522 



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



Hernando de Alboquerque had a son named Jorge de 

 Alboquerque, who was a soldier of distinction, and had a 

 good position in the Fort of Columbo, but differently paid 

 from the rest in Ceylan, although he was subordinate to the 

 Generals of the Island. It appeared to him hard that a son 

 of the Governor of India should be subject to another chief 

 than his father, and with this excuse he took upon himself to 

 draw the pay of Captain of a Fortress, and gave both posts to 

 Jorge de Alboquerque, Constantino de Sa had intended to 

 give that post to whoever earned it ; but in obedience to 

 Hernando de Alboquerque he left the Island to his son, 

 without a word in reply, fully persuaded from all appearance 

 that he would be allowed to remain idle by those who envied 

 him when occupied. 



He thereupon left for Goa, where he remained without 

 public employment until the year [1]622, a most unfortunate 

 one to the Crown, by the death of Philip II., who passed away 

 to a better life, and also for the loss of Ormuz. This is a 

 city in the Island of Gerun, in 27 degrees of north latitude, 

 a little over three leagues in circumference, at about the 

 same distance from the coast of Persia, and ten from Arabia. 

 It is the key of the straits leading to the Persian Sea, for they 

 possessed one side of the same Island : whence it comes to 

 have two ports, one on the east and the other on the west — 

 the best and safest the land forms, making a harbour for all 

 the merchandize of the East and West, as well as of Persia, 

 Amernica, and Tartary in the north. But the Island being in 

 itself the most sterile and barren in the world belonging to the 

 same Empire, it was covetousness which led to the peopling 

 of such places as Ormuz. Being naturally, as we have said, 

 one of the most fertile and delightful spots in the universe, 

 its inhabitants held it as an established truth that the world 

 was a ring and Ormuz a precious stone inclosed therein* 



* Si terrarum orbis, qudqud patet annulus esset. 

 Illins Ormusium gemma decusque foret.. 

 (Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 105.) Pyrard makes the common proverb, 

 "If the world were an egg, Ormus would be the yoke." {Voyages. 1619, 

 II., 254.) — B., Hon. Sec. 



