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The arrival of Francisco d'Albuquerque placed the Portuguese affairs, which had been so gravely compromised by the criminal conduct of Sodrez, upon a better footing, and at the same time effected the rescue of Triumpara, their sole and faithful ally.
In the name of that sovereign, Francisco gave hearty thanks to Triumpara for his fidelity, and promised him ample revenge on his enemies. And as his finances were much reduced, he made him a present of 10,000 crowns from the chest belonging to the expedition, to serve his present necessities, until he might be again able to draw the rents of his own dominions.
The besiegers fled at the sight of the Portuguese squadron, without even a show of resistance, and the Europeans in conjunction with the troops of the King of Cochin ravaged the Malabar Coast. As a consequence of these events, Triumpara allowed his allies to construct a second fortress in his dominions, and authorised an augmentation of the number and importance of their mercantile houses.
They were here received with great joy by the Portuguese factory; and even the rajah of Cananor came on board the generals ship in person, and gave him a distinct recital of what had happened at Cochin, and of the present situation of Triumpara. Alonso de Albuquerque lost no time in going to Cochin, where he arrived on the night of Saturday the 2d of September 1503.
Triumpara, the sovereign of Cochin, informed the admiral that he had been eagerly solicited by the Zamorin to take advantage of the confidence reposed in him by the Portuguese, to surprise and seize them, in consequence of which intelligence, and to reward the integrity of the king whose loyalty had exposed him to the enmity of the Rajah of Calicut, Gama, when starting for Lisbon with a valuable cargo, left with Triumpara ships sufficient to enable him to await in safety the arrival of another squadron.
Sodrez and several of his captains had deserted the post, where both honour and gratitude required them to remain, and if need were, to die in the discharge of their duty; they forsook Triumpara to go and cruise in the neighbourhood of Ormuz, and at the entrance to the Red Sea, where they calculated that the annual pilgrimage to Mecca was likely to ensure them some rich booty.
But Triumpara, whose fidelity cannot be sufficiently commended, answered, "that the Zamorin might use his rights of victory; that he was not ignorant of the perils by which he was menaced, but that it was not in the power of any man to make him a traitor and a perjurer." No one could have made a nobler return than this for the desertion and cowardice of Sodrez.
This Michael Jougue or Joghi, is said to have been a bramin, or Malabar priest; one of these devotees who wander about the country, girt with chains and daubed with filth. Those wanderers, if idolaters, are named Jogues; and Calandars if Mahometans. Astl. I. 47. a. The rajah who then reigned at Cochin is named Triumpara, or Trimumpara, by De Faria, De Barros, and other early writers. Astl.
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