Seen along rivers and canals in China, the Philippines, and India, such clumsy devices of tilting poles as this at Malabar let a net down into the water. Then bait is scattered. When fish swim in, the net is lifted. Hindu relatives, thus creating a Mohammedan monopoly of maritime trade. And Calicut's trade was no mean item. For many years this port, where no European ship had anchored until Gama came, had shipped the spices that graced the tables of the rich in every civilized city of Europe. To-day sugar has replaced the spices as the world's favorite flavor. And few pause to consider that the lowly pepper vine, the ginger root, and the cinnamon tree beckoned the Spaniards and the Portuguese, then the Dutch and the English, to some of the most daring voyages and greatest discoveries in the annals of geography. The spices which Europe was eating were costly. In England, at this period, a pound of cloves was worth two cows. The middleman's profit is no new problem. Ships of Mecca's merchant fleet put out from Calicut with cargoes of cinnamon, already transported from Ceylon, cloves from Malacca, and ginger and pepper from nearer sources, in India. It took weeks to voyage to Jidda, for these vessels sailed before the wind; they could not tack. There they paid duties and transshipped the goods to smaller vessels bound for Gulf of Suez ports. Upon arrival, more customs were paid, and the goods were loaded on camels' backs for a 10-day trip to Cairo. Cairo took toll and transferred the spices from camel carriers to river boats plying down the Nile to Rosetta, which assessed its levy and loaded the goods once more on the lumbering camel freight. Thence it was only a day's journey to Alexandria, where the goods were piled up to await the coming of a galley from Genoa or Venice. From these cities they filtered through more profits and tariffs to the ultimate buyers of Europe. Thus some of the tolls these spices paid bought gold cuspidors for the betel chewers of Calicut, subsidized a North Africa sovereign who had convinced the Grand Sultan of Egypt that he was waging war on Prester John, and helped build the palaces and paint the pictures which lure tourists to Italy to this day. IN INDIA CASTE IS OFTEN DENOTED BY PAINT MARKS The early Portuguese explorers, at first taking the people of India to be a class of Christians, thought the Indian priests' white paint was a form of holy water. This Brahman of Vasco da Gama realized his coming was bound to incite jealousy among the Mecca traders and declined to enter the harbor of Calicut for fear of treachery. Instead he sailed to a cove 15 miles north, where he went ashore and started back to Calicut in a palanquin. THE "AUTO TAX" OF CALICUT Palanquin owners, he later learned, had to pay the king a fee, just as modern car owners must pay an automobile tax. Some of these vehicles were luxurious. A "limousine" litter, for example, consisted of a mattress suspended by cloth from poles with silvermounted ends. The mattress was made of silks threaded with gold and ornamented by heavy fringes. Silken cushions were provided for the passenger, who was propelled by a 6-man-power motor. On the way the Portuguese were entertained at the home of a native dignitary with a meal of buttered rice served on green fig leaves, and boiled fish. At Calicut they first were taken to a Hindu temple. They saw a stone structure with tiled floors, which they entered by a gate hung with seven tinkling bells. They thought the edifice a church and construed the representations of Hindu deities as Christian saints crudely portrayed, since some had protruding teeth and others had four or more arms. One member of the party wrote: "They threw holy water over us and gave us some white earth, which the Christians of this country are in the habit of putting on their foreheads, breasts, around the neck, and on the forearms." The "white earth," of course, was the mixture of ashes, cow dung, and dust used by the Brahmans as an accompaniment of prayer. The "Christians" were Hindus. Then, according to another narrator, Gama went to a house set Photograph by Nicholas and Company THE VIRA-BHADRA, MADURA, INDIA Gama's pious sailors mistook the sacred figures and carvings of Hindu gods for crude effigies of Christian saints. The elephant figures prominently among India's sacred symbols. A BETTER VIEW OF THE AZORES THAN VASCO GAMA HAD Over these islands of windmills, pineapples, and Portuguese the ZR-3 (now the airship Los Angeles) flew on her way from Germany to the United States. The Portuguese fort is on Terceira Island. aside for one of his traders, to dress for the reception. He emerged in a long coat of red satin with brocade lining, over a blue tunic bordered with gold. From a red belt hung a handsome dagger and across his shoulders was a wide enamel collar. The Portuguese proceeded through the streets, followed by the ships' trumpeters in red and white liveries, with their burnished trumpets decorated with silken streamers. CROWDS BLOCK EXPLORERS' PROGRESS Throngs crowded the thoroughfares, peered from every roof top, and finally almost blocked the visitors' progress, until there came an official sent out from the king's household. He was a sort of royal secret service guard who was empowered to sever the head of any uninvited guest. He helped clear a way for the visitors, but before the palace the throng grew so great that several natives were injured. It was late at night when Vasco da Gama concluded his famous first visit to the Zamorin (see text, page 504), and rejoined his companions, who awaited him on a balcony. They were busily ex four wicks fed by oil, mounted in candelabra fashion. Another blinding tropical rain had set in and the streets ran with water, so Gama in his finery was taken to the nearest available home as fast as a palanquin could carry him. The next day, Tuesday, he wrapped his presents for the Zamorin, in spite of wellmeant warnings that they were inadequate, and on Wednesday he presented them. On this visit he was kept waiting four hours, and, though the Zamorin was frankly scornful of his gifts, he inquired what Portugal had to sell and told Gama he might land his merchandise and dispose of it. The Moors, meanwhile, had been as busy as the Portuguese. They cautioned the king's ministers that Gama either was a fugitive from justice or a spy sent out in the guise of a merchant. GAMA DECLINES TO RIDE BAREBACK Some narrators insist they also bribed the bodyguard the king assigned to conduct the Portuguese back to their ships. Others interpret Gama's difficulties to The first of these occurred on Friday, when a horse without a saddle was brought around for Gama to ride. He refused the mount and demanded a palanquin, which was provided. Probably no slight was intended, since riding without saddles was a common practice in Calicut. On the way to Pandarani his suspicions further were aroused by the disappearance of some of his companions. Later it developed they had been unable to keep up with the fleet-footed palanquin bearers and had lost their way. When they arrived the sun had set and Gama was requested to wait until next day before going out to his ships. He grew so angry he could eat no dinner. The next day his guards suggested he send word to the ships to approach nearer the shore, so they could row out to them more easily, and Gama, scenting treachery, sent word to his brother to keep the ships well out of the harbor. Armed men patrolled the commander's house, which he construed to mean detention, but they may have been intended only as a guard. It was several days before he was rowed out to his ships and the goods were brought ashore. There was no mistaking then the attitude of the Moslems. They depreciated the goods, refused to trade, and when they saw a Portuguese they ostentatiously spit on the ground. The Zamorin, however, showed his good faith when this was reported to him. He first sent Hindu merchants to look at the goods, and when they did not buy he ordered the merchandise conveyed at his expense to Calicut, so that it might be more accessible to customers. Selling unknown goods in a strange land with no fixed exchange rates entailed an interesting procedure. FIXING A SCALE OF WEIGHTS AND The commander appointed a factor, or steward, and a clerk, and sent in first "a chest of one hundredweight of unwrought branch coral, and as much of vermilion, and a barrel of quicksilver, fifty pigs of copper, twenty strings of large cut coral, and as many of amber, and five Portuguese of gold, fifty cruzados, and a hundred testoons in silver." Also he set up a table of green cloth, to be a sort of counter, and a wooden balance and weights. The Zamorin's overseer examined each article and fixed a price in native money. Then, since the Portuguese wished also to use their own currency, he assessed each kind of coin they had, proved it with touchstones, which he handled most deftly, and thus a schedule of prices was drawn up and also a series of weights was agreed upon. WHEN KINDNESS PROVED A FAULT In accord with Gama's instructions, there was no haggling; his steward acçepted the rates and weights without question, though it soon was apparent that the Portuguese were to be heavy losers. Furthermore, also acting under orders, the steward accepted what goods were delivered him without questioning the quality. One day the Portuguese ordered ginger, and the spice came heavily smeared with red clay. This was in accord with export practice, because the clay preserved the strength of the condiment; but the clay was far in excess of the usual amount. He mildly requested an additional consignment, with more ginger and less clay, explaining he was not protesting the price. but that he wished good samples of each product to present to King Manoel. All this had the desired effect upon the Zamorin; he was elated at such profitable customers. But it had an unexpected boomerang. The Moors conveyed to him a message which said in effect: "We told you so. These people can't be merchants. And they are not fools. They must be spies or pirates masquerading as traders. Anyway, what can Your Majesty hope to gain from a market which it takes a year's voyage to reach ?" While this wholesale trading was going on, small parties of sailors went ashore daily to hawk clothing and bracelets to swell the fund for buying samples of spices and gems. Neither procedure proved profitable; so Gama, being ready to depart, sent a pointblank request to the Zamorin for certain specified gifts for his king. Diogo Dias, his emissary, brought back no presents |