In January 1509, on their way to Diu, the Portuguese took a ship in Bombay harbour and got supplies from the fort of Mahim, from which the garrison tied. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 117.] On the return of the victorious Portuguese fleet the governor of Chaul agreed to pay a yearly tribute.
A few years later (1514) the southern boundary of Gujarat had shrunk from Chaul to Bombay. [About 1514 Barbosa (Stanley's Barbosa, 68, 69) describes Chaul as eight leagues south from the borders of Gujarat or Cambay.]
Bombay, Mahim, and Thana were mixed into one, Tanamayambn, a sea-port at the end of Cambay or Gujarat. It had a fortress and a pleasant Moorish town with many rich gardens, great Moorish mosques, and Gentile temples. It had little trade and was pestered with pirates, who went out to sea, and if they met with any ships less strong than themselves, captured and plundered them sometimes killing the crews.
In 1516, Dom Joao de Monoy entered the Bandra creek and defeated the commandant of Mahim fort, and, in the same year, a Portuguese factory was established at Chaul. In 1521 an order came from Portugal to build forts at Chaul and at Diu. A fleet started for Diu, but their request to be allowed to build a fort was refused, and the place was so strongly fortified that the fleet sailed to Ormuz without attacking it. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 180.]
The Portuguese were more successful at Chaul, where, on the promise that he would be allowed to import horses, Burhan I., king of Ahmadnagar, gave them leave to build a fort. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 191, 192.] Malik Eiaz sent the Gujarat fleet from Diu to blockade the Chaul river, and stop the building of the fort. In this he was helped by the Musalman governor of Chaul. But though the Portuguese fleet suffered severely, the building was pushed on, and, in 1522, Malik Eiaz was forced to withdraw. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 36-37.] The fort was finished in 1524, and, after that, the Portuguese fleet was able to sail freely in the Bombay harbour.
In 1531 a great Portuguese fleet, collected by Nuno da Cunha for the capture of Diu, was reviewed in Bombay harbour and a parade was held on the Bombay esplanade.
From Bombay
the fleet of 400 sail with 3600 Portuguese soldiers and 1450 Portuguese seamen, 2000 Kanara and Malabar soldiers, 8000 slaves, and about 5000 native seamen, sailed to Daman. They found it deserted, and, passing north, took the pirate stronghold of Little Bet in the south of Kathiawar, and advanced to Diu, but failed to make any impression on its fortifications. Nuno returned to Goa, leaving Antonio de Saldanha with sixty sail to plunder the Cambay ports. On his way south Antonio destroyed Balsar, Tarapur, Kelva-Mahim, and Agashi. [Faria in Kerr, VL 223.] In 1532 Nuno da Cunha ordered Diogo de Sylveira to plunder the Gujarat coasts, and himself advanced, with 150 vessels manned by 3000 Portuguese soldiers and 200 Kanarese, against Bassein, whose fortifications were being strengthened. Though Bassein was garrisoned by 12,000 men, the Portuguese dashed against the fort, took it by assault, and razed its walls. Thana and Bandra were forced to pay tribute, the coast towns between Bassein and Tarapur were burnt, and an attempt was made to take the fort of Daman.[Faria in Kerr, VI. 225.] Nuno da Cunha again urged the king of Gujarat to let the Portuguese build a fort at Diu. But again the negotiations failed. Soon after this a quarrel between Humayun king of Delhi and Bahadur of Gujarat gave the friendship of the Portuguese a special importance. As Bahadur continued to refuse to allow the Portuguese to build a fort at Diu, Nuno entered into negotiations with Humayun and again pillaged the Gujarat coast and took Daman. After the loss of Daman, to win them from their alliance with Humayun, Bahadur (1533) made a treaty with the Portuguese, ceding Bassein and its dependencies, and agreeing that Gujarat ships bound from Cambay to the Red Sea should touch at Bassein and pay dues; that no Cambay ships should sail without a Portuguese pass; that no war ships should be built in Gujarat; and that no alliance should be made with the Turks. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 227. When Bahadur, in the next year, allowed the Portuguese to build a fort at Diu, several of these humiliating terms were cancelled. Faria gives 1534.] In 1535, defeated by Humayun and apparently ruined, Bahadur, on promise of their active assistance, agreed to let the Portuguese build a fort at Diu. Bahadur had written for help to the Sultan of Turkey. But, as time pressed, he did not wait for his answer, but made a treaty with the Portuguese. Under the new agreement the centre of trade watt Diu not Bassein, and the fort at Diu was to be built on the site which seemed beet to the Portuguese Governor-General [Faria (Kerr, VI. 236) gives 21st September 1536 as the date of the treaty.
[Salsette was never well defended. There were coast forts at Dharavi and Versova, a small watch-tower at Bandra, and at Thana three small fortlets, one to the north of the city a square fort with two bastions named Reis Magos, and two round towers to the south, St. Pedro and St. Jeronimo.
[Among seventeenth century churches were three in Thana built in 1605, the Jesuit college of St. Anne's in Bandra begun in 1620, and the chapel of Mount Mary, also at Bandra, probably about 1640.]
in the decay of Portuguese power the foreign trade with Persia, Arabia, Africa, and the east declined.
Agashi, also twice destroyed, was a great ship-building centre in 1530, and was flourishing in 1540;
The chief changes in the merchants were the disappearance of the Chinese, and the decrease of Arabs and Turks, and, to some extent, of local Musalmans. Of new comers there were the Portuguese, and, occasionally, though they had few direct dealings with the north Konkan, English, Dutch, French, and Danes.
During this period the Thana coast was famous for its ship-building. Between 1550 and 1600 great ships built at Agashi and Bassein made many voyages to Europe,
Thana agreed to become tributary to the Portuguese, and Sylveira returned to Chaul. [Faria in Kerr; VI. 209, 211. Da Chinha's Chaul and Bassein, 170. This previous agreement, not the unimportance of Bombay, seems to be the reason why Bombay is not mentioned in the Bassein treaty of 1533. Apparently this lord of Thana was a Hindu chief, not a Musalman governor. In the outlying parts of their territory the Gujarat kings seem to have made free use of Hindu governors, probably tributary Chiefs. In 1503 the governor of Chaul was a Hindu (Badger's Varthema, 114), and in 1514 the governor of Surat was a Hindu. (Stanley's Barbosa, 68).] In 1530 Antonio de Sylveira, on his way back from plundering Surat and Rander, destroyed the towns of Daman and Agashi, at the latter place burning 300 of the enemies' ships.
[There was a fort at Bassein from the time of its conquest in 1534; but the present fortification are not older than about the close of the sixteenth century.
Of fortified custom-houses or factories the chief was, at Manor, [In 1728 Manor is described as not worthy to be called a fort. O. Chron. de Tis. I.58.] and fortified religious houses are mentioned at Yorangal near Versova, and at Bandra in Salsette. [Nairne's Konkan, 60. In 1673 the Jesuit college at Bandra had seven guns mounted in front sad a good store of small arms. Fryer's New Account, 71.]
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