We have purposely omitted, in this rapid sketch of the establishment and
progress of the Portuguese commerce in the East, any notice of the smaller
discoveries which they made at the same time. These, however, it will be
proper to advert to before we proceed to another subject.
In the year 1512, a Portuguese navigator was shipwrecked on the Maldives:
he found them already in the occasional possession of the Arabians, who
came thither for the cocoa fibres, of which they formed their cordage, and
the cowries, which circulated as money from Bengal to Siam. The Portuguese
derived from them immense quantities of these cowries, with which they
traded to Guinea, Congo, and Benin. On their conquest, they obliged the
sovereigns of this island to pay them tribute in cinnamon, pearls, precious
stones, and elephants. The discovery and conquest of the Malaccas has
already been noticed, and its importance in rendering them masters of the
trade of both parts of India, which had been previously carried on
principally by the merchants of Arabia, Persia from the West, and of China
from the East. In Siam, gum lac, porcelain, and aromatics enriched the
Portuguese, who were the first Europeans who arrived in this and the
adjacent parts of this peninsula.
In the year 1511 the Portuguese navigators began to explore the eastern
archipelago of India, and to make a more complete and accurate examination
of some islands, which they had previously barely discovered.
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