undless energy and vast ambition. He
first attacked Calicut and reduced it to ashes. Then he turned his
attention to Goa, which he conquered, and which became the commercial
capital of the Portuguese in India for the next hundred years. Not
only this, but it was soon the wealthiest city on the face of the earth
and the seat of the government. Albuquerque's next exploit was yet
more brilliant and yet more important.

[Illustration: A SHIP OF JAVA AND THE CHINA SEAS IN THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY. From Linschoten's _Navigatio ac Itinerarium_, 1598.]

In 1509 he had sent a Portuguese explorer Sequira with a small squadron
to make discoveries in the East. He was to cross the Bay of Bengal
and explore the coast of Malacca. Sequira reached the coast and found
it a centre for trade from east and west, "most rich and populous."
But he had reason to suspect the demonstrations of friendship by the
king of these parts, and refused to attend a festival prepared in his
honour. This was fortunate, for some of his companions who landed for
trade were killed. He sailed about the island of Sumatra, "the first
land in which we knew of men's flesh being eaten by certain people
in the mountains who gild their teeth. In their opinion the flesh of
the blacks is sweeter than that of whites." Many were the strange tales
brought back to Cochin by Sequira from the new lands--rivers of
oil--hens with flesh as black as ink--people with tails like sheep.

Anyhow, Albuquerque resolved that Malacca should belong to the
Portuguese, and with nineteen ships and fourteen hundred fighting men
he arrived off the coast of Sumatra, spreading terror and dismay among
the multitudes that covered the shore. The work of destruction was
short, though the King of Pahang and King Mahomet came out in person
on huge elephants to help in the defence of their city. At last every
inhabitant of the city was driven out or slain, and the Portuguese
plundered the city to their hearts' content. The old historian waxes
eloquent on the wealth of the city, and the laden ships started back,
leaving a fort and a church under the care of Portuguese conquerors.
The amount of booty mattered little, as a violent storm off the coast
of Sumatra disposed of several ships and a good deal of treasure.

The fall of Malacca was one of vast importance to the Portuguese. Was
it not the key to the Eastern gate of the Indian Ocean--the gate through
which the whole commerce of the Spice Islands, the