days later in the cities taverns and brothels was of Malaccan origin. One week later the new governor, a former merchant of Malayan blood, ordered our ships to immediately leave the harbour.
Don Francisco refused, bombarded the citadel, but finally had to set sail for the open sea when news of a great Malaccan fleet heading towards Goa arrived. Now we are at war with Delhi and Gujarat, eliminating any hope of establishing a base on Indian soil.
I speak all of the six languages used in the region, know all of the customs. With the gold captain da Gama gave me before setting sail for Portugal I will disguise again disguise as an Arab merchants and travel farther east. We need more information. We need to know about Malacca.
Written onboard the San Gabriel, in the year of our lord 1499,
Damião de Góis, Knight of the Order of Christ
India 1503
My king,
When the war with Delhi ended after only eight months and without greater hostilities, I did not think that I would have to wait more than ten years to meet a fellow countryman again. But as know now, the Goa fiasco encouraged the court to send another expedition to India; instead I am now told stories about a distant land called Brazil.
I’m living in Malacca for fourteen years now, securing my existence as merchant and translator. This Sultanate is truly a worthy enemy. For the last twenty years the land prospered. The only thing disturbing the peace and growth is the constant demand of the heathen priests to ban all new ideas from the Malaccan Empire. But the Sultan is too wise to forget the source of Malacca’s power. As a mediator between the Chinese Empire of the east and the Arabian and Indian world of the west the state has to remain open minded. But this tolerance is philosophical at best and ends, where Malacca’s state or trading interests begin.
When Bengal declared war on the Burmese state of Mon shortly after we made peace with Bengal, the great Muslim alliance fought together for the last time. The victory was absolute, with Malacca’s troops easily defeating Mon’s allies, forcing the Thai kingdoms of the north to become vassals of the Sultan.
But only one year later the leaders of Hyderabad converted to Shia Islam and left the alliance. Bengal and Malacca did the same, when Delhi began a war against the wild tribes of Afghanistan.
Soon, the Empire of the Thousands Islands, as Malacca is called here, focused its interest again on its neighbouring states. The Sultanate of Brunei, located on the island of Kalimantan just west of the Malaccan Peninsula soon became a military ally, and soon thereafter a new vassal of the mighty Malayan empire. When Brunei fought against the neighbouring state of Kutei, Malacca’s intervention decided the war: the rich city of Sabah was taken by a surprise attack, and the enemy’s armies defeated. In the end, Brunei could regain some former provinces in the South of the island, but Sabah was Malacca’s prize. Only two years later, the Sultan of Brunei married his only daughter to the Sultans oldest sun, thus uniting the two kingdoms.
And then Don Alfonso d’ Albuquerque and his fleet arrived in the streets of Malacca. First my heart was full joy and I thank God on my knees, using my native tongue for the first in years. But soon I realized that Don Alfonso did not learn anything from the fault’s of Don Francisco. He trusted in the superiority of his caravels and demanded ridiculous trading rights for our merchants. He even tired to bribe some of the city’s officials with glass pearls. No Malaccan Sultan could tolerate this, and now are at war with Malacca.
It is true, that our caravels defeated the enemy’s navy, but the Malaccan fleet is far from being destroyed. And the raiding parties Don Alfonso sent to the Indian territories and even Malacca itself were easily annihilated by superior and well equipped forces.
And now my contacts inform me, that the Sultan convinced Ormuz, Yemen, Aden, Kilwa and Malindi to open their ports to Malaccan ships of war. My king, we have to end this war immediately. Don Alfonso’s troops are too few to fight an empire as rich and large as Malacca. And without any base east of Kongo we can’t hope to change this.
We have to end this war now, or we will never be able to live in peace with the Malaccan people.
Written in the city of Malacca, in the year of our lord 1499,
Damião de Góis, Knight of the Order of Christ
The new Portuguese base of operations
To Manuel, King of the heathen pirates.
We understand that you want to trade with the richest of our country. We there fore understand why your servant attacked our friends, trading partners and rightful brother of Ormuz. It is not our wish to intervene with the dealing of far away people, and we hope Allah, blesses be his name, will grant you this wisdom too.
You have to understand, that we will allow your merchants to buy goods and spices in India from our merchants.
And you have to understand, that we will kill all of your servants who dare to come to our lands again, or to the lands of those we protect.
As a gift we send you the head of your servant Damião de Góis, who was known as Yussuf al Warik to our people. As this creature, may the shatain torment his soul, was spy, we kept his eyes and his tongue. His wives and children have been sold to Arab traders in Ormuz,.
I do not wish to write to you again, for the next we will have to write with blood.
For I am Ala’ud-Din Ri’Ayat Shah II, Great Sultan of Malacca, Emperor of Thousand Islands
- to be continued –
Everything goes well. Southern India is mine, the Portuguese didn’t get Goa (lucky me, Delhi went with right decision in the Gates of India event) and I almost killed d’Albuquerque. I control trade in Malacca, Bengal and Kutch, but Portugal banned me from Ormuz.
Next target: Mataram and the other javan states.
Current problem: relations with China are dropping fast, and they’re almost at my border.
South-Eastern Asia
. Here’s the prologue for now, part one will be online soon.
