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.
We have purposely omitted, in this rapid sketch of the establishment and
progress of the Portuguese commerce in the East, any notice of the smaller
discoveries which they made at the same time. These, however, it will be
proper to advert to before we proceed to another subject.
In the year 1512, a Portuguese navigator was shipwrecked on the Maldives:
he found them already in the occasional possession of the Arabians, who
came thither for the cocoa fibres, of which they formed their cordage, and
the cowries, which circulated as money from Bengal to Siam.
