Timoji Timoji ( also referred to as Timoja or Timmayya ) was a Hindu privateer who served the Vijayanagara Empire and the Portuguese Empire during the first decade of the 16th century . He claimed to have been born in Goa and to have escaped the city after its conquest by the Adil Shahi of Bijapur in 1496 . After his support in the 1510 Portuguese conquest of Goa , he was for a short time appointed " aguazil " of the city . Background . Since the 14th century the Deccan had been divided in two antagonistic entities : on the one side stood the Bahmani Sultanate , and on the other stood the Hindu rajas rallied around the Vijayanagara Empire . Continuous wars demanded frequent resupplies of fresh horses , which were imported through sea routes from Persia and Arabia . This trade was subjected to frequent raids by thriving bands of pirates based in the coastal cities of Western India . Timoji acted both as a privateer ( by seizing horse traders , that he rendered to the raja of Honavar ) and as a pirate who attacked the Kerala merchant fleets that traded pepper with Gujarat . Timoji operated off Anjediva ( modern Anjadip ) Island , with two thousand mercenaries under his command and at least fourteen ships . Relations with the Portuguese . He met Vasco da Gama ' s fleet off Anjediva in 1498 , but the Portuguese admiral suspected him of being a spy and refused his advances . In 1505 , he attracted the Portuguese Vice - Roy Dom Francisco de Almeida to an estuary and , after keeping him waiting for three days , appeared before him richly attired and offered him his services and a token tribute . In 1507 Timoji warned the Vice - Roy of the upcoming siege of Cannanore by Calicut forces and supplied the Portuguese St . Angelo Fort during the siege . In the end of 1507 , when a Mamluk fleet under Amir Husain Al - Kurdi ( named " Mirocem " by the Portuguese ) supplements the Calicut forces , he becomes the main informant of Dom Francisco de Almeida . Soon after the Battle of Diu , Timoji met the Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya and offered him a rich tribute . He then prompted the Portuguese to conquer Goa , the main port for the horse trade . The city had been conquered from Vijayanagar by the Bahmani Sultans in 1469 , and passed to Bijapur . In late 1509 , the remains of the Mamluk fleet defeated in the battle of Diu had taken refuge there . In 1510 the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque wanted to fight the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate fleet in the Red Sea or return to Hormuz . However , Timoji convinced him that it would be easier to fight them in Goa , where they had sheltered after the Battle of Diu , and also of the illness of the Sultan Yusuf Adil Shah and war between the Deccan sultanates . So he invested in the capture of Goa to the Sultanate of Bijapur with the support of Timoji . On November , in a second strike , Albuquerque conquered Goa with a fleet fully renovated and about 300 Malabari reinforcements from Cannanore . They regained the support of the Hindu population , although frustrating the initial expectations of Timoji , who aspired to gain the city . Afonso de Albuquerque rewarded him by appointing him chief " Aguazil " of the city , an administrator and representative of the Hindu and Muslim people , as a knowing interpreter of the local customs . He then made an agreement to lower yearly dues and started the first Portuguese mint in the East , after complaints from merchants and Timoja about the scarcity of currency . Timoji was put in command of the native troops loyal to the Portuguese . However , he soon was relieved of his command due to his refusal to follow orders . The command of the native troops was given to a pretender to the throne of Honavar , and Timoji returned to piracy . Timoji was made prisoner after a raid , and died by opium poisoning soon after being taken to the Vijayanagar capital . His wife and children , however , returned to Goa where Albuquerque arranged for their upkeep .