In 1498 the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed on a group of islands in South Canara on his voyage from Portugal to India. He named the islands "El Padron de Santa Maria"; they later came to be known as St Mary's Islands. In 1500 Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral arrived at Anjediva in North Canara with eight Franciscan missionaries. Under the leadership of Frei Henrique Soares de Coimbra, the missionaries converted 22 or 23 natives to Christianity in the Mangalore region. During the early part of the 16th century, Krishnadevaraya (1509–1529), the ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire of Deccan, granted commercial privileges to the Portuguese on the Canara coast. There was complete freedom of worship, belief, and propagation of religious tenets in the Vijaynagara Empire. In 1526, under the viceroyship of Lopo Vaz de Sampaio, the Portuguese took possession of Mangalore.