Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/357

THE FIRINGIS IN COCHIN 291 (Cannanore), and to their entire satisfaction engaged in the trade of pepper and dry ginger, preventing others from engaging in the same traffic. On this account the Samuri raised an army, and having killed the son of the chief of Cochin, plundered the country and returned. The heirs of those who were slain again collected their forces, raised the standard of sovereignty, and restored the population of the country to its former state. By the advice of the Firingis they built ships of war, and the chief of Cannanore followed their example. This excited the anger of the Samuri, who lavished immense treasure upon an army raised for the purpose of attack- ing Cochin; but as the Firingis always gave their as- sistance to its chief, the Samuri twice returned unsuc- cessful. The chief of Cannanore was at last obliged to send his ambassadors to the kings of Egypt, Jedda, the Dec- can, and Gujarat, complaining to them of the outrages of the Christians and imploring their aid. At the same time he also represented their disrespect toward Islam and thus excited the wrath as well as the zeal of those princes. The Sultan of Egypt, Mansur Ghori, sent one of his officers named Amir Husain with thirteen ships (ghrabs) full of fighting men and munitions of war toward the coasts of Hindustan. Sultan Mahmud of Gujarat also prepared several ships to oppose the Firingis, and despatched them from the ports of Diu, Surat, Goga, Dabal, and Chand. The Egyptian vessels touched first at Diu, and joining those of Gujarat, sailed toward Chand, where the Firingis had assembled. This