of age, and who soon made for
himself a reputation for daring and valour unequalled in the East,
bombarded and practically destroyed the city of Quilon. The young
captain then visited the island of Ceylon, which had not yet been
explored by the Europeans. The native prince on whose coasts he
landed received Lourenco with great pomp, recognised the suzerainty
of the King of Portugal and promised to provide the Portuguese ships
with cargoes of cinnamon. From Ceylon also Dom Lourenco brought the
first elephant ever sent to Portugal.

After his return to Cochin the Viceroy despatched his gallant son to
meet a fresh fleet which had been prepared by the Zamorin of Calicut.
On March 18, 1506, with but eleven ships of war under {36} his
command, Lourenco de Almeida attacked the Zamorin's fleet of
eighty-four ships and a hundred and twenty prahs or galleys. The
sea-fight which followed was chiefly an artillery combat; most of the
Zamorin's ships were sunk, and it is said that 3000 Muhammadans
perished and not more than six or eight Portuguese. The young captain
sailed northward with his victorious fleet, but was repulsed in an
attack on Dabhol, an important port belonging to the Muhammadan King
of Bijapur. In the following year Dom Lourenco de Almeida continued
his series of victories, and on November 23, 1507, with the
assistance of Tristao da Cunha, who had just arrived in India, he
sacked the port of Ponani, then, as it still is, a religious centre
of the Mopla community.

Meanwhile the danger which King Emmanuel had foreseen was coming to
pass. The Mameluke Sultan of Egypt perceived that his income from the
passage of the Indian trade through Cairo was seriously diminishing,
and he resolved to make a great effort to expel the daring European
intruders from the Eastern seas. He therefore prepared a large fleet,
which was placed under the command of the Emir Husain, an admiral of
high reputation, whom the Portuguese chroniclers call Mir Hocem. This
was the first regular war fleet which the Portuguese had yet met. The
fleets of the Zamorin, which Pacheco and Dom Lourenco de Almeida had
defeated, consisted only of merchant ships roughly adapted for war by
the Mopla traders of Calicut. The fleet of {37} the Emir Husain, on
the other hand, was a regular war fleet; it was largely manned by
sailors who had experience in fighting with Christian fleets in the
Mediterranean, and who understood the use of artillery quite as well
as