r i. \ 





j i: \ 



not been able to procure this work : but the following pas- 

 Mge from Etoiles 'Journal of the Reign of Henri IV.' 

 throws some light upon the expression quoted from its title- 

 Friday. the 1st ol June. I(i01,come-the intelligence 

 that the I'al-e or true Don Seba-tian (for as yet one i, 

 not which to call hi ml has been sent to the galleys by 

 order of the viceroy of Naples. . . . The Portuguese main- 

 tain that he is tho'tnie Don Sebastian : they have solicited 

 various courts to obtain his liberty, and published s. 

 woik- in his favour. Among others Joseph Texeira, a 

 Dominican, has undertaken several journeys to Bavaria. 

 England, Venice, and Rome, where he has disseminated 

 hi- writings; and finally, he ha.- cau-ed to bo printed at 

 Paris a collection of prophecies current among the Portu- 

 . which foretold all that has happened to their king 

 Sebastian.' That Texeira, whose writings show him to 

 have been an accomplished scholar, whose confidential 

 employment by Catherine de' Medici i- a strong testimony 

 in favour of his abilities, and whose high moral character 

 is acknowledged on all hands, should have believed the 

 individual here mentioned to have been the real Don Se- 

 bastian appears upon first thoughts a strong testimony in 

 his favour. But L'EtoileV account of the nature of the 

 book weakens the presumption, and Texeira's inv, I 

 against the Spaniards renders it probable that the account 

 is correct. He is said to have declared from the pulpit. 

 when preaching on the duty of loving one's neighbour, 

 that we are bound to love all men. of whatever religion, 

 sect, or nation even Ca-1ilians.' 



Tcxeira died in the convent of the Jacobins at Paris, on 

 tin- '2!llh or :lth of Juno, 1004. L'Etoile, who mentions 

 his death, says. -He had just returned from England, 

 whither he had been sent by the king, who gave him a 

 hund - for the expenses of the journey. \Vhile 



there he had seen the king of England, to whom he pre- 

 sented his "Genealogy" which he had compiled, and which 

 wa- well received, tie was on the eve of returning to 

 England when ho was taken ill.' Texeira's frequent visit- 

 to England, both in the time of Elizabeth and James, gave 

 rise to suspicions of his attachment to the Romish Church. 

 For these there does not appear to have been any i 

 able ground : he was opposed to the ultra- Romanist party 

 of the League in France, because it was allied with Philip 

 II., but his religious opinions never appear to have 

 varied. 



The published works of Texeira are 1, ' De Portugalhae 

 Ortu, Regni Initiis, dcniquo de K< ', mis mmer- 



soque regno pracclar mipendium,' Parisiis, l.'i^J. 



in 4to.. 77 pp., very rare: 2, 'Do Electionis Jure quod 

 competit viris Portugallensibus in augurandissuisRegibus 

 ac Piincipibus.' Parisiis. IfiiX). Svo. : this is a reprint 

 of the answer to Nonius i Leone, printed and destroyed 

 at Lynn in 1.X1I : a third edition was published at Pan- in 

 with the title, 'Speculum Tyrannidis Philippi. Regis 

 Castillae, in usnrpanda Portugallia :' :i. Exegesis Genea- 

 logica, sive Exphcatio Arboris Gentilitiac invictis-imi ac 

 potent i>-.itni Gailiarum rcgis Henrici cjus nomtnis IV.' This 

 work was published at Tours in lijflO; at Leyden, with ad- 

 ditions, in 15!)2; again at Leydcn in 11)17, "with the title, 

 Stcmmata Franciae item Navarrae Regum a prima ntri- 

 wsqin ( i:igine;' all the three editions are in 4to. ; 



I. Explicatio Genealogiae Henrici II.. Comleao Principis.' 

 EL An edition in 4to., and another in 8vo., and 

 a translation into French by .Kan de Montlyard, all ap- 

 peared in the same year. To the edition of ffillH was ap- 

 pended ' Narratio in qua tractatur de Apparitione, Ahjura- 

 tione. Conver-ione.et Synaxi lllustrissimae Principis Char- 

 lottae Catharinae Trimolliae, Pum -ipl-.ie Condea. 

 ' De Flammula, seu Vexillo S. Diony-ii, vel de Orimphla 

 aut Anriflamma Tractatus,' Paris, 15US, Svo. : li. - Adven- 

 ture admirable par dovers toutes aut res des SuVles pa i'- 

 ol presents, qni contient un Discours tonchant le oucces 

 du Rx>i de Portugal, D. Sebastian, depuis son voyage 

 d At'nquc. auqnol il se perdit en la bataille qu'il cut 

 contre les Infidclcs en l."i". jnsqu'au 6 de Janvier p 

 an l)l ;' traduit du Castillan. Paris, Svo. 



(Tin- sketch has boon compiled from the diotinn-i. 

 Bylc and Moreri, and Nicolaus Antonius : fiom th 

 fcce* to Texeira'i 'Genealogy of Henri IV.. and his Reply 

 i I.e. me ; and from Pierre de I'Etoile's -Journal 

 in IV.,' vol. ii. t pp. 069-61, nd vol.iii., 

 pp. l4-fl, edition published at the Hapuc in 1761, in 4 

 ok vo.) 



I'KXEIRA, or TKXKKA. PKDRO, a native of Portn 

 gal, one of the earliest cultivators of modern Per-ian litera- 

 ture. The place and date of his birth and death are alilie 

 unknown. The author of the notice of his life in the 



io^iaphie I'liiverselle.' says that lie wa- born in l.'iTO, 

 but does not mention the authority on which he makes the 

 statement. 



Cotolendi, who translated Texeira's work into French. 



hat his author. instigated by a vehement desire' to 



become acquainted with the hi-tory of Persia, passed 



M-ars in that country, and having made hi: 

 :l\ master of the language, devoted himself, by the 

 advice of some able and enlightened Persians, to the study 

 of Mirkhond. [See the account of this historian in the 

 article PKKSI\. under the head I.itfrnlurr.'] Texeira him- 

 self has informed us that being at Malacca, in the begin- 

 ning of KKK), he embarked in the month of May for the 

 Philippine Inlands, whence he took shipping for Mexico, 

 and ultimately arrived at Lisbon on the 'JOth October, 

 1601. His correspondents in the F.a>t having failed to 

 transmit to him some money which he had left in their 

 charge, he was obliged to undertake a \oyagc to (ioa to 

 recover it. Di-gn>ted with the sea, he resolved to return 

 overland; and having in pursuance of his determination 

 sailed from (!oa, on the !)th of February, 1COJ. and a 

 at Ha-rah on theu'th of August being detained some time 

 at Ormuz), he travelled by way of Mes-hcd-Ali to liagdmi, 

 and thence to Anna, Aleppo, and Scanderoon. where he 

 took shipping for Venice. After a short stay in that city. 

 he made the tour of Italy, cro el the Alp- into Fi 

 and then retired to Antwerp, where he spent his time 

 in compiling a book, which he published in 1610. 

 that event we again lose sight of him entirely. 



Hi^ work, the tii-st book of which. -d by An- 



tonio de Leon Pinelo. was composed in Portuguese, but 

 translated into Spanish, and the rest written in that lan- 

 guage with a view to publication, is entitled. ' Relacion do 

 los R ( \es de Pcisia v Ormuz : Viagi de la India Oriental 

 hasta ftalia por Tierra el afio de 10(H,' Antwerp. 1610. N . 

 Antonio says it was published in -ito. : Antonio de I.e. .11 

 that it was published in Svo.) It consists of three . 

 the lirst is a history of the kings of Persia, compiled from 

 Mirkhond with a brief continual ion, down to the age of the 

 compiler; the second is an abridgment of the history of 

 Ormuz, by Turan->liah, one of the kings of that district <:\ 

 work which appears to be known in Kurope only from 

 Texeira's abstract), also with a continuation ; the third, 

 an account of Texeira's overland journey from India to 

 Europe. Alfonso Lasor translated the work into Italian 

 and inserted it in his Orbf I iin-cr^il the same year in 

 which it was published : Sehikhart. in his 'Tarich. sen B 

 Regum Persiae,' published at Tubingen in 16'JK. speaks 

 in the highest terms of Texeira's learning and dilig, 

 Van Laet appended a Latin translation of Texeira's Itine- 

 rary from Ormuz to Basrah and Bagdad to his 1'. 

 published at Leyden in WM : Cotolendi published a 

 French translation of the entire book at Paris in KIM. 

 which the writer in the ' Biographic 1 'niverselle ' justly 

 characterises as ' asscz mauvaise.' In short, down to the 

 time of Tavernier and Chardin. Texeira appear- to have 

 been regarded as the principal authority respecting l'er>ia. 

 The historical part of his work is now of little importance, 

 but his voyage up the Persian (iulf, and his route from 

 Basrah to Meihed-AIi, Bagdad. Anna, Aleppo, and ^ 

 dcroon, may still be studied with advantage. 



Antonio and Leon Pinelo mention a book entitled 

 fragm de Jorge Albuquerque e Prosopopeia a sen louvor,' 

 published at Lisbon in lull, by a Peter Texeira, but do 

 not identify him with our author. A ' Certiticacion del 

 Discnhrimiento de el Maraiion,' bv a Pedio TV\ 

 Capilan Maior del Para,' is appended to the account of 

 the discovery of that river, published at Madrid in KM1, 

 by Christoval dc Acufia : this was ,i| I did'eront 



'.. A third geographer of the name of Pcd;o Texeira 

 is mentioned by Antonio as alive at Madrid a few years 

 previous to the' publication of his dictionary (Ki7^): this 

 one compiled a map of Portugal and a Dc-cripcion do 

 na,' neither of which appear to have been 

 published. 



(Voyagm de T< ./<//./..<// /'// 

 traduite d'Espagnole en 1 . U;sl, rjmo. ; 



J:/,I/<I>HI' ill- In lillihnthrr.i Orii'lttnl If '/,'./(/< ///<!/, .\illllli-il 



-/, ilc Don Antonio de Leon Pinelo, eu Madrid, 



