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hanged a number of helpless merchants quietly trading in the harbour. Cutting off their heads, hands, and feet,
he had them flung into a boat, which was allowed to drift ashore, with a cruel suggestion that the severed
limbs would make an Indian curry. Once more Calicut was bombarded and Don Vasco sailed on to other ports
on the Malabar coast, where he loaded his ships with spices taken from poor folk who dared not refuse. He
then sailed home again, reaching Portugal "safe and sound, Deo gratias," but leaving behind him hatred and
terror and a very quaint idea of these Christians who felt it their duty to exterminate all followers of
Mohammed.
Conquest usually succeeds discovery, and the Portuguese, having discovered the entire coast of West, South,
and a good deal of East Africa and western coast of India, now proceeded to conquer it for their own. It was a
far cry from Portugal to India in these days, and the isolated depots on the coast of Malabar were obviously in
danger, when the foreign ships laden with spoil left their shores. True, Vasco da Gama had left six little ships
this time under Sodrez to cruise about the Indian seas, but Sodrez wanted treasure, so he cruised northwards
and found the southern coasts of Arabia as well as the island of Socotra. He had been warned of the
tempestuous seas that raged about these parts at certain seasons, but, heeding not the warning, he perished
with all his knowledge and treasure.
Expedition after expedition now left Portugal for the east coast of Africa and India. There were the two
cousins Albuquerque, who built a strong fort of wood and mud at Cochin, leaving a garrison of one hundred
and fifty trained soldiers under the command of one Pacheco, who saved the fort and kept things going under
great difficulties. On the return of Albuquerque, the hero of Cochin, the King decided to appoint a Viceroy of
India. He would fain have appointed Tristan d'Acunha,--the discoverer of the island that still bears his
name,--but he was suddenly struck with blindness, and in his stead Dom Francisco Almeida, "a nobleman of
courage and experience," sailed off with the title of Viceroy. Not only was he to conquer, but to command, not
only to sustain the sea-power of Portugal, but to form a government.
There is a story told of the ignorance of the men sent to man the ships under Almeida. So raw were they that
they hardly knew their right hand from their left, still less the difference between starboard and larboard, till
their captain hit on the happy notion of tying a bundle of garlic over one side of the ship and a handful of
onions over the other, so the pilot gave orders to the helmsman thus: "Onion your helm!" or "Garlic your
helm!"
[Illustration: A SHIP OF ALBUQUERQUE'S FLEET. From a very fine woodcut, published about 1516, of
CHAPTER XXV 96
Albuquerque's siege and capture of Aden. In the British Museum.]
On the way out, Almeida built a strong fortress near Zanzibar, organised a regular Portuguese Indian pilot
service, and established his seat of government at Cochin. Then he sent his son, a daring youth of eighteen, to
bombard the city of Quilon, whose people were constantly intriguing against the Portuguese. Having carried
out his orders, young Lorenzo, ordered to explore the Maldive Islands, was driven by a storm to an "island
opposite Cape Comorin, called Ceylon, and separated from thence by a narrow sea," where he was warmly
received by the native King, whose dress sparkled with diamonds. Lorenzo erected here a marble pillar with
the arms of Portugal carved thereon and took possession of the island. He also sent back to Portugal the first
elephant ever sent thither.
Ceylon was now the farthest point which flew the flag of Portugal toward the east. Doubtless young Lorenzo
would have carried it farther, but he was killed at the early age of twenty-one, his legs being shattered by a
cannon-ball during a sea-fight. He sat by the mainmast and continued to direct the fighting till a second shot
ended his short but brilliant career. The Viceroy, "whose whole being was centred in his devotion to his only
son, received the tidings with outward stoicism." "Regrets," he merely remarked, "regrets are for women."
Nevertheless he revenged the death of his son by winning a victory over the opposing fleet and bidding his
captains rejoice over "the good vengeance our Lord has been pleased, of His mercy, to grant us."
But the days of Almeida were numbered. He had subdued the Indian coast, he had extended Portuguese
possessions in various directions, his term of office was over, and he was succeeded by the famous [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]