While rewards were freely bestowed upon all persons who had taken part in the expedition, costly offerings were made to the monastery of Belem, with gifts to numerous churches, as also to various holy houses and convents of nuns, that “all might give thanks and praises to the Lord for the great favour which He had shown to Portugal.” The king, with the queen, went in splendid state and in solemn procession from the cathedral to St. Domingo, where Calçadilha preached on the grandeur of India, and its “miraculous discovery.” [Sidenote: Arrangements made for further expeditions.] Soon afterwards the king arranged to send another fleet, consisting of large and strong ships of his own, with great capacity for cargo, which, if navigated in safety, “would bring him untold riches.” All these matters his majesty talked over very fully with Vasco de Gama, who was to proceed as captain-major, if he pleased, in any fleet fitted out from Portugal to India, with power to supersede all other persons, and to appoint or discharge at his will the captains or officers of any of the vessels belonging to every expedition for India that might be equipped from the Tagus. Indeed, the first expedition had yielded such immense profits, that arrangements for various others were readily entered into without delay. Correa states that a quintal of pepper realised eighty cruzados, cinnamon one hundred and eighty, cloves two hundred, nutmegs one hundred, ginger one hundred and twenty, while mace sold for three hundred cruzados the quintal.[21] So great were the profits, that when the accounts of the cost of the expedition were made up, by order of the king, and added to the prices paid for the merchandise when shipped, it was found that “the return was fully sixty-fold.” [Sidenote: Departure of the second expedition, 25th March, 1502.]