Conquest of Mallaka
In February 1511, through a friendly Javanese merchant called Ninchatu, Albuquerque received a letter from Rui de Araújo, one of the nineteen Portuguese arrested at Malacca since 1509. It urged moving forward with the largest possible fleet to demand their liberation, and gave details about the procedures. Albuquerque showed it to Diogo Mendes de Vasconcelos, as an argument to advance in a joint fleet. In April 1511, after fortifying Goa, he gathered a force of about 900 Portuguese, 200 Hindu mercenaries and about eighteen ships.[28] He then set sail from Goa to Malacca, against the orders of the kingdom and under the protest of Diogo Mendes, who claimed the command of the expedition.[29] Under his orders was Fernão de Magalhães, who had participated in the failed embassy of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in 1509.
After a false start towards the Red Sea, they sailed to the Strait of Malacca. It was the richest city that the Portuguese tried to take, and the most important east point in the trade network where Malay traders met Gujarati, Chinese, Japanese, Javanese, Bengali, Persian and Arabic, among others, described by Tomé Pires as of invaluable richness. Despite its wealth, it was mostly a wooden built city, with few masonry buildings. On the other hand it was defended by a powerful army of mercenaries and artillery, estimated at 20,000 men and more than 2000 pieces. Its greatest weakness being the unpopularity of the government of Sultan Mahmud Shah, who favored Muslims producing dissatisfaction within other merchants.
Albuquerque made a bold approach to the city, his ships decorated with banners, firing cannon volleys. He declared himself lord of all the navigation, demanding the Sultan to release the prisoners, pay for the damage, and asking to build a fortified trading post. The Sultan eventually freed the prisoners, but wasn't impressed by the small Portuguese contingent. Albuquerque then burned some ships at the port and four coastal buildings, to test the response. The city being divided by the Malacca River, and connected by a bridge seen as a strategic point, on 25 July at dawn the Portuguese landed and fought in tough battle, facing poisoned arrows, taking the bridge in the evening. After waiting for the reaction of the sultan, they returned to the ships. As the sultan did not respond, they prepared a junk offered by Chinese merchants, filling it with men, artillery, sandbags. Commanded by António de Abreu it sailed the river at high tide onto the bridge, with success: the day after all had landed. Fighting fiercely, they broke down the barricades built in the meantime. Suddenly, the Sultan appeared, leading his army of war elephants to crush the invaders. Despite the surprise, one of the Portuguese, Fernão Gomes de Lemos, approached and spurred an animal with a spear, making him stand up and back. Other Portuguese emulated him and the front of elephants retreated in panic, overthrowing the army, and the sultan himself, wreaking havoc and dispersing it. [30]. During a week Albuquerque rested his men and waited for the reaction of the Sultan. Merchants approached, asking for Portuguese protection. They were given flags to mark their premises, a sign that they would not be looted. On 24 August the Portuguese attacked again, but the Sultan had fled the city. Under firm orders they looted the city, respecting the flags, which still was a fabulous drawing.
Albuquerque remained in Malacca preparing its defences against any Malay counterattack[28], immediately building a fortress, distributing his men in shifts and using stones from the mosque and the cemetery. Despite the delays caused by heat and malaria, it was completed in November 1511, its surviving door known as "A Famosa" ( the famous). He settled the Portuguese administration, appointing Rui de Araújo factor, and arresting and executing mercilessly a powerful Javanese merchant, Utimuta Raja, who maintained contacts with the exiled royal family.
