Appendix. 291 



archipelago must have been great. Pioneer Mail, 26 

 January, 1887. 



" The Portuguese were the tyrants of the seas, and the 

 terror of the Mecca pilgrims. They seized upon a number 

 of maritime stations ; among others Ormuz, Diu, Malacca, 

 and several of the Moluccas, whence they could command 

 the trade of the East. They twice attempted to take Aden, 

 but without success. Goa was their capital ; from it they 

 ruled over most of the towns on the Malabar coast. Francis 

 Xavier sailed for the Indies in the same ship as the Viceroy, 

 Martin Alphonse de Sousa. He landed at Goa on the 6th 

 May, 1542. After three years' preaching in India, Xavier 

 sailed for Malacca, from which station he made a number of 

 perilous voyages amongst the Moluccas, and the islands 

 around. The Portuguese had already made some conquests 

 in the Indian archipelago to render more secure the rich 

 trade in spices. At this time Mahomedanism was being 

 spread among some of the islands, half by voluntary con- 

 version, and half by the sword ; and some of the chiefs pre- 

 ferred the alternative of being baptised, to submitting to the 

 law of Islam. The islands of Japan, already known to 

 Europe through the travels of Marco Polo, had been reached 

 by the Portuguese only eight years before, and Xavier, while 

 at Malacca, conversed with navigators and traders who had 

 visited that remote coast." The " Blot on the Brain," by W. 

 W. Ireland. 



(d.) The Coptic Church of Egypt. "On this divided, and 

 therefore paralyzed religious community, broke, in the seventh 

 century, the great wave of Mahomedan conquest, and in an 

 evil hour for themselves the Coptic Church cast in their 

 lot with the conquerors. The fate of Egypt was decided 

 when the old Roman fortress of Babylon, to the south 

 of modern Cairo, was treacherously betrayed to the Arabs 

 in 638." Saturday Review, iQth Feb. 1887, p. 262. 



"The Arabs conquered Spain in 711 A.D." 



" Europeans first arrive at Canton in 1517." 



" Macao granted to the Portuguese in 1536." 



" Moluccas (Amboyna the capital), discovered by the 

 Portuguese about 1511." 



" The Dutch conquered them in 1607." 



U 2 



