Having called at Melinde for a day, to take in a fresh stock of sheep, fowls, and water, Dom Gama proceeded on his course with a fair wind, and “without even meeting with any storm or hindrance, but only winds with which all his sails served.”[45] On the 1st of September, 1503, he reached Lisbon, anchoring “before the city,” with “ten ships laden with very great wealth, after leaving such great services accomplished in India.” When the king of Portugal heard the news of Dom Gama’s arrival he was greatly rejoiced, and sent the captain of his guard to bid him welcome, he himself proceeding on horseback with many people to the cathedral, “to give much praise to the Lord before the altar of Saint Vincent,” an example which the captain-major and all his captains soon afterwards followed; when prayers were ended, he kissed the hand of the king, who bestowed many favours upon the officers and crews of the ships, while granting to Dom Gama and his heirs “the anchorage dues of India,” and conferring upon him and his descendants the title of the “admiral of its seas for ever.” [Sidenote: Dom Gama arrives in India for the third time, 11th Sept., 1524.] The re-discovery of the route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope, proved an immense source of wealth to Portugal. The profits of her merchants on the products of the East were enormous, and for many years, as regarded the rest of Europe, this trade was kept a close monopoly. Lisbon then became the entrepôt which the Italian republics had so long held for the spices and other produce of India; and the palaces of her traders with that country, which still adorn, even amid their decay, and, in too many instances, their ruins, the banks of the Tagus, testify to the wealth of their original owners and occupants. Though Dom Gama now desired to remain at home to reap the fruits of his discovery and enjoy the rewards and honours conferred upon him by his sovereign, the state of affairs in India too soon required his presence in that country. The example he himself had set of tyranny formed the basis for a despotic rule on the part of the Portuguese governors or factors, which at even this early stage required a remedy, and no one was considered so competent to correct this evil as its author. Consequently, according to the testimony of Correa, “on the 11th September, 1524, there arrived at the bar of Goa, Dom Vasco de Gama, as Viceroy of India.”