Chap. VII.] PORTUGUESE EXPEDITION UNDER CABRAL. Ido
whether the Christians were thieves, as the Moors had persuaded him, he weighed ..ij. isou. anchor and set sail on his homeward voyage.
Two days after their departure, wlien the ships were lying becalmed a league De Cawn
attiicked
from Calicut, the zamorin's fleet of forty vessels was seen approaching, full of by tiio soldiers. Their object was obvious; but the Portuguese, by means of their tiaet. ordnance, managed to keep them at bay till a gale fortunately sprung up, and they got clear otf, though not without being pursued for an hour and a half De Gama, for a short time, kept near the coast ; and when within twelve leagues of Goa, received the alarming intelligence that the whole coast was in motion, and that in all its harbours vessels were being fitted out for the purpose of inter- cepting him. Longer delay, therefore, seemed dangerous, and he at once put out to sea. The voyage home was tedious and disastrous; but ultimately Belem Anive-sin
Portugal.
was reached in September, 1499, after an absence of two years and two months. Of the original crew, only fifty returned alive. The news of their arrival was hailed with extraordinary demonstrations of joy throughout the kingdom ; and De Gama, after being conducted into Lisbon in triumphal procession, was raised to new honours and liberally pensioned. So elated was King Emanuel with the success of the expedition, that lie forthwith added to his titles that of Lord of the Conquest and Navigation of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and the Indies.
No time was lost in fitting out a new expedition on a more extended scale, .socond It consisted of tliirteen vessels, containing 1200 men, and sailed from Belem rvpciitioi. on the 9th of March, 1500, under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral. Amonjr the captains were Bartolommeo Diaz, the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, and his brother, Diego Diaz, who had been factor to Vasco de Gama. The Canaries were seen on the 1 8th ; but from them the coiu-se was so far west- ward that the first land they reached was a new continent, the discovery of which, though little importance ai)pears to have been attached to it at the time, lUtimately proved the most valuable acquisition made by the crown of Portugal. It was Brazil. The expedition again sailed on the 2d of May for the Cape of Good Hope, but was thrown into considerable alarm by the appearance of a comet, which continued to increfise for ten days, and shone so brightly as to be visible both day and night. The di.siisters, of wliich it was dreaded as the fore- runner, seemed to be realized by the bursting of a storm with suoli suddenness and fury that, before the sails could be furled, four of the vessels, one of them commanded by Bartolommeo Diaz, simk, with every soul on board, and the others were so shattered and filled with water that, had not their .sails been so torn as to leave nothing but bare poles, they must certainly have foundered.
Dreadful as the storm was, it was ultimately weathered, and Cabral found, ^>torm <>n on its abating, that the Cape of Good Hope was already doubled. Continuing *g3 Hope, along the south-east coast of Africii, he fell in with two vessels at anchor near Sofala. They took fright and made for the shore, but were pursued and over- taken. They proved to be Moorish vessels bound for Melinda. As the Portu-
