418 EARL Y EUR OPE AN SE TTLEMENTS.

State ofIndia onarrival ofPortu­ guese .

Raja of

Calicut ’s

letter,

1498.

Portuguese expedi-tion, 1500.

south-eastern direction. It doubled the Cape of Good Hope ,and cast anchor off the city of Calicut on the 20th May 1498, 1after a protracted voyage of nearly eleven months. An earlierPortuguese emissary, Covilham, had reached Calicut overlandabout 1487. From the first, Da Gama encountered hostilityfrom the Moors, or rather Arabs , who monopolized the sea-borne trade; but he seems to have found favour with theZamorin, or Hindu Raja of Calicut . An Afghan of the Lodidynasty was then on the throne of Delhi , and another Afghanking was ruling over Bengal. Ahmadabad formed the seat ofa Muhammadan dynasty in Gujarat . The five independentMuhammadan kingdoms of Ahmadnagar , Bijapur , Ellichpur,Golconda, and Bidar had partitioned out the Deccan. Butthe Hindu Raja of Vijayanagar still ruled as paramount in theSouth, and was perhaps the most powerful monarch to befound at that time in India , not excepting the Lodi dynastyat Delhi .

After staying nearly six months on the Malabar coast, Da Gama returned to Europe , bearing with him the followingletter from the Zamorin to the King of Portugal : ‘Vasco da Gama , a nobleman of your household, has visited my kingdomand has given me great pleasure. In my kingdom there isabundance of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, and preciousstones. What I seek from thy country is gold, silver, coral,and scarlet.’ The safe arrival of Da Gama at Lisbon wascelebrated with national rejoicings as enthusiastic as thosewhich had greeted the return of Columbus. If the West Indies belonged to Spain by priority of discovery, Portugal might claim the East Indies by the same right. The Portu­ guese mind became intoxicated by dreams of a mighty OrientalEmpire.

The early Portuguese navigators were not traders or privateadventurers, but admirals with a royal commission to open upa direct commerce with Asia , and to purchase Eastern com-modities on behalf of the King of Portugal . A secondexpedition, consisting of thirteen ships and seven hundredsoldiers, under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral , wasdespatched in 1500. On his outward voyage, Cabral wasdriven westward by stress of weather, and discovered Brazil .Ultimately he reached Calicut . He established a factory, or

1 According to Correa, Lendas da India , an excellent authority, Vasco da Gama spent over three months at Melinda on the south-east coastof Africa , and did not reach Calicut until August 1498. But the receiveddate is May or June.