In summing up thus briefly the history of the Portuguese in India, weight has been laid only upon its political and commercial aspect. It was for purely commercial reasons that Prince Henry "the Navigator" had striven to find a direct sea route to India, and Vasco da Gama's success had at first been looked upon merely as opening up the Indian trade; the idea of dominion had not then occurred to the minds of the Portuguese, and it was not until it became obvious that the commercial stations or factories would have to be guarded and defended, that troops were despatched as well as factors. The successful defence of Duarte Pacheco against the army of the Zamorin of Calicut, showed how easy it would be for the Portuguese to do more than just defend their factories, if attacked, and Francisco de Almeida commenced a war of offence by attacking native potentates, who refused to allow factories to be established in their dominions. Affonso de Alboquerque originated the idea of playing off the Hindu princes against the aggressive Mohammedans, but none of his successors followed out his policy in this respect. It must not, however, be thought that the Portuguese had any idea of establishing such an empire in India as the English have built up during the last century. Their great system was to occupy, by force if necessary, all important centres of trade along the coasts, and there to erect powerful cities and fortresses, whither the native merchants could bring down their commodities to be purchased and placed on board Portuguese ships for passage to Lisbon. They made no attempt to force their way into the interior, and only sent envoys to native princes to secure protection for the native traders coming to their ports. They occupied, indeed, small rural districts around their most important stations, such as Goa and Diu, which they ruled, according to the fashion adopted by Alboquerque in Goa, by regarding the village communities as units, and regulating taxation accordingly. If these facts are grasped, the tales of Portuguese tyranny and oppression fall to the ground, for the only natives they could oppress were the merchants, who brought goods down to the ports, and the inhabitants who chose to dwell within the Portuguese borders. The merchants and traders did indeed suffer, because they had to sell their merchandise by a scale which cut their profits down much more than they relished, and the inhabitants of the cities were ruled as inferiors, who were bound to be subject to the Europeans in every respect. The Portuguese judges naturally favoured their own people, and thus in many instances treated the natives unjustly, but it may be pointed out that no merchant could be forced to come down to the ports, and that no native could be compelled to dwell in the Portuguese cities against his will. These considerations, joined to a recollection of the inevitable accusations always brought by a subject population against a race of foreign rulers, tend to prove that the accusations of tyranny and oppression brought against the Portuguese have been greatly exaggerated, and it is quite certain that the Hindus were quite as badly, if not worse, treated by their Mohammedan conquerors.