NOTICE 



THE SECOND EDITION. 



The rapidity with which the first impression has been absorbed 

 by the public, has so shortened the interval between its appear- 

 ance and that of the present edition, that no sufficient time has 

 been allowed for the discovery of errors or defects ; and the 

 work is re-issued almost as a corrected reprint. 



In the interim, however, I have ascertained, that Eibeyro's 

 "Historical Account of Ceylon," which it was heretofore supposed 

 had never appeared in any other than the French version of the 

 Abbe Le Grrand, and in the English translation of the latter by 

 Mr. Lee^ was some years since printed for the first time in the 

 original Portuguese, from the identical MS. presented by the 

 author to Pedro II. in 1685. It was published in 1836 by the 

 Academia Eeal das Sciencias of Lisbon, under the title of 

 " Fatalidade Historica da Ilha de Ceilao ; " and forms the 

 Vth volume of the " Collegdo de Noticias -para a Historia e 

 Geografia das Nagoes Ultramarinas.^'' A fac-simile from a 

 curious map of the island as it was then known to the Portu- 

 guese, has been included in the present edition.^ 



Some difficulty having been expressed to me, in identifying 

 the ancient names of places in India adverted to in the following 

 pages ; and mediaeval charts of that country being rare, a map 

 has been inserted in the present edition^, to supply the want 

 complained of. 



The only other important change has been a considerable ad- 

 dition to the Index, which was felt to be essential for facilitating 

 reference. 



J. E. T. 



1 See Vol. II. Tart vi. ch. i. p. 6, note. » Ibid. p. G. ^ See Vol. I. p. 330. 



London: 

 November l^t, 1859. 



