MODERN HISTORY. 



[Part V 



A.D. 



1505. 



wliose guns their formidable galleons carried war and de- 

 solation against all weaker commercial rivals. The re- 

 markable fact is, that the picture of then- pohcy has been 

 di-awn by friendly hands, and the most faithfid records of 

 then- mis-government are contained in the decades of their 

 own liistorians. The atrocities attributed to the Portu- 

 guese in the Tohfut-ul-mujahideen'^, might be ascribed to 

 the resentment of its Mahometan author, on witnessing 

 the havoc inflicted on his co-rehgionists in wars under- 

 taken by Em'opeans, in order to annihilate the commerce 

 of the Moors in Hindustan ; but no similar suspicion can 

 attach to the narratives of ]\L\ffeus"-, De Barros and De 

 CouTO^, Castanheda*, Faria t Souza^ and Eibeyro*^, 

 each descriptive of actions that consign thek authors to 

 mfamy. 



^ Tlie Tohfid-id-mujahideen, ■\vi-it- 

 ten by Sheikh Zeen-ud-deen, gives 

 an account of the proceedings of 

 the Portuguese against tlie Ma- 

 hometans from the year 1498 to 

 1583 A.D. 



^ Maffei, Historia Lidicarum, A.D. 

 1570, va-itten imder royal authority. 



^ Da Asia dos Feitos que os Por- 

 tuf/uczcs Jizeram no descuhrimento e 

 conqaida das terras e mares do Ori- 

 ente. Por Joio de Bakkos e DioGO 

 DE CotrTO. Lisboa, 1778 — 88. De 

 Barros, who is preeminently the his- 

 torian of Portuguese India, never 

 A-isited the East, but held at Lisbon 

 the office of Custodian of the Records 

 of India, "Feitor da Caisa da India," 

 in ■^•liich capacity he had access to all 

 official documents and despatches, 

 from the contents of which he com- 

 piled liis great work, of ^yhich he lived 

 to publish only the first three De- 

 cades, the foui'lh being posthumous. 

 He died in 1570 ; so tluxt he was co- 

 temporary with Albuquerque, whose 

 achievements he celebrates, and to 

 whom, as CEAWFrRD observes in his 

 Dictionary of the Indian Islands, he 

 stood " in the same relation that Orme 

 the historian of India does to the 

 English conqueror Clive." His un- 

 finished labours were taken up by 

 numerous Portuguese authors; but 



his ablest continuator was Diego de 

 Corxo, (or more properly DiOGO DO 

 Corio,) who died at Goa, in 1616, 

 He brings down the naiTative of Do 

 Barros to the viceroyalty of the 

 Coimt Admiral Don Francisco de 

 Gama, a.d. 1596. 



* Fernando Lopes de Castan- 

 HEDA, Historia do Desciibrimento e 

 Conquista da India pelos PoHugueses. 

 Coimbra, 1551 — 61. It has been 

 translated into English by Litchfield, 

 London, 1582. 



s Manuel de Farta t SorzA, 

 Asia Portuc/uesa, cS-c. Lisbon, 1666. 

 This was a posthumous publication, 

 ■wi'itteu in Spanish, but inferior, both 

 in authenticity and ability, to the 

 works of De Barros and I)e Couto. 

 It has been ti-anslated into English by 

 Captain John Stevens ; 3 vols., Lon- 

 don, 1695. 



^ RiisEYRO, Ilist. de Vlsle de Ceilan. 

 It is doubtfid if this work was ever 

 publislied in the Original Portuguese, 

 in which it was wi-itten and " pre- 

 sented to the King of Portugal in 

 1685." But from it the French ver- 

 sion was prepared by the Abbe Le 

 Grand, and pnnted at Trevoux in 

 1701. There is an English transla- 

 tion by Lee, Colombo, 1847. To the 

 above list may be added the Historia 

 de la India Oriental, wTitten in 



