The voyage home was no less perilous than the voyage out, and it was not until the 29th of August, 1499, that Vasco da Gama cast anchor in the port of Lisbon, bringing back with him but fifty-five out of the 148 companions who had started with him on his adventurous journey. The pious navigator at once went up to the church of Our Lady at Belem, where he had offered up prayers for help before his departure. His devotions completed, Vasco da Gama made his solemn entrance into Lisbon, where he was received with a burst of popular enthusiasm, equal to that which greeted Christopher Columbus on his return from discovering America. King Emmanuel took the title of “Lord of the Conquest, Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India,” which was confirmed to him by a Bull of Pope Alexander VI. in 1502, and he erected the superb church of Belem, as a testimonial of gratitude to heaven. On Vasco da Gama the king conferred well-deserved honours; he was permitted to quarter the royal arms with his own, and was granted the office of Admiral of the Indian seas, with a large revenue to be levied on the Indian trade; he and his brothers were granted the right to use the prefix _Dom_ or Lord, and a little later, when the importance of his voyage became more manifest, he was created Count da Vidigueira. When the rejoicings were over, King Emmanuel determined to see what advantages could be gained from Dom Vasco da Gama’s discovery, and despatched Pedro Alvares Cabral with a fleet of thirteen ships carrying twelve hundred picked soldiers to establish “factories” on the Malabar coast, for the collection of the most valuable products of the East, which should be conveyed to Portugal in royal ships every year. And here it is necessary to again insist upon the fact, that the Portuguese trade with India was a royal monopoly. The Portuguese establishments in India were not, as was the case with regard to Holland, England, and France in later years, formed by companies of private merchants, who looked upon the Indian trade as a speculation, but were royal factories, managed by royal officers, and served by royal fleets. Private trade was impossible, and not even dreamed of, because it was considered necessary that these factories should be defended by bodies of troops and served by powerful fleets, which cost an amount of money no private firm could furnish. But these royal factories were intended not only to establish and guard trade, but also to spread Christianity, and for that purpose they included from the first not only soldiers, but missionary priests. Pedro Alvares Cabral was driven by stress of weather to the coast of Brazil, of which country he took possession in the name of his sovereign, and then proceeded to follow the course laid down by Vasco da Gama, and reached Calicut in safety. He immediately established a factory at that place, but the Moplas showed the same unfriendly