175 rather clumsily. Their heads are bare and their hair stands up on end. They are skillful men who know how to do all sorts of jobs. They are basically wicked and most untrue; very courageous; they have good weapons andfight absolutely fearlessly. Should any of these Javanese fall ill with some disease, they promise their god that if they recover their health, they shallfind a more honourable death in his service. When they are well, they take a dagger with an “S” shaped blade in their hands, of which they have excellent ones, and they go out on to the squares and streets and kill anyone them come across: men; women and children, not sparing anyone. They are called ganiços and as soon as people see them, they shout ganiço to everyone, so that they protect themselves and slay him with arrows or spears. This city of Malacca produces a lot of fruit and good water and its main provisions come in by sea. The king was an overlord with rich treasure and good income. Our Lord and King had Diogo Lopes de Siqueira, a nobleman from his house, discover the city, and having discovered it, its king and Mouros captured some of our men and a lot of merchandise through trickery, and killed many of them. Afonso d’Albuquerque, who at the time was captain-general of India, came to the city with his fleet to settle this score, and as they did not wish to reason with him, he fought them and conquered the city, ousting the king who had tried to defend the city with his people. And they fought most courageously with a lot of artillery; muskets; poisoned arrows, excellent long spears with the brave men of Java and many elephants with wooden towers on their backs and people inside them, just as they do in India. A large number of Mouros died during the taking of the city and the king fled with the survivors. The merchants stayed on in the city and obeyed Our Lord and King, and they were left unharmed. A beautiful fortress started to be built straightaway and the city and all its trade and shipping carried on as before, except that it was
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