of the Moors. He therefore ordered, that the admiral should once more be brought before him. In the meanwhile the Catual tried many ftratagems to get the ships into the harbour; and at laft, in the name of his master, made an abfolute demand that the fails and rudders fhould be delivered up, as the pledge of Gama's honefty. But these demands were as abfolutely refused by Gama, who fent a letter to his brother by Monzaida, enforcing his former orders in the strongest manner, declaring that his fate gave him no concern, that he was only unhappy left the fruits of all their labours and dangers fhould be lost. After two days spent in vain altercation with the Catual, Gama was brought as a prifoner before the king. The king repeated his accufation, upbraided him with noncompliance to the requests of his minifter; yet urged him, if he were an exile or pirate, to confefs freely, in which cafe he promifed to take him into his fervice, and highly promote him on account of his abilities. But Gama, who with great spirit had baffled all the ftratagems of the Catual, behaved with the fame undaunted bravery before the king. He afferted his innocence, pointed out the malice of the Moors, and the improbability of his piracy; boafted of the fafety of his fleet, offered his life rather than his fails and rudders, and concluded with threats in the name of his fovereign. The Zamorim, during the whole conference, eyed Gama with the keenest attention, and clearly perceived in his unfaultering mien the dignity of truth, and the confcioufnefs that he was the admiral of a greater monarch. In their late addrefs, the Moors had treated the Zamorim as fomewhat dependent upon them,

and

and he faw that a commerce with other nations would certainly leffen their dangerous importance. His avarice ftrongly defired the commerce of Portugal; and his pride was flattered in humbling the Moors. After many proposals, it was at laft agreed, that of Gama's twelve attendants, he should leave seven as hoftages; that what goods were aboard his veffels should be landed, and that Gama fhould be fafely conducted to his fhip; after which the treaty of commerce and alliance was to be finally settled. And thus, when the affaffination of Gama feemed inevitable, the Zamorim fuddenly dropt the demand of the fails and the rudders, refcued him from his determined enemies, and reftored him to liberty and the command of his fhips.

As foon as he was aboard the goods were landed, accompanied by a letter from Gama to the Zamorim, wherein he boldly complained of the treachery of the Catual. The Zamorim, in anfwer, promised to make enquiry, and to punish him if guilty; but did nothing in the affair. Gama, who had now anchored nearer to the city, every day fent two or three different perfons on some business to Calicut, that as many of his men as poffible might be able to give fome account of India. The Moors, in the meanwhile, every day affaulted the ears of the king, who now began to waver; when Gama, who had given every proof of his defire of peace and friendship, fent another letter, in which he requested the Zamorim to permit him to leave a conful at Calicut, to manage the affairs

Faria y Soufa.

affairs of king Emmanuel. But to this request, the most reafonable refult of a commercial treaty, the Zamorim returned a refufal full of rage and indignation. Gama, now fully master of the character of the Zamorim, refolved to treat a man of such an inconftant difhonourable difpofition with a contemptuous filence. This contempt was felt by the king, who yielding to the advice of the Catual and the entreaties of the Moors, feized the Portuguese goods, and ordered two of the seven hostages, the two who had the charge of the cargo, to be put in irons. The admiral remonstrated by the means of Monzaida, but the king ftill perfifted in his treacherous breach of royal faith. Repeated folicitations made him more haughty; and it was now the duty and intereft of Gama to ufe force. He took a veffel in which were fix Nayres or noblemen, and nineteen of their fervants. The fervants he fet afhore to relate the tidings, the noblemen he detained. As foon as the news had time to fpread through the city, he hoisted his fails, and though with a flow motion, seemed to proceed on his homeward voyage. The city was now in an uproar: the friends of the captive noblemen furrounded the palace, and loudly accused the po. licy of the Moors. The king, in all the perplexed distress of a haughty, avaricious, weak prince, fent after Gama, delivered up all the hoftages, and fubmitted to his propofals; nay, even folicited that an agent fhould be left, and even defcended to the meannefs of a palpable lie. The two factors, he said, he had put in irons, only to detain them till he might write letters to his brother Emmanuel, and the goods he had kept on fhore that an agent

might be sent to dispose of them. Gama, however, perceived a mysterious trifling, and, previous to any treaty, infifted upon the restoration of the goods.

'The day after this altercation, Monzaida came aboard the admiral's ship in great perturbation. The Moors, he faid, had raised great commotions, and had enraged the king against the Portuguefe. The king's fhips were getting ready, and a numerous Moorish fleet from Mecca was daily expected. To delay Gama till this force arrived, was the purpose of the court and of the Moors, who were now confident of fuccefs. To this information Monzaida added, that the Moors, fufpecting his attachment to Gama, had determined to affaflinate him. That he had narrowly escaped from them; that it was impoffible for him to recover his effects, and that his only hope was in the protection of Gama. Gama rewarded him with the friendship he merited, took him with him, as he defired, to Lisbon, and procured him a recompence for his fervices.

Almost immediately after Monzaida, seven boats arrived, loaded with the goods, and demanded the restoration of the captive noblemen. Gama took the goods on board, but refused to examine if they were entire, and also refused to deliver the prifoners. He had been promised an ambaffador to his fovereign, he said, but had been so often deluded, he could truft fuch a faithless people no longer, and would therefore carry the captives in his power, to convince the king of Portugal what infults and

injustice

injuftice his ambaffador and admiral had fuffered from the Zamorim of Calicut. Having thus difmiffed the Indians, he fired his cannon and hoifted his fails. A calm, however, detained him on the coaft fome days, and the Zamorim feizing the opportunity, fent what veffels he could fit out, twenty of a larger fize, fixty in all, full of armed men, to attack him. Though Gama's cannon were well played, confident of their numbers, they preffed on to board him, when a fudden tempeft, which Gama's ships rode out in fafety, miferably difperfed the Indian fleet, and completed their ruin.

After this victory, the Admiral made a halt at a little island near the shore, where he erected a cross*, bearing the name and arms of his Portuguese majesty. And from this place, by the hand of Monzaida, he wrote a letter to the Zamorim, wherein he gave a full and circumftantial account of all the plots of the Catual and the Moors. Still, however, he profeffed his defire of a commercial treaty, and promised to represent the Zamorim in the beft light to Emmanuel. The prifoners, he said, should be kindly used, were only kept as ambaffadors to his fovereign, and fhould be returned to India when they were enabled from experience to give an account of Portugal. The letter he fent by one of the captives, who by this means obtained his liberty.

The

*It was the custom of the first discoverers to erect croffes on places remarkable in their voyage. Gama erected fix; one, dedicated to St. Raphael, at the river of Good Signs, one to St. George at Mozambic, one to St. Stephen at Melinda, one to St. Gabriel at Calicut, and one to St. Mary, at the inland thence named, near Anchediva.