_ 163 _ Portuguese activity overseas up to the present day, and was to become one of the fundamental aspects of Portuguese nationhood in its human perspectives. It appears to me that, in the official discussion of the ostensible position to adopt vis-a-vis the Samorin, the political aspect prevailed, which at the time, with the support of the King, was compounded with the religious aspect, and in Fragment 29 it appears to me to be a mere incidental to the motive. To have made it the prime consideration represents the adoption of a decisive attitude. It cannot be known whether in taking up such a position the pros and contras had been weighed, even in relation to the restricted direct contacts with India, which were only those of Vasco da Gama, full of accidents and of disquieting omens. It should not be forgotten, as Dr. Magalhães Godinho points out, that if the mere wish to take their commercial position in the spice trade from the Arabs unleashed an organized resistance, the affirmation of a religious attitude could not fail at such a time to stir up men's minds and dispose everything for the worst. But we may also suppose that in any case Arab hostility would always be a factor, and for this reason the prevailing tendency would be to uphold the expression of the ethical attitude of the State
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