274 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



the work to the king. I give opposite a facsimile of this 

 page, which has at the foot, as will be seen, a note in a 

 different hand, as follows : — " Qualquer Liureiro pode em- 

 quadernar esta obra do Capp am Joao Ribeiro q tracta das 

 Couzas de Ceilao e conitade 202 Folhas. Sao D os de Leon 

 de 7 bro de 1696 [?]. Fr. G co do Crato." That is :— " Any book- 

 seller may bind this work of Captain Joao Ribeiro, which 

 treats of the affairs of Ceylon, and contains 202 leaves. 

 Sao Domingos de Leon, September 1696 [?]. Freire (or 

 Francisco) Goncalo do Crato." This seems to be an authori- 

 sation, indicating that the book contained nothing inimical 

 to "the Faith," but who the writer was I cannot say. 1 

 The date of the year is written apparently 1676, but 1696 

 must be meant, as Ribeiro presented his MS. to the king of 

 Portugal in 1685. As Le Grand returned to France in 1697, 

 the MS. would therefore seem to have come into his posses- 

 sion only shortly before he left Portugal. At the end of Book 

 I, is a blank folding leaf, on which, evidently, a copy of the 

 map of Ceylon which the original MS. contains was to have 

 been made ; but this was never done. Though, as I have 

 said, the copyist wrote for the most part in a beautifully 

 clear hand, he was, I am sorry to believe, not only careless 

 but apparently dishonest, as I shall have to show. 



Before proceeding to a more detailed comparison of the MS. 

 and the printed edition, I may mention some of the 

 general characteristics of the former. One of these is the 

 spelling of Portuguese words : thus we find pello for pelo, 

 chama for chamma, fes for fez, reads for reaes, adquerir 

 for adquirir, extillo for estilo, sogeito for sugeito, Ceyllad 

 for Ceilao, sugessos for successos, serto for certo, jatangia 

 for jactancia, pricioza for preciosa, idiffigios for edeficios, 

 thomey for tomei, cengura for censura. All these examples 

 are taken from the Dedication and Prologue alone, while the 



1 Leon, where the footnote, and apparently the MS. also, was written, is, 

 I presume, the town in Spain, capital of the province of the same name. 

 I have not been able to ascertain whether the monastery of S. Domingos 

 still exists there. 



