Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/48

 whom you see here, and who are in that fleet, will do that which I command; and know for certain, that if I chose, in one single hour your city would be reduced to embers; and if I chose to kill your people, they would all be burned in the fire." Thus the Western nations, under the plea of peace and friendship, and on the pretence at first of only desiring to establish factories for the purposes of peaceful and mutually beneficial commerce, became lords of the East, and for centuries exercised a dominion founded on despotism and injustice over its native sovereigns. The king of Quiloa might remonstrate as he pleased, submission was his only course. "If I had known," he replied, with great warmth and energy, "that you intended to make me a captive, I would not have come, but have fled to the woods, for it is better to be a jackal at large than a greyhound bound with a golden leash." "Go on shore and fly to the woods," said the now exasperated representative of the Christian king—"go on shore to the woods, for I have greyhounds who will catch you there, and fetch you by the ears, and drag you to the beach, and take you away with an iron ring round your neck, and show you throughout India, so that all might see what would be gained by not choosing to be the captive of the king of Portugal." And this Christian speech was accompanied with an order to his captains "to go to their ships, and bring all the crews armed, and go and burn the city."

As De Gama refused to grant the king even one hour for consultation, he submitted, and this submission, having been ratified on a leaf of gold, and