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anywhere in the Indian Ocean world, because the area had been for centuries part of a Eurasian, or Afrasian, disease pool. The only important example of a new disease reaching the Indian Ocean was a much more virulent version of syphilis. It is believed that someone on Columbus' second voyage was responsible for bringing the infection into Europe, where it spread with remarkable rapidity. There was a case reported from Guangzhou as early as 1502, and in 1505 the Italian Varthema in Calicut claimed that the ruler had 'the French disease ["Frangi"] and had it in the throat.'26 However, it was not new diseases which affected populations around the ocean so much as faster communications, and increased densities of people in certain places: examples are the hordes congregated for the hajj, and the increasing populations of the port cities, especially from late in our period. Greater population concentrations meant that the protection provided by the vast expanses of the ocean was overcome, and crowd disease, such as cholera, smallpox and plague increasingly flourished; they had of course been present for many centuries.

It is time now to turn away from products, crops and politics, and look at people moving over the ocean for religious reasons. We will look at conversions, at the travels of religious exemplars keen to fortify the faith of their followers, and at pilgrimage in the context of widespread travels over the ocean. These three matters are very intricately mixed, but for heuristic reasons we will separate them to an extent. For that matter, there also are important links and connections with all of the preceding discussion: for example, the Portuguese opposed the Muslim pilgrimage, arguably the activities of their fleets hindered their own conversion drive, and most pilgrims chaffered their way to their destination, thus engaging in trade.

Conversion is a rather nebulous term. It is best to see it as a long process, taking perhaps several generations. There are entry points to be sure. For Muslims, to pronounce the profession of faith – 'There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet' – is a start. For Christians it would begin with baptism. However, for the exemplars of both of these religions the task then was to consolidate and improve. A whole world of social habits, customs, beliefs had to be set aside. The aim was not additive change, where a new superstructure was imposed on a bedrock of existing believe, but rather substitutive change, where a totally new world view was imposed. This is where people I refer to as rectifiers were important; these men strove to improve the quality of religious practice of people who were already, ostensibly, members of their faith. For these people the term missionary would be inappropriate, for missionaries try to spread, not improve, the faith. We will begin with conversions.

The two main drives were those led by Muslims and Christians. However, it was only the Catholics who spent much effort on this: the Protestant Dutch and English provided spiritual counsel for their own people, but made no effort to convert anyone else. There are many similarities, and many contrasts. The Muslim effort was much more inchoate than the Christian one, which was directed from Europe – from Lisbon and from Rome. Christian missionaries were supported by the political authorities, Muslim ones much less so. Christian missionaries were foreign, Muslim ones rather less so. On the other hand, both frequently relied on the time-honoured 'trickle down from the top' technique, whereby great effort was put into converting a king or other political figure, with the expectation that his subjects would then follow suit.

Muslims obviously had a head start over the Christians in their race to convert people. We described some aspects of their conversion efforts in an earlier chapter (see pages 76–80). Accounts, or more correctly complaints, by Christian missionaries give us good information on how Islam was spread. As a Jesuit lamented from Goa in 1560, what was most disturbing and lamentable