Coromandel coast was at Saint Thome near Madras, which received that
name from the supposed discovery of the bones of St. Thomas the
apostle of India. But Nuno da Cunha pushed farther up the coast and
opened up a political connection with the wealthy province of Bengal.

Hitherto the Portuguese relations with Bengal had been purely
commercial. In 1518 the first Portuguese ship, commanded by Joao da
Silveira, reached Chittagong, and he there found Joao Coelho, who had
arrived some months before from Malacca, having explored the eastern
coast of the Bay of Bengal in a {179} native craft. Silveira took a
rich cargo on board, and after his visit it became an established
custom for a Portuguese ship to visit Chittagong every year to
purchase merchandise for Portugal. But Nuno da Cunha wished to do
more than this, and to establish a regular factory and a political
influence in the richest province of India.

An opportunity was afforded him in 1534, when the Muhammadan King of
Bengal asked for the help of a Portuguese force against the Afghan
invader, Sher Shah. Nuno da Cunha promised his assistance, and at
once sent a fleet of nine ships, carrying 400 Portuguese soldiers
under the command of Martim Affonso de Mello Jusarte. The Portuguese
contingent behaved gallantly, and its deeds are described in the
first twelve chapters of the ninth Book of the fourth Decade of Joao
de Barros, the contemporary Portuguese historian. Nuno da Cunha
intended to follow in person, but he was prevented by the condition
of affairs in Gujarat. It happened therefore that Portuguese
authority was never directly established in Bengal. No royal factory
or fortress was erected, and the Portuguese settlement at Hugli,
where goods were collected for shipment to Portugal, was loosely
considered to be subject to the Captain of Ceylon. The Portuguese in
North-Eastern India remained to the end adventurers and merchants,
and were never a ruling power.

The important events which prevented Nuno da Cunha from visiting
Bengal were closely connected with the threatened approach of
Sulaiman the {180} Magnificent's fleet from the Red Sea. It was well
understood that that fleet would sail direct to the coast of Gujarat
as the fleet of Emir Husain had done thirty years before. This
knowledge made Nuno da Cunha very anxious to establish the Portuguese
in a strong position on the coasts of North-Western India. Their main
station in this neighbourhood had hitherto b