92 FIRST STRUGGLE FOR THE INDIAN SEAS against the yearly squadrons from Portugal, put their remaining wealth on board a great flotilla to carry them back to the Persian Gulf and Egypt. But Soarez caught the rich fleet before it could escape, captured seventeen of its ships, slew two thousand men, and broke the Arab supremacy on the Malabar coast. During the six years since Da Gama had returned to Lisbon in 1499, Portuguese commerce had passed through four stages. First: the original plan was to regard the ships as floating factories which should buy up spices at the Indian ports and convey them to Lis- bon. Second: in 1500-1501 Cabral established a per- manent agency on shore; in 1502 Da Gama's second expedition increased the shore agencies, and made se- cret provision for their defence. Third: in 1503 Albu- querque no longer thought it needful to bury the Portu- guese cannon underground, and turned the Cochin agency into a fortified factory with a garrison of Euro- pean and native soldiers under Portuguese officers, while his colleague Saldanha struck at the base of the Arab trade at the mouth of the Red Sea. Fourth: in 1504 - 1505, Pacheco and Soarez dealt a decisive blow to the Arab interest at the South Indian ports, cut off. the retreat of the Arab traders to the Persian Gulf, and secured to Portugal the command of the Malabar waters. History, ancient or modern, records no achievement of "armed commerce so rapid, so brilliant, and so fraught with lasting results. Portugal in the first enthusiasm of her great discovery had, under a resolute monarch,
