The Zamorin naturally refused to do that and Gama petulantly threatened to bomb the shoreline of Calicut (If one could check Vasco’s BP now, you would have recorded exceedingly high readings, possibly exacerbated by the intake of large amounts of salt on the voyage).īack to the present – Residents of Calicut may have noticed a number of coconut trees lining the Calicut beach. Gama of course would have none of it, he wanted the entire 4,000 or so Arab (Cairo) Muslim population of Calicut, ‘the firangi traders’ expelled immediately.

The Zamorin’s letter indicated that they now had a clean slate from where the two parties could continue negotiations. The Zamorin requested a compromise and he agreed that the Gama had reasons to retaliate against the attack on the Portuguese factory and the Gama had retaliated in kind by destroying the Meri.

By this time Paio explained to the Kolathiri king that the Gama was acting on his own and this made the Kolathiri write a letter to Vasco stating that while he valued friendship with Gama, his intention was to lodge a formal complaint to Don Manuel about his actions.Īnyway the irritated admiral was by now wondering what to do to the Zamorin, for he had professed peace in a recent missive. The infuriated Gama departed the shore, and bombarded a small port on the way in anger (more like a tantrum) thinking it was a locale under the Zamorin’s protection, only to realize later that it was not. It was an exhibition of fiery tantrum which followed, which was quickly quenched by Paio Rodriguez who arrived to continue relations with the merchants. The ensuing trade agreement did not satisfy the Gama and he was upset not only with the prices, but also the fact that Mappila merchants were being sent to negotiate with him. His first port of call was Cannanore where he summoned the Kolathiri chieftain to the dock and conducted the interview in the most uncivil and arrogant fashion, but we won’t get into that, for it is not quite important and we have already determined that Vasco was not the most diplomatic or civil of persons. The cries and death throes of the dying were of no concern to him and he now decided to take his bearings and head south, hugging the coast line. However, the plunder of the Meri did indeed give him a good amount of satisfaction he had after all decimated a number of heathen and amassed riches from the burning ship. As we saw in the previous article, Vasco was in a very disgruntled and violent mood when he arrived at the shores in Malabar.

What goods did vasco da gama bring back