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their part, used to visit Goa with their wares without molestation being offered to them. And from the Cape of Comorin castward Alfonso Dalboquerque left the kings of those countries in perfect peace and friendship with the King of Portugal, sending to them ambassadors bearing presents in his name, and they sent similarly to him. Among these I may name the King of Pegu, the King of Siam, the King of Pasé, and the fortress of Malacca, in repose. He remained also in the closest terms of peace with the King of China, and the King of Java, the King of Maluco, with the Gores, and all the other neighbour- ing princes were kept by him in a state of submission and tranquillity."

This account, which is substantially accurate, shows the spread of the Portuguese power during the first fifteen years of the sixteenth century. It must be remembered, however, that trade, rather than territorial possessions, was the lure which tempted the Portuguese adventurers to the East, and that Dalboquerque, more far-seeing than the majority of his contemporaries, did not desire an extensive empire so much as the command of the sea and the acquisition of convenient ports which might be used as business-centres and suitable bases for Portuguese commerce with the eastern world. In Malaya, for example, he was content with the conquest of Malacca, which disposed once for all of a formidable rival; and that accomplished, he did his best to establish friendly relations with the neighbouring kings and countries. Command of the sea and of the trade-routes once secured, the Portuguese had no great hankering after inland possessions, and ac-