Many princes apprehending vast loss to their revenues, by this new course which the Portuguese had discovered for carrying on a direct trade by sea between Europe and India, used their endeavours to drive them from that country. For this purpose, the Soldan of Egypt[69], who was principally affected by this new trade, gave out that he would destroy the holy places in Jerusalem, if the Portuguese persisted in trading to Malabar. Believing him in earnest, Maurus, a monk of Mount Sinai, went to Rome with a letter from the Soldan to the pope, signifying his intention to destroy those places, sacred in the estimation of the Christians, in revenge for the injury done to his trade by the Portuguese. The pope sent Maurus into Portugal, where the purport of his message was known before his arrival, and such preparations made for driving the Moors from the trade of India, that Maurus returned to Cairo with more alarming intelligence than he had brought. The king of Portugal informed his holiness by letter, that his intentions in prosecuting these eastern discoveries were to propagate the holy faith, and to extend the papal jurisdiction over the countries of the heathen, by which the pope was entirely reconciled to his proceedings. [Footnote 69: This last mameluke Soldan of Egypt was Almalec al Ashraf Abul Nasr Sayf oddin Kansu al Gauri, commonly called Campson Gauri, the 24th of the Circassian dynasty, who reigned from 1500 to 1516, when he was slain in battle near Aleppo by Selim Emperor of the Turks.--Astley, I. 58. b.]