Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/44

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less laudable objects than commerce. Dom Manuel had resolved to punish "the treachery of the king of Calicut." Ten large ships were therefore prepared, fitted with heavy guns and munitions of war of every kind then known, besides abundance of stores, and with these, and five lateen-rigged caravels, Dom Vasco set sail for India on Lady-day, the 25th March, 1502, to wreak his sovereign's "vengeance" on those contumacious kings of the East who had not treated his subjects with the respect which he felt was due to the representatives of "a great Christian monarch." In this instance, as has been the case before and since in numerous other instances, solemn prayers were offered that the depredations about to be committed in the name of God and under the banner of a Christian king might be attended with success. "I feel in my heart," exclaimed De Gama, addressing his sovereign, "a great desire and inclination to go and make havoc of him (the king of Calicut), and I trust in the Lord that He will assist me, so that I may take vengeance of him, and that your highness may be much pleased." But though "vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord," has been the text of every Christian church from the earliest ages, a solemn mass and numerous prayers were offered in the cathedral, at which the king was present and all his court, to invoke Heaven to strengthen the arm of Dom Gama in his openly-avowed mission of vengeance.