Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/170

 122 THE PORTUGUESE POLICY IN THE EAST there may be on his lands to the King our Lord," to harbour no enemies of Portugal nor to make war on its friends, to give up his trade with the Arabian coast, to allow none of his subjects to sail thither, and to keep no war-vessels or even armed rowboats. By this time Calicut, her chief, and her commerce were in the grip of the Portuguese fort. Other towns on the Indian seaboard must be dealt with more briefly. The Portuguese in their struggle with Calicut entered into engagements with rival coast- chiefs which they could not always fulfil. In 1500- 1501 Cabral, having signed a treaty with the friendly Cochin raja, promised some day to make him Zamorin of Calicut. After wars and distresses suffered by the little State in the Portuguese cause, the Cochin raja thus pours out his sorrows in a letter to King Em- manuel in 1513. " Your Highness sent me a golden crown, as a sign that I was crowned the chief king of the whole of India. . . . And your governor especially crowned me as king, and he declared on oath that he would make me the chief king of all India, and assist me against any one who should come upon me. And I also promised to assist him against wl ever should come upon them and to stand to the defence of your fortress until death, and in this manner they swore to it by oath in the church." Yet after twelve years these fine promises remained empty words, and here was Albuquerque in 1513 making treaties with Calicut to the detriment of Cochin. Quilon, with its Portuguese factory and fort since