Note 62 — Chapter X · CALICUT.
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Who, it may be observed, are the navigators and traders par excellence of the Eastern world. The Jews and Phœnicians generally confined themselves to the Mediterranean and the parts about the Red Sea. The Turks were an inland nation; the Hindoos have ever been averse to any but coasting voyages, and the religion of Zoroaster forbade its followers to cross the seas. But the Arab is still what he was—the facile princeps of Oriental sailors.
As a proof of how strong the followers of Mohammed mustered on the Malabar coast, we may quote Barthema, who asserts, that when the Portuguese landed at Calicut, they found not less than fifteen thousand of them settled there. Camoens also tells us how the friendly and disinterested plans of his hero were obstructed and thwarted by the power and influence of these infidel Moors.