Duarte Pacheco and his Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis
Some years ago, I briefly mentioned Pacheco’s tactics in the article on Malabarese soldiers, when the Zamorin attacked Cochin in 1504. I wrote: The first Malabarese to serve on the Portuguese side were soldiers supplied by the Rajah of Cochin. They are mentioned in the 1504 battle led by Pacheco, who was placed in charge of the defense of Cochin. With only 150 Portuguese and a small number of Malabarese auxiliaries, Pacheco was vastly outnumbered by the Zamorin's army of 60,000. Nonetheless, through clever positioning, individual heroics, and a lot of luck, Duarte Pacheco successfully resisted attacks for five months until the Zamorin finally called off his forces. This was a very interesting episode, so we are now going to take a brief look at it. But before that, a bit about Pacheco, who strangely never got the credit he should have.
Discovery of Brazil
.jpg)
The knowledge he gathered from the Dias expedition, as well
as from his own explorations, earned him the post of official geographer to the
Portuguese monarch. In 1494, he signed the Pope-sanctioned Treaty of
Tordesillas, which divided the non-Christian world between Portugal and Spain.
But what connection could he have to the discovery of
Brazil? Between 1505 and 1508, Duarte Pacheco Pereira wrote a book, Esmeraldo
de Situ Orbis. It was never finished and was published only in 1892 (with the
English translation in 1936). There was much debate about the meaning of the
term Esmeraldo, and one theory suggests that Pacheco's name is related to the
Malayalam word for green, implying that he was being compared to a unique green
emerald stone. The book mainly covers cosmography and navigation, with three
parts completed and a fourth left unfinished.
In the Esmeraldo de situ orbis, written between 1505 and
1508, it is stated that in the third year of the reign of D. Manuel (therefore,
in 1498), the King ordered him to "discover the western part, beyond the
greatness of the Ocean Sea, where a very large landmass is found and navigated,
with many large islands adjacent to it", which extends from the equator to
70º N. and from the same equator to 28º S.; and in this last part "much
fine Brazil" was found.
In his book, Pacheco argues that the recent Portuguese
discoveries in the western Atlantic, which he initiated, provide fresh evidence
for his contention. The immediate interest of the passage for us lies in the
fact that Pacheco believed this "large continent” to be continuous from
north of the Arctic Circle to south of the Tropic of Capricorn.
After studying the case, Capistrano de Abreu concluded that
Pacheco's first text describes a trip to the Northern Hemisphere and that
Duarte Pacheco likely traveled with one of the Corte Real brothers to Canada
and Newfoundland. Regarding the continentality of America and the presence of
brazilwood south of the equator, he claims this was already known at the time
the Esmeraldo was written.
I have discussed these in greater detail in the Brazil
article and explained the viewpoints of historians such as Morrison, Duarte
Leite, and Charles Lowell. The general contention is that while Pacheco
contributed a great deal of information that led to the actual discovery,
Cabral is the most likely candidate for the discovery of the new land.
The discovery of India & the spice route
From 1498, when Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut and failed
to persuade the Zamorin of Calicut to grant him a pepper monopoly and expel the
Arab traders, relations between Malabar, Cochin and the Portuguese were rocky.
Cabral followed after his discovery of Brazil and ended up fighting the Zamorin
from the sea. His signing of a treaty with the Zamorin’s rival, Cochin’s Goda
Varma raja, made it even worse. The Portuguese armadas that followed routinely
bombarded Calicut, and over time, after a few battles we covered earlier, the
Zamorin decided he could not challenge them at sea. The wars on land and sea that
followed drained the treasuries of Cochin, Portugal, and Calicut, and
eventually the Portuguese retired to Goa.
The Calicut -Cochin wars 1502-1504
From Vissicher’s letters, we
can gather that the Eralpad did not want to fight alongside Moplah auxiliaries,
whom he said were war mongers but fled from tough battles as war plans were initially
discussed. He was also insistent that the Portuguese had signed treaties with
Venad and Kolathunad, and since Cochin paid its tributes to Calicut regularly,
there was no need for a battle in the first place. Interestingly, Portuguese
sources say that the same Eralpad led the Moplah-manned navy. And years later,
it would turn out that this Eralpad was circumspect in the assassination of the
same Zamorin, goaded by Albuquerque. Did he have a hand in the many mess-ups
relating to the paros in action? Food for thought.
The revenge attacks by the Zamorin, until then considered
the suzerain of Malabar, were not far from coming. As soon as the 4th Armada
sailed back to Lisbon and the local commander, Vincent Sodre, had sailed to the
Red Sea, the Zamorin decided to launch his attacks on Cochin and capture the
Portuguese factors.
Aided by the chief of Edapalli (Repelim to the Portuguese) and the Cranganore Raja, a force of 50,000 marched to Cochin to seize the place and secure the Portuguese factors. In the battle, the Marumakan Raja and two junior princes were killed, but the Zamorin and his forces had to retreat without the Portuguese factors as the monsoon arrived. However, the Zamorin managed to return the coronation stone (which the Cochin Raja had moved from Cranganore to Cochin) to Edapalli. The Cochin Raja and the Portuguese fled to the safety of Vypeen Island. The Zamorin’s pursuit was abandoned when they saw the lead ships of the incoming 5th Armada. I covered the importance of the coronation stone in a previous article. After the Zamorin left, the Portuguese attacked and sacked Edapalli and took back the sacred stone. A Portuguese fort, Fort Manuel, was then built, and the new commander, Afonso Albuquerque, signed a treaty with Calicut.
Meanwhile, both Cochin, aided by the Portuguese, and the
Zamorin prepared for the next conflict. Albuquerque left in Jan 1504, leaving
behind a small garrison of about 150 armed Portuguese troops (some say only 130
or fewer) in Fort Manuel in Cochin, along with two caravels under the command
of the knight Duarte Pacheco Pereira.
The Zamorin planned his march and announced it to his allies
- the lords of Edapalli, Cranganore, Kottayam, Ayirur, Vettattnad, Beypore,
Alangode, Parappanad, etc. - to prepare their auxiliary forces. The Venetian
gunners helped build about five stone-slinging cannons and many boat guns. The
forces would total about 85,000. The naval fleet had 160 light vessels, manned
by Moplahs and apparently led by the Eralpad Elamkur Nambiyathiri. Koya Pakki
relayed the information to Cochin.
The Cochin populace, certain of massacre by the Zamorin’s
forces, planned a retreat from Cochin. Reassured of support by Pacheco, the
Raja forbade the people of Cochin from leaving the area. Mohammed Marakkar and
his family were sequestered at Vypin. But the auxiliaries were known to flee at
the last moment, and the Cochin Raja was certain of it. Cochin, dangerously
positioned with many defections and declining morale, was certain to lose the
battle and had only about 5,000 Cochin troops and a small 150-man army led by
the Portuguese commander of Fort Manuel, Duarte Pacheco Pereira, to defend the
city.
The problem with the story is how it has been told thus far.
Anglo- and Eurocentric narratives highlight the Portuguese shrewdness and their
crafty methods. The Zamorin's side attributes the reverses to a fair amount of
luck, an outbreak of cholera coupled with heavy monsoon rains, and the deceit
employed by the Cochin Raja and the Portuguese.
The Zamorin planned to lead
his forces to Kumbalam, cross the ford to Cochin, and capture Fort Manuel. The
Zamorin's usual tactic was to fight by day and keep closed ranks, which was
ill-suited to facing a force with matchlocks and field pieces. The big guns
that hurled stones were effective against wooden ships from the shore but
useless on land. The biggest problem was that the Zamorin announced his moves
and never changed them. With a large network of Nambudiri spies reporting on
them, Pacheco could plan and adjust his tactics at short notice.
The 5-month-long battles were
fierce, and the Portuguese and Cochin forces were victorious. Despite the
Eralpad suggesting that the Zamorin retreat, he chose to listen to his
astrologers and the Amma thampurati and persisted. An unplanned night attack
resulted in many deaths from friendly fire. Another curious event involved the
attack on the Zamorin’s Nairs by low-caste Cherumars, an unheard-of action.
Many Nayars fled, fearing they would lose caste! Without a doubt, Pacheco
adopted these clever tactics, held on to his home advantage, and relied on the
knowledge that the Zamorins’ fights were always planned, according to the
time-honored methods and never altered. The Zamorins’ lack of knowledge of new
methods and arts of black war was the reason for his failure. After a
long-drawn-out war and the loss of some 15,000-20,000 of his men to cholera,
the Zamorin decided to retreat. Koya Pakki was one of the main spies who
provided much information from Calicut to the Portuguese. According to KVK
Ayyar, in his Zamorins of Calicut, the Zamorin retreated to fight the battle
another day.
One of the salient aspects of
Pacheco’s strategy was the use of tides to aid his efforts. Faced with daunting
odds, Pacheco drew on his scientific knowledge to craft a strategy. By studying
the access points around Cochin, he mapped out the tide schedules and the
Zamorin's marching route. He carefully recorded the tide timings, which were
crucial during the battle, and took into account the moon's daily shifts
relative to the sun, allowing him to predict the tides accurately.
Pacheco had to defend two passes with his small forces and
two ships, but from his tidal studies he realized he didn't need to defend both
simultaneously. While the Pallinganad (Kumbalam or Kumbalangi?) ford could be
crossed only on foot at low tide, the water at Palluruthi was too shallow at
that time for the Zamorin's ships and ferry boats to move. At high tide, boats
could operate at Palluruthi, but the infantry could not cross the Pallinganad
ford. Using these calculations, Duarte Pacheco and his forces moved back and
forth via shallow launches between the two passes during the battle phases.
Thus, Pacheco taught the nations of the West that no native
army, however large, can stand against even a handful of men, disciplined and
led by skillful European officers. It was not that native troops lack courage. It
was simply that science and discipline gave the European forces their tremendous
advantage.
On Pacheco’s departure for Europe, the Cochin Raja presented
him with a shield, on which five crowns were emblazoned in gold to represent
those of the five Rajas whom Pacheco had slain in the war, together with the
names of the seven battles in which he had defeated the Zamorin, the whole
illuminated with the Raja’s armorial bearings. The shield was accompanied by a
testimonial stating that it was presented as a token of gratitude, to be
preserved by Pacheco and his heirs, for the protection afforded to the Raja on
the occasion of the invasion of his State at the instance of the chiefs of
Vypin, Cheruvypin, and Atavil in the month of Minam - 671 M. E., 1504 A. D.
.jpg)
After Pacheco’s return, it is said that the Portuguese King Emmanuel ordered a public thanksgiving in his honor and held a grand procession with the court from the cathedral to St. Dominic’s Church. He had Pacheco march beside him so that everyone could see the respect he showed for bravery.
In 1510, Goda Varma, who welcomed the Portuguese, passed
away, and in 1513, the Zamorin, who resisted the Portuguese, died. But the wars
among Cochin, Calicut, and the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch, never ended
for many more decades
This was supposedly the 85th Zamorin, whom Almeida had to
contend with during the 1509 sea battles at Diu, the disastrous 1509 attempt by
Albuquerque to take Calicut, and the 1513 attempt to have the Eralpad poison. Albuquerque’s
letter to his king tells us – “I hold it for certain,” he wrote to the king,
“that the Nampiadiri slew the Zamorin with poison, because in all my letters I
bid him kill the Zamorin with poison, and that in a peace treaty I will come to
an agreement with him”. Other historians say he died of old age and that the
Portuguese governor simply took credit.
The Eralpad, presumably the same who led the 1504 attacks
and was asked by Albuquerque to poison the Zamorin, then signed a peace treaty
with the Portuguese and allowed them to build a fort at Calicut in 1514.
However, my studies of this epoch are not yet complete, and there are further
indications of yet another poisoning in the Zamorin dynasty – that of the 88th
Zamorin, which occurred in 1531 at the hands of a minister for supporting the
Portuguese. I will tell you that story another day.
Duarte Pacheco returned to Portugal in 1508, fought many
more battles, but after the loss of his benefactor, Dom Manuel, he was accused
of corruption and theft and imprisoned by Joao II. He did not advance much
further in life and died a pensioner. His fame as an expert cosmographer and
other scientific skills were hardly discussed.
Pacheco documented his general inferences about tides in two
chapters of his book, ESMERALDO DE SITU ORBIS, written in 1506. Those desirous
of studying Pacheco’s scientific work and its translation may peruse the
Esmeraldo de situ orbis by Pacheco Pereira, Duarte, d. 1533; Kimble, George
Herbert Tinley, 1908.
References
Zamorins of Calicut - KV Krishna Ayyar
The Cochin State Manual
Malabar & the Portuguese – K M Panikkar
The Portuguese in India – Frederick Charles Danvers
History of Kerala: Written in the Form of Notes on
Visscher's Letters from Malabar.
Related Articles
The
Zamorin’s Coronation stone
0 comments:
Post a Comment