Portuguefe, and periihed in the fiege. His Tucceffor called in the
Turks, and, with an army o f twenty thoufand men, renewed
the liege. The gallant governor,« Menefes, repelled all their
aflaults, and obliged them to retire with great lofs. In 1546 it
underwent a third liege, and with the fame ill fuccefs. After
this, every attention was paid to a place of fuch importance.
Its fortifications were efteemed the fineft in India, to which it
was deemed the key ; they were feated on a rock, and had a
vail fofs cut through the live flone. It became a place of im-
menfe trade, and was the harbour in which the fleets were laid
up during winter. The fplendor of the buildings, and the luxury
of the inhabitants, were unipeakable. Surat was deftroyed
to favor its commerce, but when that city was reftored, the'
former declined fail, fo that at prefent it has not only quite loft
its former confequence, but,, according to Nicbolfon, is in a
manner a heap of ruins.
T he governor, Don John Mafcarenhàs, was, after a moft
gallant defence, reduced to great dillrefs. He was relieved by
» O N J o h n d e the great Don John de Cajlro, governor of the Indies, then at
C a s t r o . 6 > î 7 , who firft fent his fon Ferdinand, with fuch force he could
fpare, to ftrengthen the garrifon : After which, collecting all
the troops he could in Afia, followed his fon, landed his
army, and joined the belieged. He refolved to attack the
enemy, numerous as they were. He fallied forth, and gained a
complete victory.
T he manner in which the fortrefs of Diu was reftored, is
Angular. Cajlro was poflèfled of little more than his fword and
his helmet. He tried every method to raife money, but in
vain. At length he offered to depofit, as pledges for the fum,
the bones of his fon Ferdinand, who had fell during the fiege.
His
His army, who idolized the gallant youth, prevaled on him to
reftore them to the grave. He then fent to the inhabitants of
Goa one o f his muftachos as fecurity for the fum required.
They knew his rigid honor, and advanced the money. He died
at Goa, in 1548, aged forty-eight. He had the confolation o f
dying in the arms o f the apoftle o f the Indies, Xavier. His
body was interred in that c ity ; but his bones were removed to
the convent at Bemfica, near Eifbon, beneath a monument,
which records the actions o f his glorious life *.
T he great bay of Cambay, the Barygazenus Jinus of the an- B a y o f C a w -
tients, now opens between Cape Diu and Cape St. John, on the BA'"
oppofite fhore, diftant a hundred and eighty miles; it runs far
inland towards the north, and ends with the river Mihie, the an-
tient Mais. Cambay, once the capital of a kingdom o f the fame C AM E A Y .
name, ftands on the weftern fide, near the bottom, in N. Lat.
22° 20'. It is a vaft city, walled round with brick, and may be
called the mother of Surat, which it fupports by its various
rich articles of commerce, ftill confiderable, notwithftand-
ing the retreat of the fea near a mile and a half. Cambay
is a great manufacturing country, and furniihes the coarfe unbleached
cloths, much in ufe in Perjia, Arabia, Egypt, and
Abejfynia; alfo blue pieces for the fame countries, and for the
Engli/h and Dutch trade in Guinea; blue and white checks for
mantles in Arabia and Turky, ibme coarfe, others enriched with
gold; white pieces woven at Barochia, called Bajias; muilins
with a gold ftripe at each end, for turbans; gauzes; mixed
fluffs of filk and cotton; lhawls made o f the Cachemirian wool;
befides immenfe bales o f raw cotton, fent annually to Surat,
Bengal, China, Perfa, and Arabia, for their feveral man-ufac-
* Murphy’s Travels in Portugal, p. 263, 273-,
tories.