The Abbé Raynal.
Scarcely had Columbus made known the New World when the Portuguese, under Vasco de Gama, opened the sea-path to the East Indies. Those affluent and magnificent regions, which had so long excited the wonder and cupidity of Europe, and whose gems, spices, and curious fabrics, had been introduced overland by the united exertions of the Arabs, the Venetians, and Genoese, were now made accessible by the great highway of the ocean; and the Pope generously gave all of them to the Portuguese! The language of the Pontiff was like the language of another celebrated character to our Saviour, and founded on about as much real right: “All these kingdoms will I give unto thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” The Portuguese were nothing loath. They were, in the expressive language of a great historian, “all on fire for plunder and the propagation of their religion!” Away, therefore, they hastened, following the sinuous guidance of those African coasts which they had already traced out—on which they had already commenced that spoliation and traffic in men which for three centuries was to grow only more and more extensive, dreadful, and detestable—“those countries where,” says M. Malte Brun, “tyranny and ignorance have not had the power to destroy the inexhaustible fecundity of the soil, but have made them, down to the present times, the theatre of eternal robbery, and one vast market of human blood.”
They landed in Calicut, under Gama, in 1498, and speedily gave sufficient indications of the object of their visit, and the nature of their character. But in India they had more formidable obstacles to their spirit of dominance and extermination than they and the Spaniards had found in the New World. They beheld themselves on the limits of a vast region, inhabited by a hundred millions of people—countries of great antiquity, of a higher civilization, and under the rule of active and military princes. Populous cities, vast and ancient temples, palaces, and other public works; a native literature, science handed down from far-off times, and institutions of a fixed and tenacious caste, marked them as a people not so easily to be made a prey of as the Mexicans or Peruvians. Peaceful as were the habits, and bloodless as were the religion and the social principles of a vast body of the Hindoos, their rulers, whether the descendants of the great Persian and Tartar conquerors, and Mahomedans in faith, or of their own race and religion, were disposed enough to resist any foreign aggression. At sea, indeed, swarmed the Moorish fleets, which had long enjoyed the monopoly of the trade of these rich and inexhaustible regions; but these they soon subdued. Their conquests and cruelties were therefore necessarily confined chiefly to the coasts and to the paradisiacal islands which stud the Indian seas, and, as Milton has beautifully expressed it, cast their spicy odours abroad, till
Many a league
Cheered with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles.
We must take a rapid view of the Portuguese in India,—for our object is not a history of European conquests, but of European treatment of the natives of the countries they have entered; and the atrocities of the Portuguese in the East are too notorious to require tracing minutely, and step by step in their progress. Every reader is familiar with the transactions between Gama and the Zamorin of Calicut, through the splendid poem of Camoens. Alvarez Cabral, the discoverer of Peru, who succeeded him, was by no means particular in his policy. On the slightest suspicion of evil intention, he fell upon the people and made havoc amongst them. The inhabitants of Calicut, between the intrigues of the Moorish merchants and those of the Portuguese adventurers, were always the dupes and the sufferers. They attempted to drive out the Portuguese, and Cabral, in revenge, burnt all the Arabian vessels in the harbour, cannonaded the town, and then sailed, first to Cochin, and then to Cananor. These and other places being tributary to the Zamorin, received them as saviours, and enabled them to build forts, to gain command of the seas, and drive from them the ships of the Zamorin and the Moors. But the celebrated Alphonso Albuquerque made the most rapid strides, and extended the conquests of the Portuguese there beyond any other commander. He narrowly escaped with his life in endeavouring to sack and plunder Calicut. He seized on Goa, which thenceforward became the metropolis of all the Portuguese settlements in India. He conquered Molucca, and gave it up to the plunder of his soldiers. The fifth part of the wealth thus thievishly acquired, was reserved for the king, and was purchased on the spot by the merchants for 200,000 pieces of gold. Having established a garrison in the conquered city, he made a traitor Indian, who had deserted from the king of Molucca, and had been an instrument in the winning of the place, supreme magistrate; but again finding Utimut, the renegade, as faithless to himself, he had him and his son put to death, even though 100,000 pieces of gold, a bait that was not easily resisted by these Christian marauders, was offered for their lives. He then proceeded to Ormuz in the Persian Gulph, which was a great harbour for the Arabian merchants; reduced it, placed a garrison in it, seized on fifteen princes of the blood, and carried them off to Goa. Such were some of the deeds of this celebrated general, whom the historians in the same breath in which they record these unwarrantable acts of violence, robbery and treachery, term an excellent and truly glorious commander. He made a descent on the isle of Ceylon, and detached a fleet to the Moluccas, which established a settlement in those delightful regions of the cocaa, the sago-tree, the nutmeg, and the clove. The kings of Persia, of Siam, Pegu, and others, alarmed at his triumphant progress, sought his friendship; and he completed the conquest of the Malabar coast. With less than forty thousand troops the Portuguese struck terror, says the historian, “into the empire of Morocco, the barbarous nations of Africa, the Mamelucs, the Arabians, and all the eastern countries from the island of Ormuz to China.” How much better for their pretensions to Christianity, and for their real interests, if they had struck them with admiration of that faith and integrity, and of those noble virtues which Christianity can inspire, and which were never yet lost on the attention of nations where they have been righteously displayed. But the Portuguese unfortunately did not understand what Christianity was. Their notions of religion made avarice, lust, and cruelty, all capable of dwelling together in one heart; and, in the language of their own historians, the vessels bound for the east were crowded with adventurers who wanted to enrich themselves, secure their country, and make proselytes. They were on the eve of opening a most auspicious intercourse with China, when some of these adventurers, under Simon Andrada, appeared on the coast. This commander treated the Chinese in the same manner as the Portuguese had been in the habit of treating all the people of Asia. He built a fort without permission, in the island of Taman, from whence he took opportunities of pillaging, and extorting money from all the ships bound from, or to, all the ports of China. He carried off young girls from the coast; he seized upon the men and made them slaves; he gave himself up to the most licentious acts of piracy, and the most shameful dissoluteness. His soldiers and sailors followed his example with avidity; and the Chinese, enraged at such outrages, fell upon them, drove them from the coast, and for a long time refused all overtures of trade from them.
In Japan, they were for a time more fortunate. They exported, in exchange for European goods or commodities, from India, gold, silver, and copper to the value of about 634,000l. annually. They married the richest heiresses, and allied themselves to the most powerful families.
“With such advantages,” says the Abbé Raynal, “the avarice as well as the ambition of the Portuguese might have been satisfied. They were masters of the coast of Guinea, Arabia, Persia, and the two peninsulas of India. They were possessed of the Moluccas, Ceylon, and the isles of Sunda, while their settlement at Macao insured to them the commerce of China and Japan. Throughout these immense regions, the will of the Portuguese was the supreme law. Earth and sea acknowledged their sovereignty. Their authority was so absolute, that things and persons were dependent upon them, and moved entirely by their directions. No native, nor private person dared to make voyages, or carry on trade, without obtaining their permission and passport. Those who had this liberty granted them, were prohibited trading in cinnamon, ginger, pepper, timber, and many other articles, of which the conquerors reserved to themselves the exclusive benefit.
“In the midst of so much glory, wealth, and conquest, the Portuguese had not neglected that part of Africa which lies between the Cape of Good Hope and the Red Sea, and in all ages has been famed for the richness of its productions. The Arabians had been settled there for several ages; they had formed along the coast of Zanguebar several small independent states, abounding in mines of silver and gold. To possess themselves of this treasure was deemed by the Portuguese an indispensable duty. Agreeable to this principle, these Arabian merchants were attacked and subdued about the year 1508. Upon their ruin was established an empire extending from Sofala as far as Melinda, of which the island of Mozambique was made the centre.
“These successes properly improved, might have formed a power so considerable that it could not have been shaken; but the vices and follies of some of their chiefs, the abuse of riches and power, the wantonness of victory, the distance of their own country, changed the character of the Portuguese. Religious zeal, which had added so much force and activity to their courage, now produced in them nothing but ferocity. They made no scruple of pillaging, cheating, and enslaving the idolaters. They supposed that the pope, in bestowing the kingdoms of Asia on the Portuguese monarchs, had not withholden the property of individuals from their subjects. Being absolute masters of the Eastern seas, they extorted a tribute from the ships of every country; they ravaged the coasts, insulted the princes, and became the terror and scourge of all nations.