Upon reaching
Travancore in April, Sequeira heard that Afonso de Albuquerque had succeeded Dom Francisco de Almeida as Governor of Portuguese India. Fearful of reprisals from Albuquerque for previously supporting Almeida, Sequeira promptly set sail back to Portugal. Some were forcibly circumcized. Albuquerque persuaded Vasconcelos to postpone his journey to Malacca and had him reluctantly aid him in
capturing Goa later that year. With Goa firmly in Portuguese hands by December, Vasconcelos insisted that he be allowed to proceed to Malacca, which was denied due to the state of war in Malacca. Vasconcelos mutinied and attempted to set sail against the Governor's orders, for which he and his captains were arrested and his pilots hanged or condemned to solitary confinement. Giovanni da Empoli mentioned 1,500 Portuguese and 800 allies, including Chinese and Indian troops. Malay sources mention that the Portuguese had at least 2,000 soldiers. The Portuguese armada carried 400 guns.
Crossing of the Indian Ocean and Chinese or Javanese junk. During the passage to Southeast Asia, the fleet captured five tradeships from the
Sultanate of Gujarat, an enemy of the Portuguese, but lost a galley in a storm, though all hands were saved. Nearby however, the Portuguese captured a
pangajoa after a stubborn fight and killed its captain, whom they then found to be Naodabegea.
Malaccan preparations File:Malay soldier of Malacca Sultanate.jpg|A Malay soldier armed with a spear and a keris. File:A Melaya Captain from Voyages and travels into Brazil and the East-Indies, 1640-1649.jpg|A Malay captain and his soldiers, 1640–1649. File:Photo d'une panoplie d'armes malaises de la presqu'île de Malacca, par J. Claine, donateur en 1891.jpg|Traditional Malay weapons. At the time, the Malacca Sultanate covered the entire
Malay Peninsula and much of northern Sumatra. Most of the sultan's possessions seemed to have obeyed, to their capacity, his summons for war. Palembang, Indragiri, Menangkabau, and Pahang are all recorded as having sent troops, and possibly other territories did as well; the only renegade state recorded was Kampar, which provided the Portuguese with a local base. The sultan also recruited thousands of mercenaries from Java, who were paid in early August and given three months' wages in advance, and hired 3,000 Turkic and Iranian mercenaries. Finally, he assembled an armory of 8,000 gunpowder weapons, including cannons. The bulk of these were
lantaka or
cetbang guns firing 1/4 to 1/2 pound shots (they also included many
heavy muskets imported from Java). In total the sultan's forces numbered, according to Chinese merchants who leaked information to the Portuguese, 20,000 fighting men. They had been gathered originally to campaign against Malacca's chief enemy in Sumatra, the
Aru Kingdom. Despite having a lot of artillery and firearms, the weapons were mostly purchased from the Javanese and Gujarati, where the Javanese and Gujarati were the operators of the weapons. In the early 16th century, before the Portuguese arrival, the Malays lacked firearms. The
Malay Annals, mentioned that in 1509 they did not understand “why bullets killed”, indicating their unfamiliarity with using firearms in battle, if not in ceremony. As recorded in the
Malay Annals: After (the Portuguese) coming to Malacca, then met (each other), they shot (the city) with cannon. So all the people of Malacca were surprised, shocked to hear the sound of the cannon. They said, "What is this sound, like thunder?". Then the cannon came about the people of Malacca, some lost their necks, some lost their arms, some lost their thighs. The people of Malacca were even more astonished to see the effect of the gun. They said: "What is this weapon called that is round, yet is sharp enough to kill?"
Lendas da India by
Gaspar Correia and
Asia Portuguesa by
Manuel de Faria y Sousa confirmed the
Malay Annals' account. Both recorded a similar story, although not as spectacular as described in
Malay Annals. Rui de Araújo noted that Malacca lacked gunpowder and gunners. The captured Portuguese were pressured to make gunpowder for the Malays, but none of the captives knew how to make it. Wan Mohd Dasuki Wan Hasbullah explained several facts about the existence of gunpowder weapons in Malacca and other Malay states before the arrival of the Portuguese: • No evidence showed that guns, cannons, and gunpowder are made in Malay states. • No evidence showed that guns were ever used by the Malacca Sultanate before the Portuguese attack, even from Malay sources. • Based on the majority of cannons reported by the Portuguese, the Malays preferred small artillery. The inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula did not use big ships. In naval warfare, the Malays used
lancaran and
banting, propelled by breast oars and 2 masts, with 2 rudders (one on both sides of the hull). The Malays are not accustomed to navigating the ocean, they only made coasting voyages along the shores of the Malay Peninsula. Large shipbuilding industry did not exist in Malacca; they only produce small vessels, not large vessels. Malay records from centuries later mention the use of a class of ship called
ghali, but this is an anachronism: The ghali ship appeared in the archipelago after the introduction of the Mediterranean
galley by the Portuguese. The first ghali used by the regional fleet only appeared in the late 1530s, and not until the 1560s that the ghali became more widespread, mostly used by
Acehnese people, not Malays. According to Albuquerque, the Malays of Malacca used an unspecified number of lancaran and twenty
penjajap against the Portuguese. Rui de Araújo reported that the Malaccan Sultan had 150
perahu. The real number of Malaccan fighting men was not more than 4,000, the rest were slaves pressed into service. The weapons of the fighting men were lances. Bows and blowpipes were also used and were made locally. Swords were found but they were brought by the Gores (Ryukyuan people). Very few wore armor, even oval shields were rare and were commonly only used by officials. The weapons of the slaves were knives and daggers. The majority of the artillery was small caliber. Their cannons were inferior in range compared to the Portuguese cannons, and less than 100 were effectively deployed during the fighting. As with most of Southeast Asia, they did not have a professional army. What is called an army is actually common people gathered in times of war, especially those with such legal duties. Malacca was a typical Malay riverine city: It had no permanent fortifications nor a wall, they, however, had wooden or bamboo stockades which were erected for temporary defense for placing small and large cannons. Only the royal compound was usually fortified, the city itself was not. Almost all buildings were built using organic materials such as wood, matting, and split bamboo, raised above the ground on poles 1–4 m high. The palace of Malacca was also built in this style, with as many as 90 wooden pillars supporting it. The only structures with solid materials (stone or brick) were the foundation and the walls of the Malaccan mosque, and the tombs of the rulers and saints. A foreign observer explained the Malay perception of a city: Reflecting decades later on how poorly the Malays had fared against the Portuguese in Malacca and elsewhere, cartographer
Manuel Godinho de Erédia noted many of the weaknesses of their ground troops. Among them were a lack of ordered military tactics and formations, the relative lightness of their artillery, lack of armor, reliance on bows and
blowpipes, and ineffective fortifications. As the Malaccans had only been introduced to firearms after 1509, they had not adopted the practice of European and Indian cities of fortifying their port. As such, they relied upon the Gujaratis to help them build up such defenses. The Gujaratis handled all the work of building up the fortifications of Malacca. A Gujarati captain who wanted to wage war with the Portuguese provided Malacca with Gujarati ships and promised the help of 600 fighting men and 20 bombards. Other foreign defenders of Malacca were Iranians, who were important traders in the Indian Ocean. ==Portuguese conquest==