It has been said that Alboquerque was a great statesman as well as a great warrior, and no better proof of this can be adduced than his treatment of the Hindu princes. He alone of Portuguese viceroys recognized the fact the Hindus did not take kindly to the rule of the Mohammedans, and that they would much sooner be ruled by Europeans, if they were only just and fair-minded. It was from Mohammedan powers that the Portuguese had met with such bitter opposition, from the Moplas of Calicut and the King of Bijápur, and if the successors of Alboquerque had but grasped this fact they would have found little difficulty in leading the Hindus against the votaries of Islam. They would then have waged against Mohammedans in India the same relentless war that their ancestors had waged in their own fatherland, and might have established a protectorate over the Hindus without much difficulty. The wide-minded tolerance which Alboquerque showed in his communications with the Hindu princes, he also showed in the details of administration. He maintained the village system, which he found existing in Goa at the time of his conquest, and avoided all appearance of fresh taxation with as much care as a modern English collector. The expedition to Aden was the last he ever undertook, and on December 16, 1515, this truly great man died at Goa, and was buried there by his own directions in the costume of a commander of the Order of Santiago. “In such veneration was his memory held, that the Hindus, and even the Mohammedans, were wont to repair to his tomb, and there utter their complaints, as if in the presence of his shade, and call upon God to deliver them from the tyranny of his successors.”[15] What better proof of the qualities which have won for him the title of Alboquerque “the Great” could be given than this! [Illustration: _J. C. Silva sculp. Olisip. in Typ. Reg. An. 1774._ Alboquerque. (_After the Engraving by Silva._)]