Return of Vasco

In 1502 Vasco returned India but this time the rulers of Kannur, Cochin and Quilon were sympathetic to him for various reasons. So Vasco Da Gamma decided to lodge among them. Vasco placed a demand that all the Muslims should be expelled from the area, but this demand was turned down.

This started some serious naval fights in the region. Vasco Da Gama was known for his severe cruelty upon the competing traders and inhabitants. He, in India behaved worse than today’s Somalia pirates by intercepting a ship of Muslim pilgrims at Madayi, which was on its journey to the Arabia and looted the 400 pilgrims and burnt them to death. This Portuguese pioneer died of Malaria in 1524 in Cochin, when he was in India for a short term under the pompous title of Viceroy.