e impaled. But Gonzalez, being a person utterly devoid of honour, cared
not at whose cost he advanced his own interests; yet the guilt of so
many villanies began to prey upon his conscience, and he became
apprehensive of some heavy punishment falling upon him, which he had
little means to avert, as all men considered him a traitor unworthy of
favour; those of Aracan, because he had betrayed them to the Moguls; and
the Moguls, because he had been false to those that trusted him. He
afterwards met his just reward under the government of Don Jerom de
Azevedo[431].

[Footnote 429: Perhaps the island now called Balonga on the coast of
Aracan.--E.]

[Footnote 430: Probably a desert or uninhabited island among the
Sunderbunds, in the Delta of the Ganges. Indeed the whole geography of
this singular story is obscure, owing to the prodigious change in
dominion and names that have since taken place in this part of
India.--E.]

[Footnote 431: Owing to the want of interest in the transactions of
these times, as related in the Portuguese Asia, and the confused
arrangement of De Faria, we have in this place thrown together the
principal incidents in the extraordinary rise of these two successful
adventurers, Nicote and Gonzalez, leaving their fate to be mentioned in
the succeeding section.--E.]

The Hollanders, becoming powerful at the Molucca islands, and forming an
alliance with these islanders, who were weary of the avarice and tyranny
of the Portuguese, expelled them from Amboyna and established themselves
at Ternate, whence the Portuguese had been formerly expelled by the
natives. By the aid of the king of Ternate, the Hollanders likewise,
about 1604, got possession of the fort of Tidore, whence about 400
Portuguese were permitted to retire by sea to the Phillipine islands,
where they were hospitably received by Don Pedro de Cunna, who commanded
there for the Spaniards. In February 1605, Cunna sailed from the
Philippines with 1000 Spanish and 400 native troops, and recovered the
fort of Ternate, chiefly owing to the bravery of Joam Rodriguez Camelo,
who commanded a company of Portuguese in this expedition. De Cunna
thence proceeded for Tidore, which he likewise reduced, by which
conquest the Molucca islands became subject to Spain.

The viceroy, Don Alfonso de Castro, dying in 1607, was succeeded as
governor by Alexias de Menezes, archbishop of Goa, pursuant to a patent
of succession. Next year, 1608, Don Joam Pereyra Froja