Rulers of India: Albuquerque

The power of the Muhammadans in India was not yet concentrated in the hands of the great Mughals ; there were Moslem kingdoms in the North of India and in the Deccan but the South had not yet felt the heavy hand of Musalman conquerors and the Hindu Raji of Vijayanagar or Naxsingha was the most powerful potentate in the South of India. [...] In the days of the Renaissance the products of the East passed through the hands of Muhammadan mechants from India to the Mediterranean and the large profits they made were commensurate with the risks they undertook. [...] Among the earliest discoveries by the sailors of Prince Henry were the islands of Madeira and the Azores and at the time of his death in 1460 the Potuguese navigators had learned the way past the River Senegal. [...] The establishment of commerce was at this time the chief aim of the Portuguese in the East as it was in the succeeding century the chief aim of the Dutch and the English. [...] He served on the fleet sent to the Gulf of Taranto to defend King Ferdinand of Naples against an invasion of the Turkel and in 489 he commanded the defence of the fortress of Graciosa on the coast of Morocco against an attack of the Moors.