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"dissembled with" the Sultan in the hope that he might by that means get Ruy de Araujo and the other Chris- tians—who, by the same token, do not appear to have been murdered—into his hands, and so into safety, before he delivered his contemplated assault upon the town. The unfortunate Sultan, however, who saw in the posses- sion of hostages the only lever by the aid of which he could hope to bring pressure to bear upon the intruders, replied that he could not regard the surrender of the prisoners as a condition precedent to peace. He was fully prepared to hand them over to Dalboquerque, but pleaded that an agreement of friendship should in the first instance be ratified between himself and the repre- sentatives of the King of Portugal. In the circumstances this can only be regarded as a stipulation dictated by common prudence, the more so when the reputation which the Portuguese had earned for themselves in Asia be remembered, but this attempt to "curb the spirit of Alfonso Dalboquerque," as his chronicler calls it, served only to precipitate the doom of Malacca.

The author of the Commentaries pretends that Dal- boquerque at this time was really averse from war, and would have been well contented if a peaceful settlement could have been arrived at. But viewing the matter im- partially, we are forced to accept the conclusion that war was intended from the first, and that the only object of the preliminary parleys was the removal of the captives from the power of the enemy before matters were pushed to an extremity. The pious Alfonso, we are told, seeing that the Sultan remained firm and that he was preparing