The Samuri, or king, of Calicut was at first friendly, but there were
misunderstandings on the part of the Portuguese, and they made little
or no progress either in trade or in establishing amicable relations
with the Hindus. Da Gama returned shortly after to Portugal. Early
in 1500 A.D. Cabral took out another and larger fleet, and arrived
at Calicut on September 13th. He at once quarrelled with the Samuri,
and instead of peaceful commerce we read of attacks and counter-attacks
conducted in such sort by the Portuguese as irretrievably to alienate
the natives of the country. A few Europeans, however, settled in that
tract, and amongst them Duarte Barbosa, the celebrated chronicler of
the time.

Da Gama returned to India in 1504, proclaiming the king of Portugal
lord of the seas, and wantonly destroying with all hands a large
vessel having several hundred people on board near the Indian coast. He
reached Calicut on October 29th, and immediately bombarded the city,
seizing the inoffensive native fishermen in the port, eight hundred
of whom he massacred in cold blood under circumstances of brutal
atrocity. In 1503 he again left for Europe, after establishing a
factory at Cochin. In consequence of his violence a war ensued between
Cochin and Calicut. In 1504 Lopo Soares came out with a fleet of
fourteen caravels, and proclaimed a blockade of the port of Cochin,
in spite of the fact that the Rajah of that place had always shown
great kindness and hospitality to the Portuguese.

The next year, 1505, Almeida was appointed viceroy of the king of
Portugal on the Indian coast, and took out with him a large fleet and
1500 soldiers. After some preliminary fighting at Honawar, Almeida
began for the first time to perceive that the true interests of the
Portuguese lay in peaceful commerce, and not in sanguinary and costly