the great emporium of all eastern Asiatic commerce,
in 1509. Two years later the city fell before the
Portuguese viceroy Alfonso d'Albuquerque. This
splendid conquest was announced by the king of
Portugal to Pope Leo X. in glowing language al-
most exactly twenty years after the news of
Columbus's first voyage. The long race had been
run and the glittering prize of such unparalleled
efforts was at last in the hands of King Emmanuel:
'The Golden Chersonese, called Malacha by the in-
habitants, situated between the Gangetic and the
Great Gulf, a city of wonderful size with upwards of
twenty-five thousand households, the land most
fertile and most productive of merchandise in India
by means of that most famous market where not
only abound the different spices and all kinds of
perfumes, but also gold and silver, pearls and
precious stones." ¹ To seal this conquest, Albu-
querque despatched a fleet under Antonio d'Abreu
in December, 1511, to the Spice Islands them-
selves, which lay farther to the east. Early in
1512 Abreu visited in turn Amboina and Banda,
and, loading with cloves, returned to Malacca.

-114-