an empire is always in danger of falling to pieces.  Mahmud Shah[118], being aware of this, used every possible precaution for his safety, which was effectual for some time; but at length several of the governors of this extensive empire erected their provinces into independent sovereignties.  The greatest of these was he of Goa, the sovereign of which about the time of the Portuguese coming into India was named Sabayo, who died about the time that Albuquerque went against Goa; upon which Kufo Adel Khan, king of Bisnagar possessed himself of Goa, and placed it in the hands of his son Ismael.  The other princes were Nizamaluco, Mudremaluco, Melek Verido, Khojah Mozadan, Abexeiassado, and Cotemaluco, all powerful but some of them exceedingly so[119].  Sabayo was born of very mean parentage at Saba in Persia, whence his name; but having long served the king of the Deccan with great fidelity, had a grant of the city of Calberga, whence he extended his conquests over the Pagans of Bisnagar, and reduced Goa which had belonged to the Moors of Onor, killing Malek Husseyn its prince or ruler who defended it with a garrison of twelve hundred men.  Goa had several dependencies, with which and the other territories he had acquired Sabayo, became the most powerful prince in these parts, and was consequently hated by them all.  He maintained himself however against all his neighbours while he lived, sometimes by means of force, and at other times by profound policy; but his death produced great alteration.

[Footnote 115:  From various circumstances in the context, the word India, is here evidently confined to the peninsula to the south of the Nerbudda, called generally Deccan, or the south.—­E]

[Footnote 116:  He was the sixth king of a dynasty of Turks from Persia, which founded the kingdom of Delhi in 12O2, or rather usurped it from the family of Ghaur, who conquered it in 1155 from that of Ghazni, which had subdued all India in 1001 as far as the Ganges.  Mahmud Shah Nasr Addin began his reign in 1246, so that the conquests mentioned in the text must have happened considerably before 1300.—­Astl.  I. 71. 2.]

[Footnote 117:  Deccan or Dakshin signifies the south, and is properly that portion of India which lies between the Nerbudda and Kistna river.  It would far exceed the bounds of a note to illustrate the Indian history, which is very confusedly, and imperfectly stated in the text.—­E.]

[Footnote 118:  In the text of Faria named Mamud-xa, and probably the same person named immediately before Madura.—­E.]

[Footnote 119:  These names are strangely corrupted in the Portuguese orthography of Faria, and the princes are not well distinguished.  Only three of them were very considerable:  Nizam Shah, or Nizam-al-Mulk, to whom belonged Viziapour; Koth, or Kothb-shah, or Kothb-al-Mulk, the same with Cotamaluco of the text, who possessed Golconda; and Kufo Adel Khan, called Cufo king of Hidalcan in Faria, who held Bisnagar.—­Astley, I. 71. d.—­The great king of Narsinga is here omitted; which Hindoo sovereignty seems at that time to have comprised the whole of southern India, from the western Gauts to the Bay of Bengal, now the high and low Carnatic with Mysore.—­E.]