EARL Y EUROPEAN SETTLEMKENVTS 447
cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious stones. What I seek from
thy country is gold, silver, coral, and scarlet.' The safe arrival
of Da Gama at Lisbon was celebrated with national rejoicings
as enthusiastic as those which 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 Portuguese mind became intoxicated with dreams
of a mighty Oriental empire.
The early Portuguese navigators were not traders or private
adventurers, but admirals with a royal commission to open up
a direct commerce with Asia, and to purchase Eastern com-
modities on behalf of the King of Portugal. A second Pedro
expedition, consisting of thirteen ships and twelve hundred Clvbral
soldiers, under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral, was 15oo.
dispatched in i5oo. On his outward voyage, Cabral was
driven westward by stress of weather, and discovered Brazil;
but ultimately he reached Calicut. He seriously embroiled
himself with the Zamorin, and the factors there were mur-
dered by the Muhammadan merchants. In spite of this
disaster, he left a factor behind him at Cochin when he
returned to Portugal.
In I502 the King of Portugal obtained from Pope Alex- Papal
ander VI a Bull constituting him 'Lord of the Navigation, Bull, 1502.
Conquest, and Trade of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India.'
In that year Vasco da Gama sailed again to the East, with
a fleet numbering twenty vessels. He formed alliances with
the RajAs of Cochin and Cannanore, and bombarded the
Zamorin of Calicut in his palace. In I503 the great Affonso
de Albuquerque sailed to the East in command of one of three
expeditions from Portugal. The Portuguese arrived only just
in time to succour the Raja of Cochin, who was being besieged
by the Zamorin of Calicut. They built a fort at Cochin, and,
to guard against any future disaster, left ninety Portuguese
soldiers under Duarte Pacheco to defend their ally. When
they departed, the Zamorin of Calicut again attacked Cochin;
but he was defeated by Pacheco on both land and sea, and
the prestige of 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 Portu- royalty of
Almeida,
guese Viceroy of India. Almeida was also the first Portuguese Ijos-9.
statesman to develop a distinct policy in India. He saw that,
in the face of the opposition. of the Aluhammadan merchants,
whose monopoly was infringed, it was necessary to fortify
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