_ 484 _ The chronology of the principal events of Albuquerque's expedition to the Gulf of Oman while Tristão da Cunha, after helping to relieve the siege of Cannanore(A) and to destroy the town of Ponnani(B), was preparing to load his ships for the return to Lisbon, can be completed by the study of the Viceroy's letter. The vicissitudes of the return journey and D. Francisco de Almeida's reaction to the Ormuz exploit, which was then better known, contributed to define the framework within which King Manuel made decisions at the beginning of 1509, in particular the voyage of marshal Fernando Coutinho, who was invested with considerable powers and exempted from the authority of the Commander-in-Chief of India. Albuquerque conquered Ormuz during the last days of September 1507,at the end of the voyage in which Kalhat and Sohar had submitted peacefully and he had attacked Kuriyat, Muscat and Khor Fakkan(C).The news of these exploits became known in India through the intense (A) Geneviève Bouchon, Mamale de Cannanore. Un adversaire de l'Inde portugaise (1507-1528),Geneva-Paris 1975, p. 103. (B) Tristão da Cunha helped the Viceroy to destroy Ponnani, which belonged to the Samorin of Calicut; in the letter published below, doc.I, fo.1v, there is a reference to 'this Pannoni business'. (C) Comentarios de Afonso de Albuquerque, part I, chap.xix and ff; Aubin, op.cit., pp.120and 124.
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