36 THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PORTUGUESE Castro (1545-1548), who defended the Portuguese pos- sessions on the western coast from Diu down to Goa against the native powers, and strove to cleanse the Augean stable of Indo-Portuguese misrule; Constantino de Braganza (1558-1561), who conquered Daman and took up De Castro's task of internal reform; Luis de Athaide, viceroy from 1568 to 1571 and again from 1578 to 1581, who stemmed for a time the rising tide of revolt against Portuguese oppression and beat back the Mos- lem coalition in India and the Archipelago— were the products of an independent Portugal. Her forced union with Spain (1580 - 1640) was barren of heroes. In India also a great political change had taken place. Although Portugal had more than held her own in the scuffle of the petty coast rajas, she had never made an impression even on the small isolated king- doms of the inland south; and after the extension of the Moghul Empire southwards she ceased to have any significance as an Indian land-power. In the height of her naval supremacy she had felt her weakness on shore. " We sit still," wrote one of her ablest servants, " perishing without lands out of which to support ourselves, or find shelter.' ' The little patches of Indian coast did not afford a land-revenue sufficient to support the administration in peace or to serve as a security for loans in war. In 1546, the chiv- alrous viceroy, Dom Joao de Castro, having to raise a loan for the defence of Diu, ordered the body of his son, lately slain by the Moslems, to be exhumed, and given as a pledge for repayment. But the corpse had
