Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/354

 288 APPENDIX at length, about the year 900 A. H. (1495 A. D.), when weakness and disorder found their way into the gov- ernment of the Sultans of the Deccan, the Portuguese Christians received orders from their king to build their forts on the shore of the Indian Ocean. In the year 904 A. H. (1499 A. D.) four ships of the same people arrived at the ports of Kandaria and Kali- kot (Calicut), and having made themselves acquainted with the circumstances of the place, returned to their own country. Next year six vessels came and anchored at Kalikot. The Portuguese petitioned the chief of the place, who was called Samuri (Zamorin), to prohibit the Mohammedans from intercourse with Arabia, re- marking that they would benefit him much more than the Mohammedans could. The Samuri, however, gave no heed to their prayers, but the Christians began to deal harshly with the Mohammedans in all their trans- actions. At last the Samuri (Zamorin), being provoked, gave orders that the Christians should be slain and plun- dered. Seventy persons of rank were destroyed among the Christians, and those who remained embarked on the vessels and thus saved themselves. They landed near the city of Koji (Cochin), the chief of which was at hostility with the Samuri. They obtained his per- mission to build a fort, which they completed hurriedly in a very short time. They demolished a mosque on the seashore and made a Christian church of it. This was the first fort which the Christians built in India. With the same expedition they built a fort at Kanur