THE MOORS IN HINDUSTAN--CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY UPON THE ARRIVAL OF DA GAMA--HOSTILITY OF THE MOORS--THEY PREJUDICE THE KING OF CALICUT AGAINST THE PORTUGUESE--CONSEQUENT HOSTILITIES--DA GAMA SETS OUT UPON HIS RETURN--WILD CINNAMON--A MOORISH PIRATE DISGUISED AS AN ITALIAN CHRISTIAN--A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE--WRECK OF THE SAN RAFAEL--HONORS AND TITLES BESTOWED UPON DA GAMA--AN EXPEDITION FITTED OUT UNDER ALVAREZ CABRAL--ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF BRAZIL--COMETS AND WATER-SPOUTS--LOSS OF FOUR VESSELS--A BAZAAR ESTABLISHED AT CALICUT--ATTACK BY THE MOORS--CABRAL WITHDRAWS TO COCHIN--VISITS CANANOR AND TAKES IN A LOAD OF CINNAMON--IS RECEIVED WITH COLDNESS UPON HIS RETURN--VASCO DA GAMA RECALLED INTO THE SERVICE BY THE KING--HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AT SOFALA, CANANOR, AND CALICUT--HE HANGS FIFTY INDIANS AT THE YARD-ARM--PROTECTS COCHIN AND THREATENS CALICUT--WITHDRAWS TO PRIVATE LIFE. Some two hundred years before this time, the Malabar coast of Hindustan was united under one single native prince--named Perimal--whose capital was in the interior. It was at this period that the Arabians discovered India. Perimal embraced the Mohammedan religion, and resolved to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and to finish his days there. He intrusted the government to other hands, and embarked for Arabia from the spot where Calicut now stands. The Arabians were led by this circumstance to regard Calicut with peculiar veneration, and by degrees abandoned the former capital: it was thus that Calicut gradually became the great spice and silk market of the East. In the time of Vasco da Gama, India Proper, or Hindostan, was divided into several independent kingdoms, such as Moultan, Delhi, Bengal, Orissa, Guzarate or Cambaia, Deccan, Canara, Bisnagar, and Malabar. The divisions of Farther India were Ava, Brama, Pegu, Siam, Cambodia, Cochin-China, and Tonkin. The Portuguese fleet had arrived upon the coast of Malabar, which is the edge of the southwestern promontory of Hindostan. It was here, and upon the western coast generally, that the Portuguese were now enabled to plant establishments and to form treaties of alliance and commerce.