Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- INTRODUCTION
- CHRONOLOGY OF PYRARD'S VOYAGE
- ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA
- TITLE PAGE OF THE THIRD FRENCH EDITION
- DEDICATORY EPISTLE
- HEADINGS OF CHAPTERS
- THE VOYAGE OF FRANçOIS PYRARD
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XIV
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- CHAPTER XXI
- CHAPTER XXII
- CHAPTER XXIII
- CHAPTER XXIV
- CHAPTER XXV
- CHAPTER XXVI
- CHAPTER XXVII
- CHAPTER XXVIII
- CHAPTER XXIX
- Map
INTRODUCTION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- INTRODUCTION
- CHRONOLOGY OF PYRARD'S VOYAGE
- ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA
- TITLE PAGE OF THE THIRD FRENCH EDITION
- DEDICATORY EPISTLE
- HEADINGS OF CHAPTERS
- THE VOYAGE OF FRANçOIS PYRARD
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XIV
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- CHAPTER XXI
- CHAPTER XXII
- CHAPTER XXIII
- CHAPTER XXIV
- CHAPTER XXV
- CHAPTER XXVI
- CHAPTER XXVII
- CHAPTER XXVIII
- CHAPTER XXIX
- Map
Summary
At the end of the fifteenth century, while the Pope was still regarded as standing arbitrator in the disputes of Christendom, Alexander VI had decreed to Portugal the discoveries of the East. The discovery of the Cape route to India was the first-fruits of that dispensation, and, for the greater part of the succeeding century, Portugal was admitted to hold in lawful possession, not only the territories of her conquest in India, but also the ocean ways which led thither. From the first landing of Da Gamaat Calicut in 1498, the policy of the Portuguese was to maintain an absolute supremacy in Eastern waters. Their aim was not territorial dominion, but only command of the seas and of trade routes, in pursuance of which they sought positions of advantage, whether ports or islands, some of which they won by force, others by diplomacy. It was a curious feature of the age that the other nations of Europe in some sense acknowledged their right to the possession of the Cape route, without acknowledging their exclusive right to Eastern trade. So it was that the Dutch and English navigators, believing they had an equal right to Indian trade, if they could only get at it by some other route, spent long and toilsome years of maritime apprenticeship in their search after the North-west Passage.
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- Information
- The Voyage of François Pyrard of Laval to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil , pp. ix - xlviiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1887