Proud and prejudiced - Ferdinandus

THE PORTUGUESE 7
India. In 1511 he conquered Malacca, the town on the western coast of Malaya, and was then in
command of the straits between Sumatra and Malaya.
In the next four years, Albuqueque found the sources of spices in the Moluccas,
commenced trade with China from Macau, closed entry and exit from the Red Sea by
conquering the Island of Socotra, conquered Hormuz, the narrowest point of the Persian Gulf,
and effectively closed the Indian ocean to everyone. At sea, no one could match the Portuguese
who now had a monopoly on the spice trade. Manuel, King of Portugal (1495-1521) was now
able to style himself 'Lord of the Conquest, Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia,
Persia and India'. Every ruler in Europe had to acknowledge that the spices, gold and riches of
Asia were a monopoly of the Portuguese and completely in their control.
In 1517 the Portuguese returned to Ceylon with masons and carpenters and built a fort.
The natives had a mango tree with many leaves which they called kola-amba, so the Portuguese
called the place 'Colombo'. Thus began Portugal's involvement with Ceylon which lasted a
hundred and fifty years. The city, and the name, remain to this day, three hundred and fifty
years after the Portuguese finally departed.
In 1519 a Portuguese sea-captain, Fernao de Magalhaes, who had sailed to the east
under the Portuguese flag, took service with the Spanish. The Portuguese did everything to
prevent him sailing, but as Ferdinand Magellan, he captained the expedition that first
circumnavigated the globe and proved conclusively that the earth was round, the continents
were surrounded by water, and the water was at one level. Magellan lost his life in the
Philippines and his second-in-command completed the epic voyage. The voyage took over three
years; four of the five ships were lost together with 232 of the 250 crew. For the first time
Europeans, Africans, Asians and Americans came into contact with one another's customs,
beliefs, prejudices, superstitions, foods, goods and services. Fifty years of exploration by those
magnificent Portuguese had changed the world for ever.
On land, manpower was the main Portuguese problem. Their young men were
enterprising and fearless but they were few in number. Portugal was a country of only a million
people so military power was combined with militant evangelism. Portuguese colonials were
encouraged to marry into the local population. Albuqueque encouraged his sailors to become
Casadas or married settlers to help stabilise the Empire.
Foreigners were considered low-caste, or 'outcast' by high caste Hindus and Buddhists
so marriage to foreigners was thought of as a disgrace. However to many low-caste Hindu,
Buddhist and Muslim families it meant improved status and economic opportunities. This
mingling of the races produced a 'Mestizo' Asian community who were strongly Catholic,
spoke a Portuguese patois, and were loyal Portuguese.
Between 1498 and 1580, 620 ships left Portugal for India. Two hundred and fifty-six
ships remained to trade in the East, 325 returned safely to Portugal and six in every hundred
were lost at sea. Between 1581 and 1612, with the Dutch and British in active competition, only
one ship in three returned to Lisbon safely. The cost in seamen's lives was therefore enormous
(quoted in V.H.H.Green, 1959, p.77).
Sailors thought of themselves as condemned persons and feared the sea, devils,
shipwrecks, storms, drowning, savages, a lonely life on a lonely shore, pirates and enemies of
every kind, known and unknown. A Portuguese proverb said 'If you want to learn to pray, go to
sea'. Scurvy caused arms, legs and bodies to swell, gums to bleed, and teeth to fall out. A lack
of vitamins resulted in beri-beri, numbness, swell-