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



to Cochin. After the return of his son, the viceroy, with 

 great ceremony, presented the new raja of Cochin with 

 a gold crown that had been sent to him by the king of 

 Portugal. 



The ships that were to return home now began taking in 

 their cargoes of pepper and other commodities ; and as each 

 was loaded she left for Cananor, where the loading was com- 

 pleted. As the times of the departure of these vessels for 

 Portugal have an important bearing upon the question of the 

 date of the " discovery " of Ceylon by D. Lourenco de Almeida, 

 I have been at some trouble to collate the varying statements 

 of the different authorities. According to Castanheda (ii. 

 cap. xxi.), on 26 November 1505 Fernao Soares left Cochin 

 as captain-major of seven ships (unnamed), the other captains 

 being Bastiao de Sousa, Ruy Freire, Manuel Telles, Antao 

 Gon calves, Diogo Correa, Goncalo Gil Barbosa, and Diogo 

 Fernandes Correa. These ships were becalmed for three days 

 off Calicut (to the great alarm of its populace, who feared 

 an attack), and then put in to Cananor, whence they sailed 

 on 2 January 1506, and, passing round the outer side of 

 Madagascar, reached Lisbon on 23 May 1506. On the 

 other hand, Barros (I. ix. v.) says that six ships (unnamed) 

 left Cochin during the whole of December 1505, these 

 being divided between two captains-major,* viz., Bastiao de 

 Sousa with Manuel Telles and Diogo Fernandes Correa, and 

 Fernao Soares with Diogo Correa and Antao Goncalves. Of 

 the first three we are told only that they reached home safely ; 

 but to the second three is credited the honour of being the 

 first to discover the southern part of Madagascar ;f and 

 the date of their arrival in Portugal is given as 23 May 

 1506. Correa's statements are a mixture of fact and fiction, 

 his dates being generally untrustworthy. Fortunately we 

 are able, by the aid of contemporary documents, to ascertain 

 the names of most of the ships and the dates of their departure 

 from India and arrival at Lisbon. That one or two left 

 Cochin for Cananor in November is possible, but most of 

 them left the former port for the latter in December and 



* See footnote * on p. 295. f See p. 316, note §. 



