THE NEW COURSE OF COMMERCE. 



221 



by this diversion of the traffic into the hands of the Portuguese, 

 but rich cities lost their revenues and princes lost their tribute. 

 While the Venetians resolved to appeal to arms, the Sultan of 

 Egypt addressed a protestation to Rome. But the King of 

 Portugal tranquillized the Pope by declaring his intention of 

 extending the jurisdiction of the apostolic faith, and he prepared 

 to resist violence by sending out, in 1507, Don Francesco Al- 

 meida, with twenty-two ships and fifteen hundred regular 

 soldiers : he bestowed upon the new commander the title of 

 Viceroy of the Indies. Almeida deposed the King of Quiloa, 

 and crowned another of his own appointment ; he built a fort in 

 twenty days, garrisoned it with one hundred and fifty men, and 

 left a brigantine and a caravel to scour and protect the coast. 

 He bombarded Mombassa, killed fifteen hundred men and lost 

 five. He erected forts and established trading stations at 

 Onor, Cananor, Surat and Calicut, upon the Malabar coast. 

 To the important point of Sofala, upon the African coast, 

 Emmanuel sent a distinct expedition of six ships, under Pedro 

 da Nayha and Juan da Quiros, who compelled the king to admit 

 their nation to a share in the famous gold mines which consti- 

 tuted his kingdom and his wealth. In 1508, Lorenzo, the son 

 of Almeida, while chasing the flying Moors with six men-of- 

 war, discovered the island of Ceylon, to the south of Hindostan. 

 Here he found the Moors and natives loading vessels with ele- 

 phants and cinnamon. 



Again King Emmanuel, drawing upon resources which seemed 

 almost inexhaustible, sent out thirteen vessels, with thirteen 

 hundred men, under Tristan d'Acunha. This fleet was driven 

 to the coast of Brazil, and upon the way thence to the Cape of 

 Good Hope the commander discovered the islands which now 

 bear his name. He burned and pillaged the town of Oja, near 

 Melinda ; he reduced a neighboring shah to the payment of an 

 annual tribute of six hundred golden ducats. His soldiers 

 would not give the captured women of Brava time to remove 



