Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/137

THE ALBUQUERQUES AND PACHECO 91 ^ thus showed in 1503 - 1504 that the Portuguese position could best be secured by supporting one rival raja against another and by strengthening a small body of Europeans with disciplined native troops under Eu- ropean command. For the recruitment of such troops good materials existed among the brave military caste of Nairs, the Malabar Christians, and the old Mussul- man settlers, who had little sympathy with the bigoted newcomers from Arabia and Egypt. The Hindu Zamorin began to realize his mistake in allowing himself to be dragged into opposition to the Portuguese by the fanatical Arab traders at his harbour. Pacheco gave an equally useful lesson at Quilon, where the Arabs tried to force the Hindu queen into a similar antagonism. The gallant Pacheco, who had so splendidly maintained the cause of his country against overwhelming odds, was on his return to Lisbon received with royal smiles, and his achievements were preached in every church throughout Portugal. He was then imprisoned on false charges and was released only to live in distress and to die in penury. The next expedition under Lopo Soarez de Alber- garia, in 1504, consisted of thirteen of the largest ships ever built in Portugal. It continued the policy of unsparing destruction against the ports in which the Arab influence prevailed; laid part of Calicut in ruins; burned Cranganore and all the vessels in its harbour, sparing only the houses and churches of the St. Thomas Christians. The richer and more prudent among the Arab traders, hopeless of protection by the coast-rajas