But Alboquerque was not satisfied with conquering an appropriate capital for Portuguese India, he determined to make his country supreme throughout the Eastern seas. With this idea he undertook two famous expeditions to the east and to the west. The first Portuguese settlers upon the Malabar coast had been told by the native traders that spices and other produce of Asia could be obtained more cheaply further to the east, and these stories had been repeated to King Emmanuel, who determined to send an expedition to these “Spice Islands,” under the command of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira. This captain reached the Malabar coast in safety, and was favourably received by the Viceroy, Francisco de Almeida, who found an experienced pilot for him, and gave him sixty well-seasoned soldiers, under the command of Francisco Serrão, and Fernão de Magalhães, who, under the name of Magellan, was to leave his mark upon the map of the world. The pilot led the fleet skilfully, and on September 11, 1509, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira anchored off the city of Malacca, where the Malay chief permitted him to found a factory. On his return to India, he reported to Alboquerque on the wealth of Malacca and of the island of Sumatra, and that spices were both better and cheaper there than in India. The great viceroy at once determined to see these rich countries for himself, and, after some sharp fighting with the Malays, he established the Portuguese power in that quarter upon a firm basis, and returned to Goa. His expedition westwards was not so successful. During his former campaign, in which he had taken Ormuz, he had observed that the greater portion of the Asiatic trade, which still followed the old routes, went not by way of the Persian Gulf, but by way of the Red Sea, and that the great _entrepôt_ was the city of Aden. In order to secure the entire monopoly of the Eastern trade for the new Portuguese route round the Cape of Good Hope, it was therefore necessary to occupy Aden. With this intention Alboquerque sailed westwards in 1513, and on Easter Eve he arrived before the city. On Easter Day he attacked it fiercely with a force of over two thousand soldiers; but he failed, and had to content himself with destroying the shipping in the port. He then explored the Red Sea, and returned to Goa for the last time.