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Francisco de Almeida's Viceroyalty of Portuguese India (1505-1509)

Establishment of Portuguese Indies

Background

Main article: Portuguese India Armadas

Beginning with the first expedition of Vasco da Gama in 1497, the Portuguese crown had dispatched six armadas to India. The expeditions had unwisely opened hostilities with Calicut (Calecute, Kozhikode), the principal entrepot of the Kerala pepper trade and dominant city-state on the Malabar coast of India. To counter Calicut, the Portuguese had forged alliances and established factories in three smaller rival coastal states, Cochin (Cochim, Kochi), Cannanore (Canonor, Kannur) and Quilon (Coulão, Kollam).

Nonetheless, the war with the Zamorin rolled on, a threat to the continued Portuguese access to the Indian spice markets. The superiority of Portuguese naval and cannon technology had thus far kept the Zamorin in check. But the Zamorin had begun to take steps to redress the balance, and appealed to his old partners in the spice trade - the Venetian Republic, the Ottoman Empire, the Gujarat Sultanate and the Mameluke sultanate of Egypt to help his fight against the Portuguese. In late 1504, the Portuguese received intelligence that the Mameluke Sultan had launched secret preparations to begin the construction of a coalition fleet in the Red Sea ports, to drive the Portuguese out of the Indian Ocean altogether.

King Manuel I of Portugal determined that the Portuguese should secure their presence by erecting a string of forts at key staging posts around the perimeter of the Indian Ocean, knock out local threats and forge local alliances, before the Mameluke-led fleet was launched. To this end, the monarch decided to establish a permanent Portuguese Viceroy of the Indies, with plenitpotentiary authority over the Portuguese establishments in the Indian Ocean. Manuel appointed the nobleman D. Francisco de Almeida as the first 'Vice-roy' of the Indies.

Erection of the Forts

Main article: 7th Portuguese India Armada (Almeida, 1505)

D. Francisco de Almeida

D. Francisco de Almeida commanded the 7th Armada that set out in March 1505 for India, a well-armed expedition of 22 ships, with instructions to erect forts at strongpoints around the perimeter of the Indian Ocean and knock out any local threats to the Portuguese positions.

In East Africa, Portuguese position was thin: the Portuguese had a reliable ally in Malindi. They also had a factory in Mozambique Island (the critical first stopping point for India Armadas after crossing the Cape of Good Hope) and had recently signed a treaty of alliance with Sofala (main entrepot of the Monomatapa gold trade). But Malindi was threatened by its long-time rival, Mombassa, while Mozambique and Sofala were theoretically under the authority of the Kilwa Sultanate, who was not happy to see their outposts come under the sway of Portuguese. While it had not yet acted against the Portuguese interlopers in their waters, Kilwa had resisted all Portuguese overtures and only signed a tributary treaty under duress.

As a result, Almeida's first priority was to secure the Portuguese position in Sofala and Mozambique by knocking out Kilwa. This wasn't a difficult task as the ruler of Kilwa, Emir Ibrahim, was an unpopular usurper who had murdered the rightful sultan c.1499 and seized power for himself. Almeida's troops faced little opposition in seizing the city in July 1505. In the aftermath, they installed a local nobleman, Muhammad ibn Rukn ad Din (known as Arcone or Anconi to the Portuguese) as the new Sultan of Kilwa. However, he was not of royal family blood, so to ensure constitutional propriety, Muhammad Arcone took care to appoint Muhammad ibn al-Fudail (known as Micante, son of the late sultan murdered by Emir Ibrahim) as his heir, claiming to hold the throne only 'temporarily' in his name. A Portuguese fortress - Fort Sant'Iago - was erected on the island city, with a strong Portuguese garrison of 550 soldiers, under the command of Pêro Ferreira Fogaça and an armed caravel, captained by Gonçalo Vaz de Goes, to maintain a sea patrol around it.

To protect Portuguese-allied Malindi, Almeida attacked and sacked its principal enemy, the island-city of Mombassa in August 1505. Almeida made no effort to try to hold Mombassa, feeling the sack was damaging enough (and warning enough) to dissuade it from ever threatening Malindi again.

The establishment of the Portuguese factory and fort at Sofala was the responsibility of a separate squadron, under Pêro de Anaia. With the consent of ruling sheikh Isuf of Sofala, the Portuguese Fort São Caetano of Sofala was erected in November 1505, with a garrison under Pêro de Anaia and a patrol of two caravels under Anaia's son, Francisco de Anaia.

It was not thought necessary to fortify or garrison the old Portuguese factory in Mozambique Island (now that Sofala and Kilwa were being held) nor to establish any fort in Malindi (now that Mombassa was punished).

Going on to India, Almeida erected Fort São Miguel on Anjediva island, the usual first anchorage stop of Portuguese India ships in September 1505. He installed a garrison of 80 men under Manuel Paçanha and a small patrol of 1 galley and 2 brigantines under João Serrão. The island's position on a pirate-infested stretch of coast, the border between the enemy states of the Muslim Bijapur Sultanate to the north (ruled by Yusuf Adil Shah, called Hidalcão by the Portuguese) and the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire (ruled by Narasimha Rao, whom the Portuguese called Narsinga) to the south, made it precarious. As a result, Almeida thought a show of force useful and raided the docks of the nearby port of Onor, nest of the prominent Hindu corsair Timoja, and forced him to agree to a Portuguese treaty and a promise not to molest Anjediva.

Almeida proceeded down the coast to fortify the three Portuguese factories on the Kerala coast - Cannanore, Cochin and Quilon.

Fort St. Angelo was erected in Cannanore and a garrison of 150 men placed under the command of Lourenço de Brito. It was given a permanent patrol of two navetas under Rodrigo Rabello and Fernão Bermudez. The date of its erection is uncertain, sometime between late October 1505 and May 1506.

The old Portuguese timber fort in Cochin, first built in 1503, was rebuilt in stone c. December 1505 by Almeida and re-dedicated as Fort Manuel of Cochin. A garrison of uncertain size was placed under the command of D. Álvaro de Noronha.

The plan to to erect a fort at Quilon was ruined when the local Portuguese factor entered into a quarrel with the Quilon authorities. In October 1505, the factory was overrun, the Portuguese factor killed, and the city closed itself off to Portuguese ships. It was a significant loss, as by its proximity to Ceylon and points east, Quilon had the best spice markets of the three.

Having personally raised three forts (Kilwa, Anjediva, Cannanore) and reinforced a fourth (Cochin), by late 1505 or early 1506, Francisco de Almeida finally unsealed his credentials and assumed the official title and office of 'Vice-roy' of the Indies. Cochin was the serve as the 'capital' of Portuguese India, and thus Almeida's own city of residence. It was also the headquarters of the Indian coastal patrol, under his son, Lourenço de Almeida (the capitão-mor do mar da India).

[The ambiguity of the completion date of the Cannanore fort is critical, as, per his regimento, Almeida was only permitted to formally inaugurate his three-year term as 'Viceroy of the Indies' after the fort's dedication. The exact date became a point of contention later, allowing him to delay transferring power to his successor, Afonso de Albuquerque, in 1508-09.]

Portuguese positions in Indian Ocean (at beginning of Almeida's viceroyalty, late 1505):

City	Ruler	Establishment	Captain	Factor	Patrol Captain
East Africa
1.Sofala (Cefala)	sheikh Isuf	Fort São Caetano (est. 1505)	Pêro de Anaia (? men)	Manuel Fernandes	Francisco de Anaia (2 caravels)
2.Mozambique (Moçambique)	sheikh Zacoeja?	Factory only (est. 1502)	N/A	Gonçalo Baixo?	N/A
3. Kilwa (Quíloa)	sultan Muhammad Arcone	Fort Sant' Iago (est. 1505)	Pêro Ferreira Fogaça (550 men)	Fernão Cotrim	Gonçalo Vaz de Goes (1 caravel)
4. Malindi (Melinde)	Bauri sheikh	Agents only, no formal factory, (presence est. 1500)	N/A	João Machado?	N/A
India
5. Anjediva (Angediva)	N/A	Fort São Miguel (est. 1505)	Manuel Paçanha (80 men)	Duarte Pereira	João Serrão (1 galley, 2 brigantines)
6. Cannanore (Canonor)	Kolathiri Raja	Fort Sant' Angelo (factory 1502, fort 1505)	D. Lourenço de Brito (150 men)	Lopo Cabreira	Rodrigo Rabello & Fernão Bermudez. (2 navetas)
7. Cochin (Cochim)	Trimumpara Raja	Fort Manuel (factory 1500, fort 1503)	D. Álvaro de Noronha (? men)	Lourenço Moreno	Lourenço de Almeida (?)
8. Quilon ((Coulão)	Regents for Govardhana Martanda	Factory only (est.1503, closed 1505)	N/A	Antonio de Sá	N/A

1506

With the exception of Quilon, the establishment of Portuguese strongpoints seemed to have gone smoothly, and Francisco de Almeida began his vice-royalty in a confident mood. But wrinkles quickly developed in the course of 1506 as serious problems quickly emerged in Cannanore, Anjediva, Sofala and Kilwa.

Battle of Cannanore

March 1506

Siege of Anjediva

? 1506

Sofala Crisis

The first crisis was in Sofala. Shortly after finishing the fort, malaria-ridden fevers decimated the Portuguese garrison. To compound the problem, by poor navigation, the young patrol captain Francisco de Anaia lost both his caravels, leaving the fort stranded without means to acquire supplies or communicate with other ports. A clique of Sofalese nobles hatched a plan to take over the fort and expel the weakened Portuguese. Pêro de Anaia managed to fend off the attack, and later that night assassinated the old sheikh Isuf for treachery. Somehow, in the confusion of the succession, he managed to act as arbitrer and secure the election of a pliable new sheikh. But Anaia himself died soon after (March 1506). The factor Manuel Fernandes de Meireles, the only Portuguese who had not fallen sick, became the acting captain of Sofala fort.

In June, 1506, two Portuguese ships from Lisbon, under the command of Cide Barbudo finally arrived in Sofala, and found most of the garrison dead, the remainder sick and starving. Barbudo left behind of his caravels, under Pedro Quaresma, to help procure local relief, while he took his own ship to Kilwa to seek help at the Portuguese fort there.

Kilwa Crisis

Kilwa had not fared much better.

Around May 1506, the puppet sultan Muhammad Arcone was lured and assassinated by the sheikh of Tirendicunde

(a relative of the deposed Emir Ibrahim) in the neighboring town of Tirendicunde.  As per the pre-arranged succession, the Micante ibn al-Fudail ascends as the new sultan of Kilwa.  

c. May, 1506 Back in Kilwa, soon after the Portuguese naus leave for India, puppet sultan Muhammed Aucomi of Kilwa is lured and assassinated by a young prince of neighboring city of Tirendicunde, a relative of the deposed Mir Ibrahim, in an act of revenge. As per the pre-arranged succession, the young prince Micante (son of Alfudail) is set to ascend as Sultan (with the support of Mir Ibrahim's faction). But Portuguese garrison commander Pedro Ferreira Fogaça decides to impose Hussein, (son of Muhammad Aucomi). The population of Kilwa, already grating at the strict Portuguese enforcement of mercantilist laws (which forbid all but Portuguese ships to carry trade to the principal coastal towns), revolts against this choice. Kilwa is divided with the partisans of Micante taking control of the city, driving Hussein and the late sultan's partisans into another part of of town, under the protection of the Portuguese garrison. In the chaos, streams of Kilwa residents flee the city and take refuge in Mombassa and Malindi. It is this civil strife in the nearly-deserted city that Cide Barbudo encounters in Kilwa, when he stops by on his way from Sofala to India.

August, 1506 The ship of Cide Barbudo arrives in India, bringing the news of the death of Pedro de Anaia in Sofala and the civil strife in Kilwa. Hearing the news, (and foiling the Sofala factor Manuel Fernandes' ambitions), the vice-roy Francisco de Almeida appoints Nuno Vaz Pereira as governor of Sofala and dispatches a relief expedition there.

November, 1506 Nuno Vaz Pereira's expedition to Sofala lands in Malindi, where he greets the king and ascertains better the causes of the civil strife in nearby Kilwa from exiles in Malindi.

December, 1506 Nuno Vaz Pereira arrives in Kilwa (Quiloa) and takes control of the city. In the harbor, he is surprised to encounter the Leitoa Velha (of Lionel Coutinho, which had separated from Tristão da Cunha's fleet and gone ahead to winter in Kilwa). Calling the rival princes Micante and Hussein to present their cases, Nuno Vaz Pereira judges in favor of Hussein and confirms him as sultan, but softens the blow by replacing the unpopular garrison commander Pero Ferreira Fogaça (or does he remain, just with the addition of another official?) with Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos, lifts mercantilist restrictions on Muslim shipping and promises the safety of the persons and property of the Kilwa exiles. [Not long after Nuno Vaz leaves that the city again falls into strife, this time caused by Hussein himself, after he sends his army against neighboring Tirendicunde to avenge his father's murder, sacks the town brutally and takes huge numbers of captives; Hussein then sends out emissaries to the vassal city-states of Kilwa threatening to do the same to them if the do not obey his whims; reports of Hussein's arbitrary tyranny endangering Portuguese positions prompts Vice-Roy Almeida to reverse Nuno Vaz's decision and order the deposition of Hussein and the installation of Micante. ]

1507

Siege of Cannanore

Main article: Siege of Cannanore (1507)

April, 1507 to August 1507

Sources

• Duarte Barbosa (c.1518) O Livro de Duarte Barbosa [Trans. by M.L. Dames, 1918–21, An Account Of The Countries Bordering On The Indian Ocean And Their Inhabitants, 2 vols., 2005 reprint, New Delhi: Asian Education Services.]
• João de Barros (1552–59) Décadas da Ásia: Dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista, dos mares, e terras do Oriente.. [Dec. I, Lib 7.]
• Fernão Lopes de Castanheda (1551–1560) História do descobrimento & conquista da Índia pelos portugueses [1833 edition]
• Gaspar Correia (c.1550s) Lendas da Índia, first pub. 1858-64, in Lisbon: Academia Real das Sciencias.
• Damião de Góis (1566–67) Crónica do Felicíssimo Rei D. Manuel
• Jerónimo Osório (1586) De rebus Emmanuelis [trans. 1752 by J. Gibbs as The History of the Portuguese during the Reign of Emmanuel London: Millar]
• Ludovico di Varthema (1510) Itinerario de Ludouico de Varthema Bolognese [1863 translation by J.W. Jones,The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema, in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508, London: Hakluyt Society.

Secondary:

• Campos, J.M. (1947) D. Francisco de Almeida, 1° vice-rei da Índia, Lisbon: Editorial da Marinha.
• Cunha, J.G. da (1875) "An Historical and Archaelogical Sketch of the Island of Angediva", Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 11, p. 288-310 online
• Danvers, F.C. (1894) The Portuguese in India, being a history of the rise and decline of their eastern empire. 2 vols, London: Allen.
• Ferguson, D. (1907) "The Discovery of Ceylon by the Portuguese in 1506", Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 19, No. 59 p. 284-400 offprint
• Logan, W. (1887) Malabar Manual, 2004 reprint, New Delhi: Asian Education Services.
• Mathew, K.S. (1997) "Indian Naval Encounters with the Portuguese: Strengths and weaknesses", in Kurup, editor, India's Naval Traditions. New Delhi: Northern Book Centre.
• Newitt, M.D. (1995) A History of Mozambique. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Quintella, Ignaco da Costa (1839–40) Annaes da Marinha Portugueza, 2 vols, Lisbon: Academia Real das Sciencias.
• Subrahmanyam, S. (1997) The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Theal, G.M. (1898) Records of South-eastern Africa collected in various libraries & archive departments in Europe - Volume 2, London: Clowes for Gov of Cape Colony. [Engl. transl. of parts of Gaspar Correia]
• Theal, G.. M. (1902) The Beginning of South African History. London: Unwin.
• Theal, G.M. (1907) History and Ethnography of Africa South of the Zambesi - Vol. I, The Portuguese in South Africa from 1505 to 1700 London: Sonneschein.
• Whiteway, R. S. (1899) The Rise of Portuguese Power in India, 1497-1550. Westminster: Constable.

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