300 



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



[Vol. X. 



" This work was published in vol. V. of the Noticias para 

 a historia e geographic/, das nagdes ultramarinas, with a 

 different title : Fatalidade Mstorica da ilha de Ceilao, &c. 



" The author is referred to in the Bibliotheca Lusitana, and 

 more biographically in the notice that precedes the publi- 

 cation of the Royal Academy of Sciences. 



" There is, however, much to be noticed regarding the two 

 copies, the printed and the manuscript. 



" The printed version was given to the Academy by the 

 Cardinal Patriarch Fr. Francisco de S. Luiz, and this Society 

 ordered it to be printed, believing it to be the very one that 

 the author presented to D. Pedro II., notwithstanding its being 

 written by another hand, although signed by Joao Ribeiro. 



" From the note of the copyist of the manuscript, we gather 

 that the original of Montarroio Mascarenhas was written and 

 signed by the author, a circumstance which the more gains 

 for it the credit that it deserves from us. 



" From a comparison of the two copies, printed and manu- 

 script, it is evident that the latter is a later work, made 

 after the printed edition ; that is, that the printed edition is 

 ■•a copy of the rough sketch, of the first work of the pen of the 

 Portuguese soldier in those distant regions, written without 

 nicety of diction, without that classicism of phrase and 

 completeness possessed by the manuscript copy, in which 

 «an be seen the work of the study, of rest and quiet, in the 

 better rounding off of the periods, in the pruning away 

 of exuberances, in the expansion of deficiencies, in the 

 infusion into the whole work of the fifteenth century flavour, 

 which is lacking in the printed edition. 



" The first part of the three into which the work is divided 

 contains the same number of chapters, 24. 



" So many and so important are the alterations in the form, 

 that to prove this it would be necessary to reproduce faith- 

 fully these chapters, both of the printed edition and of the 

 manuscript, a plan which, beside being lengthy, would be 

 tedious. 



" All, — the dedication, the prologue, and the chapters, — 

 though essentially the same, has been recast. Let us 

 look at the first chapter. The printed edition says : — 'The 

 precious island of Ceilao extends from about the sixth 

 to the tenth degree of north latitude, that is, from Galle 

 Point to Rocky Point [da ponta de Galle a ponta das 

 Pedras], and is seventy-two leagues in length and forty- 

 seven in breadth, which is the distance from Chilao to 

 Trequimale.' 



"The manuscript referred to says : — 'The precious island 

 of Ceilao is situated in the north latitude, from 6 degrees to 

 about 10, which [reach] from the Point of Galle to that of the 



