THE PORTUGUESE. 



281 



attended by a suite of some 20 richly-dressed 

 Arabs. The modest presents offered by the 

 Europeans to these wealthy princelets, whose 

 women adorned themselves with pearls and other 

 precious stones, must have given a mean idea of 

 Portuguese civilization. And even in the present 

 day the dominions of the ' barbarous Arab ' 

 are superior in every way to the miserable 

 colonies on the West African coast, which repre- 

 sent Christian and civilized Europe. 



Eour years afterwards (1503) R/uy Lourenco 

 Eavasco, a Cavalleiro da Casa d' El Eey, sailing 

 with D. Antonio de Saldanha, cruized off £ Zem- 

 zibar,' as his countrymen called Zanzibar, and in 

 two months captured twenty rich ships, laden 

 with ambergris, ivory, tortoiseshell, wax, honey, 

 rice, coir, and silk and cotton stuffs. This cap- 

 tain appears, like most of his fellows, to have 

 been a manner of pirate : he did not restore them 

 till ransom was paid. ' El Eey,' still friendly to 

 the Portuguese, sent a spirited remonstrance, 

 when the insolence of the reply forced him to 

 take hostile measures. The Arabs manned their 

 canoes with some 4000 men; but two launches, 

 well-armed with cannon, killed at the first dis- 

 charge 34 men and put the rest to flight. Thus the 

 Malik or Eegulus was compelled by Eavasco to pay 



