These instructions make evident the attitude of Albuquerque, his desire to earn the friendship of Hindu rulers and his unrelenting enmity to all Muhammadans. He had not the absurd notion which Almeida attributed to him of desiring to establish a direct Portuguese rule all over India. He wished rather to pose as the destroyer of Muhammadanism and the liberator of the natives. In return for this service Portugal was to control the commerce of India with Europe. The attitude is not very different from that adopted by the English 300 years later, and it is a remarkable conception for a statesman at the very beginning of the sixteenth century. Before however Albuquerque was able to combine operations with the Hindu Rájá of Narsingha he was forced, against his better judgment, to make an immediate attack unaided upon Calicut. Dom Fernão de {68} Coutinho, the Marshal, insisted on this expedition against the Zamorin, on the ground that the King had ordered him to destroy Calicut before he returned to Portugal. The prudent Albuquerque endeavoured to dissuade the Marshal, but the headstrong young nobleman insisted on having his way. The entire military force of the Portuguese in India sailed for Calicut, and on Jan. 4, 1510, a landing was effected in front of the city. Albuquerque desired that a halt should then be made, as the men were very wearied, and could not bear the weight of their arms by reason of the great heat,--but in vain. He found himself forced to comply with the wishes of his impetuous relative, but he did his best to assure a safe retreat from the disaster, which he foresaw, by ordering Dom Antonio de Noronha, after burning the ships in the port, to remain in reserve with 300 men. Albuquerque then proceeded to follow the Marshal, who was rapidly making his way towards the Zamorin's palace. As the Marshal moved forward-- 'There came against him twenty or thirty Nairs, armed with swords and shields, shouting aloud in their accustomed manner. When he caught sight of them coming against him he began to chuckle, and said to Gaspar Pereira, who was close beside him:--"Is this your Calicut that you terrify us all with in Portugal?" Gaspar Pereira replied that he would think differently before long; for he would wager that, if they could that day penetrate to the houses of the Zamorin, those little naked blacks would give them trouble enough. The Marshal replied:--"This is not the kind of people who will give me any trouble."[3] [Footnote 3: Albuquerque's _Commentaries_, vol. ii. p. 67.]