De Faria, Portuguese Asia, I. 82.]
[Footnote 67: Named Kalekare by Astley; and probably alluding to some
place in the neighbourhood of the great pearl fishery in the Gulf of
Manar, between Ceylon and the Carnatic. - E.]
[Footnote 68: Now called Golconda. But the dominions of Narsinga seem
then to have included the whole southern peninsula of India, except the
coasts of Canara and Malabar, from Visiapour and the Deccan to Cape
Comorin. - E.]
Many princes apprehending vast loss to their revenues, by this new
course which the Portuguese had discovered for carrying on a direct
trade by sea between Europe and India, used their endeavours to drive
them from that country. For this purpose, the Soldan of Egypt[69], who
was principally affected by this new trade, gave out that he would
destroy the holy places in Jerusalem, if the Portuguese persisted in
trading to Malabar. Believing him in earnest, Maurus, a monk of Mount
Sinai, went to Rome with a letter from the Soldan to the pope,
signifying his intention to destroy those places, sacred in the
estimation of the Christians, in revenge for the injury done to his
trade by the Portuguese. The pope sent Maurus into Portugal, where the
purport of his message was known before his arrival, and such
preparations made for driving the Moors from the trade of India, that
Maurus returned to Cairo with more alarming intelligence than he had
brought.
