Bontaybo Had Told The Moors That Our Purpose Was Not Merely To
Discover Calicut From Curiosity, But That Spices Were
In great estimation
in Portugal, which abounded in gold and silver, and to which all kinds of
merchandize was at
Present transported that went from Calicut by way of
the Red Sea; and finally, that the settlement of a direct trade by the
Portuguese with Calicut would tend greatly to the profit of the zamorin.
All this the Moors very well understood: But, considering that we were
Christians, they believed, if we should establish trade with Calicut,
that their own commodities would fall in price, and most of their profits
be destroyed. Wherefore they consulted together how to induce the zamorin
to take the general prisoner, to seize our ships, and to kill all our men;
that they might not return into Portugal with any intelligence concerning
Calicut. Upon this they associated themselves with some of those who were
in greatest credit with the zamorin, to whom they procured access, and
represented to him, That he ought not to be deceived by the Christians,
for the general was no ambassador as he pretended, but a pirate who went
about to rob and plunder whereever he came. They asserted having received
undoubted intelligence of this from their factors in Africa; where after
entering into a friendly correspondence with the _xeque_, who even
visited the general in his ship, gave him many presents, and provided him
with a pilot to bring him to Calicut, he had battered the town with his
ordnance, and killed several of his subjects.
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