Gama, when still in Cannanore, had sent…

October 1502 CE

Gama, when still in Cannanore, had sent Pedro Afonso de Aguiar to Calicut in advance, with the warning that he had come to settle scores for the mistreatment of Cabral and to get compensation for the overrunning of the Calicut factory in 1500.

In response, the Zamorin of Calicut had sent back a string of messengers to Cannanore (and along the way to Calicut), each delivering promises that the Zamorin is willing to settle matters with Gama, and compensate the Portuguese for the loss of their factory goods.

On the other hand, Gama also receives a message from Gonçalo Gil Barbosa, the Portuguese crown factor in Cochin, warning him that this is all a tactical ruse, that the Zamorin of Calicut has also dispatched a circular letter to all the lords of the Malabar Coast instructing them to close their ports and markets to the Portuguese.

Gama's large armada finally arrives before the harbor of Calicut on October 29, 1502.

The Zamorin dispatches an emissary, a Brahmin (dressed as a Christian friar) on a boat to Gama.

The Brahmin reports that the Zamorin had arrested twelve of those responsible for the 1500 riot, and offers a peace and friendship treaty and the opening of a discussion of the restoration of the trade goods seized from the Portuguese factory, albeit noting that the Zamorin has also suffered property damages from Portuguese actions and that he intends to deduct it from the final account.

Gama is angered, feeling that the Zamorin has changed his tone from his earlier messages, and demands the property taken from the factory be restored in full and brought to his ship, and that all Muslim merchants must be expelled from the Calicut, before any discussion about a treaty begins.

While awaiting the Zamorin's reply, Gama seizes a nearby idling zambuq and some fishing boats that had unwisely ventured into Calicut harbor, taking some fifty fisherman captive

This action evidently angers the Zamorin, who sends a stern reply to Gama, noting that Gama had already taken severalfold times more property from Calicut ships, and slaughtered ten times more of his citizens (on the Miri, etc.) than the Portuguese had lost in the 1500 riot.

Despite being the net sufferer and the clamor of his citizens for revenge, the Zamorin is prepared to forgive and forget and start anew

The Zamorin also replies that Calicut is a free port and he has no intention of expelling 'the Moors'

Moreover, the Zamorin orders Gama to release his 'hostages', that he will not subject himself to negotiation conditions and that if Gama is unhappy with his offer, then he should leave Calicut harbor at once, for the Zamorin has not given him permission to anchor there, or at any other port in India.

Infuriated by the reply, Gama sends out a strongly worded ultimatum on October 31, declaring that the Zamorin's permission means nothing to him, that he has until noon the next day to deliver the Portuguese factory goods to his ship

Gama uses this overnight interlude to send his boats out to sound the harbor of Calicut to find optimal firing positions.

That same night, Calicut forces set about frantically digging entrenchments, erecting a protective timber palisade and laying cannon along the harbor shore.