of Belgaum, and in 1481 the Raja of
Vijayanagar made unsuccessful attacks upon Goa. Amid the later
troubles of the great Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan, which occurred
on the death of Muhammad Shah II, Goa fell to the lot of the
Muhammadan kingdom of Bijapur. The founder of this kingdom was Yusaf
Adil Shah, a son of Amurad II, Sultan of the Ottoman Turks. That
prince had a most romantic history. He was rescued by his mother from
being put to death with his brothers on the accession to the throne
of Muhammad II. He was secretly delivered over to a merchant of Sava
in {75} Persia who educated him. He took the name of Savai from the
place of his education, and is always called by the Portuguese
historians the Sabaio or Cabaio, or the Hidalcao, a version of Adil
Khan. He came to India as a slave, but he rose rapidly from a simple
soldier to the command of the royal body-guard of the Bahmani kings,
and was eventually made Governor of Bijapur. In 1489 he was crowned
King of Bijapur, and under his rule Goa, which formed part of his
dominions, greatly increased in wealth.

Yusaf Adil Shah erected many fine buildings, including a magnificent
palace at Goa. He even thought, it is said, of making it his capital,
and there can be no doubt that he vastly augmented its prosperity.
But his government was oppressive to the Hindu population; he doubled
the taxes, and by favouring his own creed made himself hated by all
his Hindu subjects. When Timoja pressed Albuquerque to attack Goa,
the Muhammadan Governor, whose name, Malik Yusaf Gurgi, is rendered
by the Portuguese Melique Cufegurgij, had made himself especially
obnoxious from the cruelties wreaked by his Turkish garrison on the
citizens. Yusaf Adil Shah was not dead, as Timoja told Albuquerque,
but was absent in the interior, and the time was really favourable
for a sudden assault. A Jogi or Hindu ascetic had prophesied that a
foreign people coming from a distant land would conquer Goa, and the
inhabitants were therefore ready to surrender the city without much
opposition to the Portuguese.

{76} Influenced by these considerations, and the arguments of Timoja,
Albuquerque altered the direction of his armament and cast anchor off
Goa harbour. On March 1, 1510, Dom Antonio de Noronha, Albuquerque's
gallant nephew, crossed the bar with the ships' boats of the
Portuguese fleet, two galleys commanded by Diogo Fernandes de Beja
and Simao de Andrade, and the _fustas_ or native boats of T