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GOA SEIZED BY ALBUQUEEQUE 105 directed against the Mussulman trade in the Malabar ports. Those ports collected the pepper and ginger of the south Indian coast and formed emporiums for trans-shipment of the more precious spices the cinna- mon, mace, and cloves of the farther East. Albu- querque determined not only to bring under strict con- trol the old calling-places of the Asiatic trade-route on the Malabar littoral, but also to concentrate their commerce at a Portuguese harbour further north. He wanted a port which should command alike the trade of the southern and of the northern Bombay coast. He found what he wanted at Goa, and in 1510 he seized it. Its position, half-way between the ancient trade road- steads in Malabar and in Gujarat, enabled the Portu- guese to dominate the whole shore-line of western India from the Gulf of Cambay to Cape Comorin. The old ports of Quilon, Cochin, Cannanore, and Calicut had to submit to the restrictions placed on them in the interests of Goa. No Mussulman ship could safely trade in Malabar waters without a pass from the Chris- tians. The conquest of Goa put the seal on Portuguese naval supremacy along the southwest Indian coast. It also involved territorial rule in India. Albuquerque's third series of operations struck at the sources of the Mussulman trade in the Far East. The Malabar ports were merely intermediaries for the great volume of Moslem commerce which had its origin in Malacca or the Spice Archipelago and its terminus at the Egyptian ports of the Red Sea. Albuquerque resolved to cut off that commerce at its fountain-head