Having arranged how the king of Calicut and his subjects were to be disposed of, his majesty of Cananore returned to his palace, and matured with his council the measures to be taken so as to carry out wishes of his friend and ally the king of Portugal. In matters of trade it was agreed that a fixed price should be set upon all articles offered for sale, and that there should be no bargaining between the buyer or seller for the purpose of either lowering or raising prices. The chief merchants of the city and natives of the country were to arrange with the factors from the ships what the prices were to be, and these “should last for ever.” A factory was to be established where goods were to be bought and sold; and all these things were written down by the scribes, so as to constitute an agreement, which both parties signed. When completed, De Gama took counsel with his captains, and settled that two divisions of the fleet should cruise along the coast, “making war on all navigators, except those of Cananore, Cochym, and Coulam,”[35] while the factors should remain on shore, with a sufficient number of men to buy and gather into their warehouse at Cananore, “for the voyage to the kingdom, much rice, sugar, honey, butter, oil, dried fish, and cocoa-nuts, to make cables of coir and cordage.” [Sidenote: Departure for Calicut.] [Sidenote: Bombards the city.] [Sidenote: Horrible cruelties.] Having arranged all these matters to the satisfaction of everybody at the place, except the Moorish merchants, who were “very sad” when they saw their ancient trade by the Red Sea passing into the hands of strangers, Dom Gama sailed with his combined fleet for Calicut, where, on arrival, he found the port deserted of its shipping, the news of his doings at Onor and Baticala having reached the ears of the people of Calicut; the king, however, sent one of the chief Brahmins of the place, with a white flag of truce, in the vain hope that some terms of peace might be agreed upon. But the captain-major rejected every condition, and ordering the Indian boat to return to the shore, and the Brahmin to be safely secured on board of his ship, he bombarded the city, “by which he made a great destruction.” Nor was his vengeance satisfied by this wanton destruction of private property, and the sacrifice of the lives of many of the inhabitants of the city; while thus engaged “there came in from the offing two large ships, and twenty-two sambacks and Malabar vessels from Coromandel, laden with rice for the Moors of Calicut:” these he seized and plundered, with the exception of six of the smaller vessels belonging to Cananore. Had the acts of this representative of a civilised monarch been confined to plunder, and the destruction of private property at sea and on shore, they might have been passed over without comment as acts of too frequent occurrence; but besides this, they were deeply dyed with the blood of his innocent victims. The prayers he had offered to God with