On arrival in Cannanore, Gama leaves Cabral's…

On arrival in Cannanore, Gama leaves Cabral's old factor Gonçalo Gil Barbosa, and two assistants, Bastião Álvares and Diogo Nunes.

With the permission of the Kolithiri Raja of Cannanore, Gama erects a small palisade around the factory.

Some two hundred armed men (others report merely twenty) are to remain with the factory.

Back in Lisbon, Vicente Sodré had been given a commission by King Manuel I of Portugal instructing him to lead a patrol of five or six caravels in the Gulf of Aden, and prey on the rich Arab prizes going in and out of the Red Sea.

Now, Vasco da Gama, realizing the vulnerability of Cochin and Cannanore, invokes rank as captain-major of the armada and orders Sodré to set that mission aside, and maintain his patrol on the Malabar coast, to defend the Portuguese factories and their Indian allies against any reaction by the Zamorin.

However, as soon as Gama leaves, Vicente Sodré invokes his regimento and orderes the patrol to leave India and follow him to the Red Sea.

The Portuguese factors in Cochin and Cannanore protest, citing evidence of imminent preparations for an attack by the Zamorin.

It said that two of the patrol captains refused to go along, and resigned the commands of their ships.

Vicente Sodré dismisses the rumors and takes the patrol with him.