In connection with this it should be noted that, in 1497, Manuel of Portugal sent Vasco da Gama with three ships to double the Cape of Good Hope, with a view to tapping India. In the month of November, Gama successfully doubled the formidable Cape, and sailed up the eastern coast of Africa, as far as Mozambique. Here he found a Moor from Fez, who, acting as interpreter between him and the natives, facilitated the conclusion of a treaty, in virtue of which the King of Mozambique was to furnish the adventurous navigators with pilots well acquainted with the course to India. But, while they were taking in wood and water, a quarrel arose with the natives, to whom the fault is of course imputed. The pilots made their escape, and hostilities ensued. They did not last long; the terrors of the Portuguese firearms soon compelling the Africans to submit. Another, and, as the king assured Gama, a better pilot was supplied, and on the 1st of April, 1498, he sailed from Mozambique. The new pilot proved quite as ill-disposed as his predecessors, endeavoring to betray the fleet into the power of his countrymen at Mombaza; and being alarmed with apprehensions of detection, by the bustle apparent in the crew of Gama’s ship, which had accidentally grounded, he also made his escape. It was not till they reached Melinda that they found really friendly natives. From that port Gama at last obtained a pilot who steered him right across the gulf to the coast of Malabar. The first place in India made by the Portuguese was Calecut. Here Gama announced himself as an embassador sent by the King of Portugal to negotiate a treaty of alliance with the sovereign, the zamorin of Calecut, one of the most powerful princes of that part of Hindustan, to establish commercial relations, and to convert the natives to Christianity. How far this last object of his mission was agreeable to the bigoted Hindus, or the equally bigoted Muhammadan conquerors, who were then the masters of those wealthy regions, we are not distinctly told by the Portuguese historians; but the zamorin appears in the first instance to have received Gama well, and been upon the whole pleased with his visit. This friendly intercourse was interrupted, as we are assured, by the intrigues of the Moors or Arabs, who, being in possession of the pepper trade, and indeed of the whole spice trade, were jealous of interlopers. Quarrels arose, and some acts of violence were committed. They ended, however, in Gama’s gaining the advantage, and friendship was restored between him and the zamorin. He reached Portugal in July, 1499, after a two years’ voyage, and was, like Columbus in Spain, loaded with honors.