Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/141

 THE PORTUGUESE CONFLICT WITH ISLAM 95 <* the central arena of that conflict, Palestine and the Byzantine Empire, the Moslems remained the victors after centuries of fighting. In its western arena, Spain and Portugal, Christendom had tardily triumphed. The battle-ground was now to be shifted to the Far East. The great Moslem powers realized this fact as clearly as King Emmanuel himself. It was in vain, however, that the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt threatened to slay VIEW OF CALICUT IN 1574. all Christians and demolish the Holy Sepulchre, if the Pope did not stop Portuguese aggression in the East. In vain, too, the Venetians, who found their trade by way of Egypt imperilled, joined the Sultan in trying to frighten his Holiness into putting pressure on the Court of Lisbon. The Pope was somewhat frightened; King Emmanuel not at all. To the Papal representa- tions his Majesty piously replied that his Indian policy tended to the propagation of the Faith and to the ex- tension of the Holy See. He knew that he had turned