but the South had not yet felt the heavy hand of
Musalman conquerors, and the Hindu Raja of Vijayanagar or Narsingha
was the most powerful potentate in the South of India. The monarchs
and chieftains whom the Portuguese first encountered were Hindus.
Muhammadan merchants indeed controlled the commerce of their
dominions, but they had no share in the government; and one of the
ruling and military classes consisted, on the Malabar coast, where
the Portuguese first touched, of Nestorian Christians.

The concentration of all commerce in the hands of the believers in
the Prophet was not favourably regarded by the wisest of the Hindu
rulers, who were therefore inclined to heartily welcome any
competitors for their trade. The condition of the Malabar coast at
the time of the arrival of the Portuguese was {18} particularly
favourable to the Portuguese endeavours, and, had they been inspired
with nineteenth-century instead of with sixteenth-century ideas of
religion and morality, a prosperous and peaceful commerce might
easily have sprung up between the East and the West.

But if the India which Vasco da Gama reached was favourably inclined
to open relations with the nation to which he belonged, Portugal was
also at that time singularly well fitted by circumstances to send
forth men of daring and enterprise to undertake the task. The
Portuguese nation had grown strong and warlike from its constant
conflict with the Moors in the Peninsula, and the country attained
its European limits in 1263. Since that time it had become both rich
and populous, and a succession of internal troubles had led to the
establishment of a famous dynasty upon the throne of Portugal.

King John I, the founder of the house of Aviz, and surnamed _The
Great_, had won his throne by preserving the independence of the
Portuguese nation against the power of Castile, with the help of the
English, and rested his foreign policy upon a close friendship with
the English nation. He married an English princess, a daughter of
John of Gaunt, and by her became the father of five sons, whose
valour and talents were famous throughout Europe. There being no more
Moors to fight in the Peninsula, the Portuguese, led by their gallant
princes, went to fight Moors in Morocco. The duty of fighting Moors
had {18} from their history sunk deep into the hearts of the
Portuguese people. Their history had been one long struggle with
Muhammadans, and the Christian religion had theref