But By Perseverance They Succeeded In Their Object,
And Before The Middle Of The Sixteenth Century, Exchanged, At The Island Of
Sancian, The Spices Of The Moluccas, And The Precious Stones And Ivory Of
Ceylon, For The Silks, Porcelain, Drugs, And Tea Of China.
Soon afterwards
the emperor of China allowed them to occupy the island of Macao.
In 1542
they succeeded in forming a commercial intercourse with Japan, trading with
it for gold, silver and copper; this trade, however, was never extensive,
and it ceased altogether in 1638, when they were driven from the Japanese
territories.
As the commodities of India could not be purchased except with large
quantities of gold, the Portuguese, in order to obtain it, as well as for
other commercial advantages, prosecuted their discoveries on the east of
Africa, at the same time that they were extending their power and commerce
in India. On the east of Africa, between Sofala and the Red Sea, Arabian
colonies had been settled for many centuries: these the Portuguese
navigators visited, and gradually reduced to tribute; and the remains of
the empire they established at this period, may still be traced in the few
and feeble settlements they possess between Sofala and Melinda. In 1506
they visited and explored the island of Madagascar; in 1513, by the
expulsion of the Arabs from Aden, the Red Sea was opened to their ships;
and they quickly examined its shores and harbours, and made themselves
acquainted with its tedious and dangerous navigation. In 1520 they visited
the ports of Abyssinia, but their ambition and the security of their
commerce were not yet completely attained; the Persian Gulf, as well as the
Red Sea, was explored; stations were formed on the coasts of both: and thus
they were enabled to obstruct the ancient commercial intercourse between
Egypt and India, and to command the entrance of those rivers, by which
Indian goods were conveyed not only through the interior of Asia, but also
to Constantinople. By the conquest of Ormus, the Portuguese monopolised
that extensive trade to the East, which had been in the hands of the
Persians for several centuries. "In the hands of the Portuguese this island
soon became the great mart from which the Persian empire, and all the
provinces of Asia to the west of it, were supplied with the productions of
India: and a city which they built on that barren island, destitute of
water, was rendered one of the chief seats of opulence, splendour, and
luxury in the eastern world."
The Venetians, who foresaw the ruin of their oriental commerce in the
success of the Portuguese, in vain endeavoured to stop the progress of
their rivals in the middle of the sixteenth century: the latter, masters of
the east coast of Africa, of the coasts of Arabia and Persia, of the two
peninsulas of India, of the Molucca islands, and of the trade to China and
Japan, supplied every part of Europe with the productions of the east, by
the Cape of Good Hope; nor was their power and commerce subverted, till
Portugal became a province of Spain.
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