As none of the merchants would buy our goods, the general supposed that this was occasioned by their being lodged at Pandarane, where none of the merchants of Calicut resided; and requested leave, by a messenger, from the zamorin, to have the goods removed to the city. This permission was immediately granted, and the king issued orders to the kutwal to see them removed, and even to pay the persons who carried them, that nothing belonging to the king of Portugal might be subject to any charges in his country. The general would not trust himself any more on shore, although Bontaybo, who frequently came off to visit him, advised him to wait on the king, lest the great credit of the Moors might again prevail over his mind. But considering this man as a Moor, the general never put much trust in him, nor informed him of his intentions; yet always received him kindly, and gave him money and other gifts, that he might bring him intelligence of what was passing on shore.

After the Portuguese merchandize was removed to Calicut, the general permitted one man daily from each of the ships to go on shore, to see the city and to purchase any thing they had a mind for; always taking especial care that one party returned on board before another landed. Our people were courteously received and entertained by the natives, and were even lodged in their houses occasionally. They bartered several things on shore, such as bracelets of brass and copper, pewter, and other European articles, for the productions of the country, as freely and quietly as if they had been in Lisbon. Fishermen, and others of the idolaters came off to the ships, selling fish, cocoa-nuts, and poultry, for biscuit or money; while others came off with their children, merely to have a sight of our ships. On all these occasions, the general commanded them to be well treated and to have food given them, to conciliate the people and to secure the friendship of the zamorin. This continued till the tenth of August, during which time the ships had always some of the natives on board.

Seeing the quietness of the people, and their familiarity with his men, who never met with any injury from the Moors or nayres, the general believed the zamorin was willing to preserve friendship and peace with the subjects of Portugal, and determined upon establishing a factory in Calicut for the sale of his commodities, although very little of what was landed had as yet been sold. By this means, he hoped to lay a sure foundation for the establishment of trade, against the next expedition which the king his master might send, if GOD pleased to send him home with the intelligence of the discovery. Accordingly, with the advice and concurrence of the captains and other principal officers of the fleet, he sent a present by Diego Diaz to the zamorin, consisting of scarfs of different colours, silks, corals, and various other articles. Diaz was desired to say to the king, that the general begged his highness to excuse his presumption in sending such a present in token of his entire devotion to his service, having nothing worthy of the acceptance of so great a prince. That the time now drew near when it would be necessary to depart on his return to Portugal; and therefore, if his highness meant to send an ambassador to the king of Portugal, he had better give orders that he might soon be ready to embark. Presuming upon what his highness had already agreed to, and on the kindness hitherto shewn to him and his people by his highness, he requested permission to leave a factor and clerk in Calicut along with his merchandize, as a memorial of peace and amity between his highness and the king of Portugal, as a testimony of the truth of the embassy with which he had been entrusted, and in pledge of farther embassy from the king his master as soon as the discovery was made known. He likewise prayed his highness to send on board as a full confirmation of his having actually made the voyage to India, a bahar of cinnamon, another of cloves, and a third of some other spices, which should be paid for by the factor out of the first sales of the goods in his possession. It was four days after Diaz received this order before he could get access to the zamorin, though he went every day to the palace for this purpose. At length he was admitted to audience; and on seeing Diaz with his present, the king asked him what he wanted in so stern a manner that he was afraid of being killed. After delivering the message from the general and wishing to deliver the present, the king refused to see it, and commanded that it should be delivered to his factor. The answer he gave to the message was, that since the general wished to depart he might do so, but must first pay him 600 serasynes436, according to the custom of the country.

Diaz, on his return to the factory with the present intended for the king, was accompanied by many of the nayres, which he thought was from respect: but immediately on entering the house, the nayres remained at the door, forbidding him or any other person to go out. After this, a proclamation was made through the city, forbidding any boat or almadia to go on board our fleet on pain of death. Yet Bontaybo went off secretly, and gave warning to the general not to venture on shore or to permit any of the people to land; as he had learned from the Moors, that any who might do so would surely lose their lives. Bontaybo said farther, that all the fair words of the king proceeded from dissimulation, that he might entice the general and his people on shore to kill them all; all which evil intentions were occasioned by the Moors, who made the king believe that the Portuguese were thieves and pirates, who had come to Calicut to steal such merchandize as should be brought there; and who had come to spy out the land, that they might return with a great armament to invade his dominions. All this was confirmed by two Malabar idolaters, and the general was in great uncertainty how best to proceed on the present emergency. That same night, after dark, a Negro slave belonging to Diaz came off, with the information that Diaz and Braga were made prisoners, and with an account of the answer which the king had given to his message, what he had ordered to be done with the present, and of the proclamations which were made through the city. Diego Diaz, being anxious to have these things communicated to the general, had bribed a fisherman to carry this man on board, as he could not well be recognized in the night owing to his colour. The general, though much offended at these injurious proceedings, was unwilling to depart till he might see the end of these things, and therefore waited to see whether anyone might come off to the ships. Next day, being Wednesday the 15th of August, only one almadia came off, in which there were four boys, who brought fine precious stones for sale. Although the general believed they were spies, he received them kindly, and gave no hints of having heard that Diaz was made a prisoner; expecting that others of more importance might come on board through whom he might procure the enlargement of Diaz and Braga. By these boys he wrote to Diaz, but couched in such a manner that it might not be understood if it fell into any other hands. The letter was delivered according to its direction, and the boys told the king of their reception on board, by which he believed that the general knew not of the imprisonment of his people. On this he sent off other persons to the ships, who were strictly enjoined not to disclose the treatment which the factor had experienced. This was done out of policy to deceive the general and to detain our ships, till the king might be able to send his own fleet to set upon him, or till the ships might arrive from Mecca to take him prisoner.

Some of the Malabars continued to come off daily, all of whom the general commanded to be well entertained, as he saw none of sufficient importance to be detained. But, on the Sunday, six principal Malabars came on board, attended by fifteen men in another pinnace. Believing that the king would liberate Diaz and Braga in return for these men, he made them all prisoners; and sent a letter in the Malabar language, by two of the native boatmen, to the kings factors, demanding his factor and clerk in return for those men he had detained on board. On perusal of this letter, the kings factor communicated the same to the king, who commanded him to take the Portuguese to his own house, that he might not appear to have had any hand in their detention; and then to restore them to the general in return for the Malabars, whose wives had made a great clamour about the detention of their husbands.