The General Would Not Trust Himself Any More On Shore, Although
Bontaybo, Who Frequently Came Off To Visit Him, Advised Him To Wait On
The King, Lest The Great Credit Of The Moors Might Again Prevail Over His
Mind.
But considering this man as a Moor, the general never put much
trust in him, nor informed him of his intentions; yet always received him
kindly, and gave him money and other gifts, that he might bring him
intelligence of what was passing on shore.
After the Portuguese merchandize was removed to Calicut, the general
permitted one man daily from each of the ships to go on shore, to see the
city and to purchase any thing they had a mind for; always taking
especial care that one party returned on board before another landed. Our
people were courteously received and entertained by the natives, and were
even lodged in their houses occasionally. They bartered several things on
shore, such as bracelets of brass and copper, pewter, and other European
articles, for the productions of the country, as freely and quietly as if
they had been in Lisbon. Fishermen, and others of the idolaters came off
to the ships, selling fish, cocoa-nuts, and poultry, for biscuit or money;
while others came off with their children, merely to have a sight of our
ships. On all these occasions, the general commanded them to be well
treated and to have food given them, to conciliate the people and to
secure the friendship of the zamorin. This continued till the tenth of
August, during which time the ships had always some of the natives on
board.
Seeing the quietness of the people, and their familiarity with his men,
who never met with any injury from the Moors or nayres, the general
believed the zamorin was willing to preserve friendship and peace with
the subjects of Portugal, and determined upon establishing a factory in
Calicut for the sale of his commodities, although very little of what was
landed had as yet been sold. By this means, he hoped to lay a sure
foundation for the establishment of trade, against the next expedition
which the king his master might send, if GOD pleased to send him home
with the intelligence of the discovery. Accordingly, with the advice and
concurrence of the captains and other principal officers of the fleet, he
sent a present by Diego Diaz to the zamorin, consisting of scarfs of
different colours, silks, corals, and various other articles. Diaz was
desired to say to the king, that the general begged his highness to
excuse his presumption in sending such a present in token of his entire
devotion to his service, having nothing worthy of the acceptance of so
great a prince. That the time now drew near when it would be necessary to
depart on his return to Portugal; and therefore, if his highness meant to
send an ambassador to the king of Portugal, he had better give orders
that he might soon be ready to embark. Presuming upon what his highness
had already agreed to, and on the kindness hitherto shewn to him and his
people by his highness, he requested permission to leave a factor and
clerk in Calicut along with his merchandize, as a memorial of peace and
amity between his highness and the king of Portugal, as a testimony of
the truth of the embassy with which he had been entrusted, and in pledge
of farther embassy from the king his master as soon as the discovery was
made known. He likewise prayed his highness to send on board as a full
confirmation of his having actually made the voyage to India, a _bahar_
of cinnamon, another of cloves, and a third of some other spices, which
should be paid for by the factor out of the first sales of the goods in
his possession. It was four days after Diaz received this order before he
could get access to the zamorin, though he went every day to the palace
for this purpose. At length he was admitted to audience; and on seeing
Diaz with his present, the king asked him what he wanted in so stern a
manner that he was afraid of being killed. After delivering the message
from the general and wishing to deliver the present, the king refused to
see it, and commanded that it should be delivered to his factor. The
answer he gave to the message was, that since the general wished to
depart he might do so, but must first pay him 600 _serasynes_[63],
according to the custom of the country.
Diaz, on his return to the factory with the present intended for the king,
was accompanied by many of the nayres, which he thought was from respect:
but immediately on entering the house, the nayres remained at the door,
forbidding him or any other person to go out. After this, a proclamation
was made through the city, forbidding any boat or almadia to go on board
our fleet on pain of death. Yet Bontaybo went off secretly, and gave
warning to the general not to venture on shore or to permit any of the
people to land; as he had learned from the Moors, that any who might do
so would surely lose their lives. Bontaybo said farther, that all the
fair words of the king proceeded from dissimulation, that he might entice
the general and his people on shore to kill them all; all which evil
intentions were occasioned by the Moors, who made the king believe that
the Portuguese were thieves and pirates, who had come to Calicut to steal
such merchandize as should be brought there; and who had come to spy out
the land, that they might return with a great armament to invade his
dominions. All this was confirmed by two Malabar idolaters, and the
general was in great uncertainty how best to proceed on the present
emergency. That same night, after dark, a Negro slave belonging to Diaz
came off, with the information that Diaz and Braga were made prisoners,
and with an account of the answer which the king had given to his message,
what he had ordered to be done with the present, and of the proclamations
which were made through the city.
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