Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/129

 MOSLEM POWER WEAKENED IN SOUTHERN INDIA 83 1398 - 1399 had left the Delhi monarchy in ruins, and the next century passed in flickering attempts to re- vive it. Some of the Delhi Sultans ruled only a few miles around their capital. Hindu princes and Mussul- man soldiers of fortune set up for themselves, till at length in 1526 the Moghul invasion from Central Asia swept away the wreck of the old Indo-Moslem dynas- ties. Yet another thirty years of feebleness elapsed before the accession of Akbar, the real founder of the Moghul empire. When Vasco da Gama landed in 1498 the old order of things alike in northern and in southern India was passing away, the new order had not yet emerged. The Portuguese, therefore, found a free hand in dealing with the petty coast chiefs. The Zamorin of Calicut received them graciously and looked forward to an increased customs-revenue from their trade. But the foreign Arab merchants, then the most powerful community at his port, perceived that the new ocean- route must imperil their ancient monopoly by way of the Red Sea. They accordingly incited the court offi- cials to intrigues which nearly ended in a treacherous massacre. At length Da Gama departed with rich car- goes, presents, and a letter from the Zamorin to the Portuguese king proposing an interchange of com- merce. On the passage up the coast, before striking west for Africa, Da Gama lay in at Cannanore. Here the raja, being on a still smaller scale than the Zamorin, is said to have loaded the Portuguese with gifts " more spices and merchandise than the vessels could