SPREAD OF THE PORTUGUESE EAST INDIAN EMPIRE--ALPHONZO D'ALBUQUERQUE--IMMENSE SACRIFICE OF LIFE--ANCIENT ROUTE OF THE SPICE-TRADE WITH EUROPE--COMMERCE BY CARAVANS--REVOLUTION PRODUCED BY OPENING THE NEW ROUTE--FRANCESCO ALMEIDA--DISCOVERY OF CEYLON--TRISTAN D'ACUNHA--THE PORTUGUESE MARS--HIS VIEWS OF EMPIRE--AN ARSENAL ESTABLISHED AT GOA--REDUCTION OF MALACCA--SIAM AND SUMATRA SEND EMBASSIES TO ALBUQUERQUE--THE ISLAND OF ORMUZ--DEATH OF ALBUQUERQUE--EXTENT OF THE PORTUGUESE DOMINION--ORMUZ BECOMES THE GREAT EMPORIUM OF THE EAST--FALL OF THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE. Having narrated, in the preceding chapters, the incidents which led to the circumnavigation of Africa, and having described the several voyages which introduced the Europeans into the East, by the new route of the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Tempests, we must briefly allude to the sequel,--the spread of European commerce among the islands and seaports of this highly favored region. Alphonzo and Francesco d'Albuquerque, with a fleet of nine vessels, and Edoardo Pacheco, with three vessels, carried terror and revenge to the Malabar coast: forts were built to protect the Portuguese commerce, kings were forced to pay tribute, fleets were swept from the seas; and, as a proverb of the time expressed it, pepper began to cost blood. Again the King of Portugal sent out a formidable squadron,--thirteen ships of the line, the largest yet constructed, under Lopez Soarez. Sea-battles now took place, in which the proportions of the slain were one thousand infidels to seventy-five Portuguese,--in which a single European vessel contended successfully with myriads of the native barks. The sacrifice of life was truly awful; but gradually the whole eastern coast of Africa, and, opposite to it, the whole western coast of India, fell under Portuguese sway.