ALMEIDA FIRST VICEROY.

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agency for the purchase of goods there; but as soon as heleft Calicut , the factor was murdered by the Muhammadanmerchants. In spite of this disaster, he left a factor behindhim at Cochin , when he returned to Portugal .

In 1502, the King of Portugal obtained from Pope Alex - Portuguese ander vi. a bull constituting him ‘ Lord of the Navigation,

Conquest, and Trade of Ethiopia , Arabia, Persia , and India .’ seas, 1500-In that year Vasco da Gama sailed again to the East, with l6o °-a fleet numbering twenty vessels. He formed alliances withthe Rajas of Cochin and Cannanore , and the Rani of Quilon,and bombarded the Zamorin of Calicut in his palace. In1503, the great Alfonso de Albuquerque sailed to the East incommand of one of three expeditions from Portugal . ThePortuguese arrived only just in time to succour the Raja ofCochin , who was being besieged by the Zamorin of Calicut.

They built a fort at Cochin , and, to guard against any futuredisaster, left 150 Portuguese soldiers under Duarte Pacheco to defend their ally. When they departed, the Zamorin,or Hindu Raja of Calicut , again attacked Cochin , but he wasdefeated by Pacheco both by land and sea, and the prestigeof the Portuguese was by these victories raised to its height.

In 1505, a large fleet of twenty sail and fifteen hundred Vice-men was sent under Francisco de Almeida , the first Portuguese r °y alt .y ofViceroy of India. Almeida was the first Portuguese statesman 1505-09.in India to develop a distinct policy. He saw that, in the faceof the opposition of the Muhammadan merchants, whosemonopoly was infringed, it was necessary to fortify factoriesin India , in which to carry on trade. But he wished theseforts to be as few as possible, and that the chief power ofPortugal should be on the sea. Almeida had also a new dangerto meet. The Sultan of Egypt perceived that the discoveryof the direct sea-route from Europe to India round the Cape of Good Hope was ruining the transit trade through Egypt .

He therefore despatched a fleet to exterminate the Portuguese forces in Asia . The Sultan’s admiral won a victory off VictoryChaul, in 1508, in which Almeida’s son was killed: but on ofDlu >2nd February 1509, the Egyptians were utterly defeated offthe island of Diu. The danger of a general union of theMoslems against the Portuguese was thus averted for thetime, and the quarrels between the Turks and Egyptianswhich ensued gave time for the Christians to firmly con-solidate their power in India .

In 1509, Albuquerque succeeded as Governor, and widelyextended the area of Portuguese influence. He abandoned