_ 170 _ anticipation of situations, elements with which Document III is better supplied, the only explanation is that in one case the instructions and in the other the hypothesis were, in discussion, inserted and removed from the papers, and replaced later. In effect, the Indians were to disembark, according to the phrase deleted in Document III (I quote) ‘in order to say that this fleet is ours, and that we are sending it there with much rich merchandise to trade, and to sell and buy others which the ships would then load’. The predominance of the commercial mission is the general line followed by Fragment 19, which is for this reason an important document. But perhaps it was considered irrelevant to give this mission to the Indians since it was obvious, and there was a return to the idea of having them accompanied by two Portuguese, who were only to go to corroborate the statement of the Malabaris as to the commercial motive (which is expressed in Fragment 19 in the phrase to go with the said Indians to the Samorin, King of Calicut, and tell him that we have come there to trade), but also with the purpose of relating to the King the history of the persistent attempts of the Portuguese to reach India 'principally in the service of Our Lord, since it was said that the Indians were Christians.
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