308 



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



[Vol. X. 



copy of the Historia da Ilha de Ceilao belonging to the 

 Visconde de Esperanca over the edition printed by the 

 Academy in 1836, with the title of Fatalidade historica. 



" It would be worth while to print this manuscript, which 

 rejects much that is incorrect and even erroneous in the 

 printed edition. It should rest with the illustrious Society 

 to do this, showing in this manner its zeal for the national 

 history, free from inexactitudes and illiterate forms. 



" An exact and minute comparison of the two editions 

 therefore excludes the perusal of the printed one by those 

 who shall undertake to write of our extensive conquests." 



On receiving this pamphlet I wrote to Sr. Barata, from 

 whom I learnt that the original MS. of Montarroio Mas- 

 carenhas, from which the one here noticed was copied, was 

 destroyed in a fire : hence this copy is, in all probability, 

 unique. 



I do not agree with all that Sr. Barata has said above in 

 depreciation of Ribeiro's first attempt at authorship, which, 

 though rough and ungrammaticai, is mere characteristic of 

 the soldier than the later polished edition, which smacks too 

 much of the pedantic scholar. Nor do I consider the Lisbon 

 Academy of Sciences at all blameworthy for printing (as I 

 suppose they have done) their MS. verbatim et literatim. 

 To have acted as Sr. Barata suggests would have greatly 

 lessened the value of the printed edition. At the same time, 

 it is to be hoped that the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, which 

 has already done such good service by printing the valuable 

 works of Gaspar Correa, Duarte Barbosa, and other old Portu- 

 guese writers, will publish a new edition of Ribeiro, with 

 critical notes showing where the two versions differ, and 

 with a good index, such as the editors of Gaspar Correa have 

 appended to that work. The Academy should also institute 

 a search for the MS. of Philip Botelho's " Guerras de Uva," 

 which Le Grand utilised in preparing his translation of 

 Ribeiro, and which has since disappeared from view. If this 

 can be found it should also be published. Another rare work 

 used by Le Grand, viz., Joao Rodrigues de Sa e Menezes' 

 account in Spanish of his father's disastrous expedition 



