96 FIEST STRUGGLE FOE THE INDIAN SEAS the flank of Islam, and that he had the sympathy of Catholic Europe in this final and greatest of the Cru- sades. The force entrusted to Almeida was on a scale ade- quate to the work to be done. Twenty-two ships, of which thirteen were to remain on guard in India, car- ried with them a huge store of munitions of war and 1500 soldiers besides their crews. In four years (1505 - 1509) Almeida and his gallant son Loureno overthrew the remaining power of the Arabs at the Malabar ports and defeated another great effort of the Zamorin at sea, destroying his fleet of eighty-four ships and 120 galleys and- slaying three thousand Mussulmans. In 1506 Lourenc.0 carried the Portuguese influence south- ward to Ceylon and received the homage of the native prince to the King of Portugal. The Ceylonese ruler agreed to pay a tribute of cinnamon and elephants, in return for which the Portuguese were to defend him against all enemies. Meanwhile Egypt was arming. The Mamluk Sul- tan, finding Venetian intrigues and papal remonstrances alike powerless to stay the Portuguese progress, sent forth in 1508 a great expedition under Admiral Amir Husain (the Mir Hogem or Mir Hozem of the Portu- guese records), with instructions to effect a coalition with the Indian Mussulman sea powers. The junction with the Moslem fleet of the northern Bombay coast had already been made, when Lourenco Almeida was ordered with a few ships to prevent their further union with the remnant of the Calicut, or southern, squadron.
