up their first success, pushed up the river
clearing away all that obstructed them; after which they landed and took
the town, killing many of the enemy, and put the rest to flight, the
king among the rest fled on an elephant, and never stopped till they
came to Bintang. The town above mentioned was plundered and burnt by the
Portuguese; and the discomfited king remained long at Bintang unable for
any new enterprise against the Portuguese. The successes of the king of
Bintang in the beginning of this war had encouraged the kings of Pisang
and Acheen to commit some outrages against the Portuguese; for which
reason being now victorious, Garcia de Sa determined to be revenged upon
them. Having some success, he fitted out a ship commanded by Manuel
Pacheco to take some revenge for the injuries, he had sustained; and
Pacheco had occasion to send a boat for water rowed by Malays, having
only five Portuguese on board, which fell in with three ships belonging
to Pisang each having 150 men. Finding it impossible to escape, they
boarded the commander with such resolute fury that they soon strewed the
deck with the dead bodies of the enemy, and the remainder of the crew
leapt overboard, followed by their captain, who was seen hewing them
with his cymeter in the water in revenge for their cowardice. The _five_
Portuguese thus obtained possession of the ship, and the other two fled,
on which Pacheco returned to Malacca with his prize in triumph, and the
captured ship was long preserved as a memorial of this signal exploit.
The king of Pisang was so much terrified by this action that he sued
for peace, and offered ample reparation of all the injuries he had done
to die Portuguese.

In this same year 1519 Diego Gomez went to erect a fort at the principal
island of the Maldives; but behaved himself with so much arrogance that
the Moors lulled ten or twelve of his men. This is the chief of _a
thousand isles_ which lie in clusters in that sea, and such is the
signification of _Male-dive_. They resemble a long ridge of mountains,
the sea between being as valleys and serving for communications from
isle to isle; and about the middle of the group is the large island, in
which the king resides. The natives of these islands are gentiles, but
the government is in the hands of the Moors. They are so close together,
that in many of the channels the yard-arms of ships passing through rub
against the shores, or on the trees on both sides. Their ch