NO. 59. — 1907.] PORTUGUESE IN CEYLON. 



297 



tention at Mocambique, where she had to unload and repair, 

 did not arrive at Lisbon until early in 1507 probably.* 



Had the " discovery " of Ceylon taken place before these 

 ships sailed for Portugal ? Castanheda alone of the historians 

 says that it had. According to him (see B 8) , it was in Novem- 

 ber 1505 that the viceroy dispatched his son to the Maldives, 

 which failing to reach, he was carried to Ceylon. f Had Dom 

 Francisco so acted, he would have been guilty of a breach of 

 the king's instructions, according to which he was to send out 

 expeditions of discovery after the dispatch of the cargo ships for 

 Portugal (see A 19). Castanheda does not give the exact date 

 of Dom Lourenco's return from Ceylon, but leaves us to infer 

 that it occurred at the end of January or beginning of February 

 1506 ; and he further states that very soon afterward the 

 viceroy appointed his son captain-major of the sea, and sent 

 him with an armada to # visit the fortresses of Cananor and 



* These eight ships were, it seems certain, all that the viceroy dis- 

 patched as the regular homeward cargo fleet. In the Diarii di Marino 

 Sanuto (vi. 363), however, under date 26 June 1506, are given 

 Memorialedelanovelle , che son venute per lequatronave,che veneno de India 

 e intrarno inLisbona, veneri, adi 22 de mazo 1506, which state : *' Item : 

 that the said four ships came all very well laden with spices, as much 

 as they could carry, and the others of this company, which are five, 

 remained, at the time that these left, dispatched and loaded for leaving, 

 because our lord the king has ordered that they should come in two 

 sets this year, and they will be here, God willing, very soon. And 

 all these ships are of the company that Don Francesco d'Almeda, 

 viceroy of India, took." It is probable that in the " five " spoken of 

 by the writer are included the two subsequently dispatched (see below). 



f It will be noticed that Antonio Galvao (see B 1 1 , infra) very cautiously 

 says that it was " at the end of this year [1505], or at the beginning of 

 the next," that the viceroy sent his son to the Maldive islands. As 

 a matter of fact, however, it was neither at the end of 1505 nor at the 

 beginning of 1506 that Dom Lourenco set out, as we shall see presently. 

 If Castanheda's statement had been correct, it would have been con- 

 firmed by the viceroy's letter to the king, written from Cochin on 16 

 December 1505 (see Alguns Documentos &c. 142); but this is not the case. 

 From Gaspar Pereira's letter of 18 December 1505-12 January 1506 

 (Cartas de Aff. de Alb. ii. 354-69), it seems that the viceroy sent Lopo 

 Chanoca and Nuno Vaz Pereira in December to the river of Chitua 

 (Chetvai) to prevent the Moorish boats from carrying on trade, 

 and that a severe fight took place off Ponani. This may be the 

 expedition which Castanheda has confused with the one to the Maldives. 



