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quit Portugal in a continuous stream which poured unchecked into the distant East. Riches, rather than power, were the lure which tempted these men away from their fatherland, and in the pursuit of their object no difficulties or hardships sufficed to daunt them, no humanitarian considerations placed restraint upon their actions, and no regard for the rights of person or property vested in their Oriental victims served to shackle their lawlessness or their licence. They kept faith with no man, not even with their native allies; no sense of honour or love of fair-dealing actuated them in their intercourse with the Asiatics, whether questions of policy or of trade were in point; the cruelties which, on occasion, they committed, can only be recalled with horror; their avarice and cupidity were at once shameless and insatiable; and with very few exceptions they abused their power and their positions, seeking none save ignoble, selfish ends. Therefore it is an ugly chapter in the history of the relations of Europe with the East that holds the record of their doings—doings which have bequeathed a legacy of hatred the force of which is not yet wholly spent. But, through all and in spite of all, it is impossible to withhold from these men the tribute that is due to a dauntless courage and a tremendous self-reliance, or to divest them, squalid though many of their actions were, of the cloak of romance which must ever cling about the memories of those who adventured greatly.

Even in the heyday of their extraordinary success the Portuguese in Asia never had at their back the advantage