4015 PdllTUGUESE HISTORY fe<ar, interest, or astonishment at the novel event, sent Albuquerque ambassadors to congratulate him on his victory. In this manner came ambassa- dors from Siam and Pegu, from the kings of Java, and from those of Sumatra. Albuquerque sent ambassadors, in return, to these different countries, but the spice trade was what chiefly excited his cu- pidity, and Antonio D' Abreu was dispatched to the Moluccas. Among the princes who thus sent mis- sions to Albuquerque, the king of Siam, from his power and vicinity, deserves particular notice. He thanked Albuquerque for his chastisement of a re- hellious subject, a fact from which we learn that Malacca, like the rest of the Malayan Peninsula, was considered as tributary to Siam. All that can interest the reader in the story of Malacca, until it fell into the hands of the Hol- landers, a period of a hundred and thirty years, may be told in a few words. The Portuguese of Malacca, as they are painted by the historians of their own country, in dissoluteness of morals, in rapacity and faithlessness, were second only to those of the Moluccas. By their violence and perfidy they provoked the hostility of all the neighbouring nations. The legitimate possessors of Malacca, the Malays of Jehor, Bintan, or Ujung-tanah, be- sieged or blockaded the city, during the one hun- dred and thirty years of Portuguese possession six times, — the king of Achin seven times, — the Ja- il
