NO. 59. — 190 7.] PORTUGUESE IN CEYLON. 



285 



misspellings of names) almost as many mistakes as lines. 

 They are as follows* : — 



The Portuguese had been nearly twenty years in India before 

 they took steps to obtain a footing in Ceylon. [A very misleading 

 statement.] Vasco de [sic] Gama, after rounding the Cape, 

 anchored at Calicut a.d. 1498, and Lorenzo [sic] de Almeyda 

 visited Galle [?] in 1505 [?] ; but it was not till 1517 [1518] that 

 Lopez [sic] Soarez, the third viceroy [sic] of the Indies, bethought 

 himself [?] of sending an expedition to form a permanent trading 

 settlement [?] at Colombo ;f and so little importance did the 

 Portuguese attach to the acquisition [?] that within a very few 

 years an order (which was not acted upon ) [ ?] was issued from Goa [ ?] 

 to abandon [demolish] the fort as not worth the cost of retention. 



The first appearance of the Portuguese flag in the waters of 

 Ceylon, in the year 1505 [?], was the result of an accident [?]. 

 The profitable trade previously conducted by the Moors, of 

 carrying the spices of Malacca and Sumatra to Cambay and 

 Bassora, having been effectually cut off by the Portuguese 

 cruisers, the Moorish ships were compelled to take a wide course 

 through the Maldives, and pass south of Ceylon, to escape capture. 

 [In going from Malacca to the Persian Gulf ships would have to 

 pass Ceylon before going through the Maldives.] Don [sic] Fran- 

 cisco de Almeyda, the viceroy of India, despatched a fleet from 

 Goa [!], under command of his son, Lorenzo [sic], to intercept 

 the Moors on their route. Wandering over unknown seas [?], 

 he was unexpectedly carried by the current to the harbour of 

 Galle [?], where he found Moorish ships loading with cinnamon 

 and elephants. The owners, alarmed for their own safety, 

 attempted to deceive him by the assertion that Galle was the 

 residence of Dharma Prakrama IX. [sic] [?], the king of Ceylon, 

 under whose protection they professed to be trading ; and by 

 whom, they further assured him, they were authorised to propose 

 a treaty of peace and commerce with the Portuguese, and to 

 compliment their Commander by a royal gift of four hundred 

 bahars of cinnamon. They even conducted Payo de Souza, 

 the lieutenant of Lorenzo Almeyda [sic], to an interview with a 

 native who personated the Singhalese monarch [?], and who 

 promised him permission to erect a factory at Colombo [?]. Don 

 Lorenzo [sic], though aware of the deception [?], found it prudent 

 to dissemble, and again put t<$ sea after erecting a stone cross [?] at 

 Point de Galle [?] to record the event of his arrival. 



* After each error I have inserted a note in brackets. 



t To this Tennent appends a long footnote, which I quote below. 



B 2 



