trouble
to transmit wood to Cairo, which was then carried by camels to
Suez, where a small fleet was prepared to attack the Portuguese
on their next visit to the Indian Ocean.

The Portuguese had in the meantime followed up Vasco da Gama's voyage
with another attempt, which was, in its way, even more important. In
1500 the king sent no less than thirteen ships under the command
of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, with Franciscans to convert, and twelve
hundred fighting men to overawe, the Moslems of the Indian Ocean.
He determined on steering even a more westerly course than Vasco da
Gama, and when he arrived in 17 deg. south of the line, he discovered land
which he took possession of in the name of Portugal, and named Santa
Cruz. The actual cross which he erected on this occasion is still
preserved in Brazil, for Cabral had touched upon the land now known
by that name. It is true that one of Columbus's companions, Pinzon,
had already touched upon the coast of Brazil before Cabral, but it
is evident from his experience that, even apart from Columbus, the
Portuguese would have discovered the New World sooner or later. It
is, however, to be observed that in stating this, as all historians
do, they leave out of account the fact that, but for Columbus,
sailors would still have continued the old course of coasting along
the shore, by which they would never have left the Old World. Cabral
lost several of his ships and many of his men, and, though he brought
home a rich cargo, was not regarded as successful, and Vasco da
Gama was again sent out with a large fleet in 1502, with which
he conquered the Zamorin of Calicut and obtained rich treasures.
In subsidiary voyages the Portuguese navigators discovered the
islands of St. Helena, Ascension, the Seychelles, Socotra, Tristan
da Cunha, the Maldives, and Madagascar.

Meanwhile King Emmanuel was adopting the Venetian method of
colonisation, which consisted in sending a Vice-Doge to each of
its colonies for a term of two years, during which his duty was to
encourage trade and to collect tribute. In a similar way, Emmanuel
appointed a Viceroy for his Eastern trade, and in 1505 Almeida
had settled in Ceylon, with a view to monopolising the cinnamon
trade of that place.

[Illustration: PORTUGUESE INDIES]

But the greatest of the Portuguese viceroys was Affonso de Albuquerque,
who captured the important post of Goa, on the mainland of India,
which still belongs to Portugal, and the port of