After The Portuguese Merchandize Was Removed To Calicut, The General
Permitted One Man Daily From Each Of The Ships To Go On Shore, To See The
City And To Purchase Any Thing They Had A Mind For; Always Taking
Especial Care That One Party Returned On Board Before Another Landed.
Our
people were courteously received and entertained by the natives, and were
even lodged in their houses occasionally.
They bartered several things on
shore, such as bracelets of brass and copper, pewter, and other European
articles, for the productions of the country, as freely and quietly as if
they had been in Lisbon. Fishermen, and others of the idolaters came off
to the ships, selling fish, cocoa-nuts, and poultry, for biscuit or money;
while others came off with their children, merely to have a sight of our
ships. On all these occasions, the general commanded them to be well
treated and to have food given them, to conciliate the people and to
secure the friendship of the zamorin. This continued till the tenth of
August, during which time the ships had always some of the natives on
board.
Seeing the quietness of the people, and their familiarity with his men,
who never met with any injury from the Moors or nayres, the general
believed the zamorin was willing to preserve friendship and peace with
the subjects of Portugal, and determined upon establishing a factory in
Calicut for the sale of his commodities, although very little of what was
landed had as yet been sold.
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