6th Portuguese India Armada (Albergaria, 1504)
The Sixth India Armada was assembled in 1504 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Lopo Soares de Albergaria.
Albergaria was a middling noble, well-connected to the Almeida family, and had served a successful term (1495–99) as captain-general of São Jorge da Mina in the Portuguese Gold Coast (West Africa).
[3] The carracks were designated to return to Lisbon with spice cargoes, the three or four small ships (navetas or caravels) were slated to remain in India, to bolster the local Portuguese coastal patrol.
The large and well-armed 4th Armada of 1502 led by Vasco da Gama had hoped, by means of strong show of force, persuade the Zamorin to sue for terms.
Gama's 4th Armada left India, intent on requesting a stronger fleet from Lisbon, with enough men and arms, if not to reduce Calicut, to at least defend the Portuguese-allied city-states of Cochin (Cochim, Kochi) and Cannanore (Canonor, Kannur).
Gama delivered his report to Lisbon in 1503, too late to affect the outfitting of the 5th Armada, which had left under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque a few months earlier.
Although unequipped to challenge Calicut itself, the 5th Armada did enough to save Cochin from falling into the hands of the Zamorin's army and helped bolster its defenses by erecting a timber fort in the city.
Basing themselves only on Vasco da Gama's report, the 6th Armada that set out in early 1504 was equipped more purposefully, bringing more soldiers and ships to protect the Portuguese factories in Cochin and Cannanore.
There, Lopo Soares finds the testimonial letter left behind by Pêro de Ataíde, the former captain of the India patrol, who had died there in February.
It is here that Lopo Soares learns of the debacle of the coastal patrol of Vicente Sodré and Calicut's attack on Cochin the previous Spring.
He also handed over sixteen Portuguese shipwrecked sailors, survivors of Ataíde's capsized ship, who had been collected by Malindi boats earlier that year.
They relate their sorry tale - how they got lost and separated in Africa, how they spent the winter season harassing East African ports and Red Sea shipping, and how they were only able to undertake their Indian Ocean crossing this summer.
(As it happens, Diogo Fernandes Pereira had wintered in Socotra by himself and undertook a solo crossing to India earlier that Spring, arriving in Cochin just in time to help Duarte Pacheco fend off the assaults of the Zamorin.)
Arriving there, Albergaria finally hears fuller reports from the Cannanore factor Gonçalo Gil Barbosa about the battle of Cochin.
Restless, Lopo Soares has the 6th Armada subject Calicut to forty-eight hours of continuous shore bombardment, causing great damage.
Hearing of the armada's arrival, Duarte Pacheco (then in Quilon) sets sail back to Cochin, and meets Lopo Soares on September 14 (October 22 according to Castanheda).
[6] The assault troops capture Cranganore, and subject the ancient city, the once-great capital of the Chera Dynasty of Kerala, to a thorough and violent sacking and razing.
Even while the main fighting was still going on, deliberate fires were set around the city by squads led by Duarte Pacheco Pereira and factor Diogo Fernandes Correa.
The fires quickly consume most of the city, save for the Syrian Christian quarters, which are carefully spared (Hindu and Jewish homes are not given the same consideration).
[7] Two days later, the Portuguese receive an urgent message from the ruler of Tanur (Tanore), whose kingdom lay to the north, on the road between Calicut and Cranganore.
Lopo Soares immediately dispatches Pêro Rafael with a caravel and a sizeable Portuguese armed force to assist the Tanurese.
No less importantly, the battles at Cranganore and Tanur, which involved significant numbers of Malabari captains and troops, clearly demonstrated that the Zamorin was no longer feared in the region.
On December 31, 1504, the 6th Armada first headed north from Cochin intending to dock briefly at the port of Ponnani, so that Soares could pay his respects to Portugal's new ally, the raja of Tanur.
[8] The Egyptian fleet had not come on a military mission, but only to evacuate expatriate Arab merchants and their families from Calicut and bring them home to Egypt and Arabia.
[9] This bold venture trapped the Egyptian fleet in Pandarane harbor and in the subsequent ferocious battle, Soares succeeded in capturing and plundering the ships, killing some 2,000 defenders in the process.
Here they pick up some of the booty António de Saldanha and Rui Lourenço Ravasco had deposited from their predatory ventures around East Africa and Cape Guardafui the previous year.
February 10, 1505 - The 6th Armada arrives at Kilwa, where Lopo Soares announces his intention to collect the yearly tribute from the city due to King Manuel I of Portugal (imposed by Vasco da Gama back in 1502.)
1504 was the year where the old order on the Malabar coast was finally broken - the Zamorin's authority was fragmenting, the Arab merchants were fleeing, Portuguese allies were no longer tentative and few, but confident and growing.
In late 1504, the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt was finally persuaded that more active measures must be taken - not merely to get the Portuguese to behave, but to drive them out of the Indian Ocean altogether.
