He encouraged more Portuguese to settle in Syriam (see Bayingyi) and constructed forts for defence, eventually seizing control and announcing his independence from Arakan in 1603.

De Brito then married the daughter of Bannya Dala of Martaban, becoming a subject of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya (Siam, present-day Thailand).

Bannya Dala and de Brito then burnt down Toungoo and brought back any remaining property and people, including Natshinnaung, to Syriam.

"[1]: 188–189 In 1608, De Brito and his men, using elephants and forced labour,[3] removed the Dhammazedi Bell from the Shwedagon Pagoda and rolled it down Singuttara Hill to a raft on the Pazundaung Creek.

The load proved too heavy, and at the confluence of the Bago and Yangon Rivers, off what is now known as Monkey Point, the raft broke up and the bell went to the bottom, taking de Brito's ship with it.