n sent out
from Portugal as Viceroy. This experienced officer managed to
introduce reinforcements into the fortress in small boats which
slipped between the great Turkish galleys. Every assault was {182}
repulsed, and in November 1538 Sulaiman Pasha and Muhammad III
abandoned the siege. It does not detract from the glory of Silveira's
defence that its final success was mainly due to dissensions among
the besiegers. Each of the Muhammadan commanders blamed the other;
the King of Gujarat began to fear that the Turkish admiral would
attack him, and it was with a sense of relief that he, as well as the
Portuguese, saw Sulaiman sail away to Arabia.

It was a melancholy fact that Nuno da Cunha was unable to witness the
success of his brother-in-law, Silveira. In spite of his great
services he, like his relative Affonso de Albuquerque, whom he
resembled in his wide views and his personal disinterestedness, was
slandered at the Court of Lisbon. He had taken harsh measures against
embezzling officials and insubordinate captains, and during his ten
years of government he made numerous enemies. These men persuaded the
King that Nuno da Cunha was making a large fortune, when really he
was spending his private property for the public service; and, in
spite of the arguments of old Tristao da Cunha, Dom Garcia de Noronha
was ordered to send the greatest Portuguese Governor of India since
Albuquerque home in custody. On his way home Nuno da Cunha died at
sea on March 5, 1539, in the fifty-second year of his age, and his
last words, when his chaplain asked what should be done with his
body, were: 'Since the will of God is that I should die at sea, let
the sea be my grave; for since the land will not have {183} me why
should I leave my bones to it.' Nuno da Cunha's establishment of the
Portuguese at Diu was the most important event since the conquest of
Goa; in temper and in disposition he resembled his great relative;
like Albuquerque, he was treated with ingratitude and died in
disgrace.

Dom Garcia de Noronha did not rule long enough to affect the history
of the Portuguese in India. He died at Goa on April 3, 1540, and was
succeeded as Governor, not as Viceroy, by Dom Estevao da Gama, the
second son of the famous navigator. The new governor was an
experienced officer; he had been Captain of the Sea during his
father's short viceroyalty in 1524; had made more than one voyage to
India; and had acted for five years as Captain of Malac