304 



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



[Vol. X. 



" Let us look at the correction of the copy of the Visconde 

 da Esperan^a. 



" 6 The Hollanders seeing, after they had taken from us the 

 city of Columbo, that we brought a large force to the island 

 of Mannar, and Kingdom of Janapatao, [sic] where had 

 assembled the fleet of galleys which the Governor of India 

 had sent by the Captain-Major Francisco de Sexas Cabreira ; 

 and the other of 7 caturres, of which Manoel de Mello 

 Sampaio was Captain-Major ; and knowing that the same 

 Governor of India, after having been informed of the loss of 

 Columbo, had nominated as Captain-General of the island of 

 Ceilao Antonio d'Amaral Menezes, who actually occupied 

 the post of Governor of that Kingdom, who informed him of 

 the despatch of reinforcements, who might do to them what 

 they had just done, which would not be difficult for the 

 Portuguese whilst they continued in Janapatao, \_sic~] 

 determined, in order to guard against the mischief that they 

 feared, to drive us out of the island of Mannar also.' 



" Here we have the verb that is wanting in the copy printed 

 by the Academy, — ' determined.' 



" It is manifest, therefore, that the manuscript copy is 

 the corrected one, which the Academy ought to have printed 

 if it had known of its existence, and not the rough draft of 

 the soldier, the skeleton naked of form, of literary clothing, 

 as its scientific dignity demanded. 



" Neither the edition of Montarroio Mascarenhas nor this 

 copy of the Visconde da Esperanca was known of, and in this 

 respect the Society is free from blame. Where, however, it is 

 not, is, in my opinion, in having ordered to be printed a work 

 that ought to have been corrected, at least of serious faults of 

 grammar, if not of imperfections of forms of proper names, 

 which very possibly are not consistent in the apograph. 



"It is very likely that this labour would have been dis- 

 agreeable and difficult, the more so as it would have 

 been necessary to look at the readings of Barros, Couto, 

 Castanheda, and Gaspar Correa ; but an Academy was bound 

 to do so, before it printed such a work simply because it was 

 offered to it by its member Fr. Francisco de S. Luiz, who 

 certainly had not seen the defects and errors in it. 



" They might have said that it was not their province to 

 alter the rough original, as that would be a kind of profana- 

 tion. To correct rude errors is a meritorious work, and in 

 literary matters a good service, which has been done in so- 

 many cases in literary works to the improvement of all.. 

 Soropita did this to the lyrics of Camoes, ' meddling with that 

 which was clearly an error of the pen,' and he did quite right. 



" It now remains to compare the third and last book of the 

 work, where the alterations, the excisions, and additions are 

 more noteworthy. 



