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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 302 of 427
Words from 158634 to 159156
of 224388
