266 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. X. 



Sciences resolves, that the manuscript intitled Fatalidade 

 Historica da Ilha de Ceilao, escrita pelo Capitao Joao 

 Eiheiro, which manuscript was offered to it by its member 

 D. Francisco de S. Luiz, Secretary of the Academy, on 

 23 November, 1835, be printed, at its expense and under its 

 authority, in the Collecgdo de Noticias para a Historia 

 e Geografia das Nagdes Ultramarinas. Francisco Elias 

 Rodrigues da Silveira, Vice-Secretary of the Academy." 



Finally, in 1847, there issued from the Ceylon Govern- 

 ment Press at Colombo a translation by Mr. George Lee, 

 Postmaster-General of the Colony, of Le Grand's book, with 

 an appendix, containing many valuable papers by 

 different writers " illustrative of the past and present con- 

 dition of the Island." Mr. Lee was unaware of the publi- 

 cation eleven years previously of Ribeiro's work in the 

 original Portuguese, for he says in his preface : — " I doubt 

 whether Ribeyro's History was ever published in the 

 Portuguese language ; it appears to have been procured, with 

 other public memoirs, by the Abbe le Grand, in Portugal, 

 through the kindness of the Dowager-Countess d'Ericeyra, 

 the lady to whom he dedicates his translation, and whom he 

 mentions as being descended from the illustrious house of 

 Menesez, of which two members had been Governors of 

 Ceylon." But, stranger still, Sir Emerson Tennent, in the 

 first edition of his work on Ceylon, fell into the same error, 

 though he corrected it in the second and later editions 

 (see vol. II., p. 4, note 6). 



Returning now to the Portuguese edition of 1836, we 

 find in it the following prefatory note by the editors : — 



" The MS. entitled Fatalidade Historica da Ilha de Ceilao, 

 which was offered to the Academy by one of its members, 

 and which it now publishes, must be considered as the 

 original ; for, though not written in the handwriting of the 

 author, yet it has at the end of the dedication his autograph 

 signature ; and from this circumstance, as well as from 

 others, this appears to have been the very copy that was 

 offered to the King D. Pedro II., in 1685. 



" The author (as he himself says in the Prologue) divides 

 his work into three books. In the first he shows what 



