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EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
the system of Almeida, and resolved to establish a PortugueseEmpire in India , based on the possession of important pointsalong the coast, and on playing off the native princes againsteach other. Having failed in an attack upon Calicut , he in1510 seized Goa , which has since remained the capital ofPortuguese India . Then, sailing round Ceylon, he capturedMalacca , the key to the navigation of the Indian Archipelago,and opened a trade with Siam and the Spice Islands . Lastly,he sailed back westward, and, after penetrating into the Red Sea and taking Ormuz in the Persian Gulf , returned to Goa only to die in 1515. In 1524, Vasco da Gama came out tothe East for the third time, and he too died at Cochin , aftera rule of only three months. For exactly a century, from1500 to 1600, the Portuguese enjoyed a monopoly of Orientaltrade. 1 ‘ From Japan and the Spice Islands to the Red Sea and the Cape of Good Hope , they were the sole masters anddispensers of the treasures of the East; while their possessionsalong the Atlantic coast of Africa and in Brazil completedtheir maritime Empire .’ 2
But the Portuguese had neither the political strength northe personal character necessary to maintain such an Empire .Their national temper had been formed in their contestwith the Moors at home. They were not traders, butknights-errant and crusaders, who looked on every pagan asan enemy of Portugal and of Christ. Only those who haveread the contemporary narratives of their conquests, canrealize the superstition and the cruelty with which their historyin the Indies is stained.
Albuquerque alone endeavoured to conciliate the goodwillof the natives, and to live in friendship with the Hinduprinces, who were better pleased to have the Portuguese ,as firmly governed by him, for their neighbours and allies,than the Muhammadans whom he had expelled or subdued.The justice and magnanimity of his rule did as much toextend and confirm the power of the Portuguese in the East,as his courage and the success of his military achievements.In such veneration was his memory held, that the Hindus ofGoa , and even the Muhammadans, were wont to repair to his
1 For a full account of the Portuguese in India , and the curious phasesof society which they developed, see article Goa , The Imperial Gazetteerof India. Also for local notices, see articles Daman, Diu, Bassein,Calicut.
2 This and the following paragraphs are condensed from Sir GeorgeBird wood’s official Report on the Miscellaneous Old Records in the IndiaOffice, dated 1st November 1878 (folio, 1879).