with
whom the Portuguese would have found it impossible to contend.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA CONCLUDED--A.D. 1498-9.

Treacherous trick to entrap Vasco da Gama--The Castilian warns him not
to complain--Badly treated--Carried from place to place a prisoner--
Sends on board for merchandise--Still kept a prisoner--Orders his
brother to set sail for Spain--Nicolas Coelho refuses to desert him--He
again sends, ordering the hostages to be set free--The King learns the
treachery of the Moors and makes amends to Vasco da Gama--The Moors
threatened with vengeance--The ships sail for Cananor--The King sends
provisions and invites the captains to land--Nicolas Coelho sent with
presents--The King has a pier and pavilion built, extending into the
sea--The Captains visit him in great state--Davane leaves them--Sail and
anchor in a harbour of the islands of Angediva--Native vessels--Friendly
fishermen--Plot of a pilot to destroy the Portuguese--A Jew Admiral of
the King of Goa sent to capture them--The Jew seized--Confesses--His
fleet of fustas destroyed--The survivors made slaves--The Jew turns
Christian--The ships sail across the Indian Ocean--Dreadful sickness--
Mombas bombarded--A fleet of zambuks out of Pate attacks the
Portuguese--Driven off--Second visit to Melinda--Pass close round the
Cape of Good Hope--Many deaths--The Sargarco Sea--Reach the island of
Tercejra--Death of Paulo da Gama--Enter the Tagus the 18th of September,
1499--Vasco da Gama cordially received by the King, who gives him the
title of Dom--Nicolas Coelho exhibits the treasures to the Queen--Second
voyage of Vasco da Gama--Anchade reaches China--Macao founded--Sequeiro
sails up the Red Sea to the country of the Emperor of Ethiopia--The
supposed Prester John--The Moluccas discovered by Abreu--Third voyage of
Dom Vasco da Gama as Viceroy of India--His magnificent state in 1524--
His death at Cochin, the same year--Buried at Vidigueira in Portugal, of
which he was Count--Succeeded by his son Dom Estevan.

The trade at the factory continued. Drugs, cloves, and nutmegs were
brought in; the cloves, however, were mostly bits of stick, and the
nutmegs were half rotten, but the factor received them as if they were
sound.

The chief minister now arrived in a richly ornamented litter, borne on
men's shoulders, with a similar one empty, having a silken canopy over
it and soft cushions within, saying that he was sent to bring the
ambassador to