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



299 



whence, after a stay of eight months, she proceeded to the 

 Angosha islands, and then to Mocambique,* where, in Febru- 

 ary 1507, Tristao da Cunha found Joao da Nova,f and annexed 

 him and his ship to his fleet.} Had Vasco Gomes de Abreu 

 been the bearer of such important tidings as that Ceylon 

 had been " discovered," it is certain that King Manuel would 

 not have waited some nine or ten months before informing the 

 pope and college of cardinals of the fact (c/. B 3, B 4, infra). 



However Dom Lourenco de Almeida was employed, there- 

 fore, after his return from the punitive expedition to Coulam 

 at the beginning of November 1505 until his appointment in 

 January or February 1506 as captain-major of the sea, we 

 may be sure that he did not visit Ceylon. While engaged in 

 his coastguard and convoy duties Dom Lourenco called at 

 Cananor ; and whilst he was at this place there came thither 

 the traveller Ludovico di Varthema,§ who, in the guise of a 

 Muhammadan, had escaped from Calecut to warn the Portu- 

 guese of the great armada that the Samuri had been preparing 



* In the Cartas de Aff. de Alb. ii. 397-98 is the summary of a letter 

 from Joao da Nova, dated 5 March 1509 (sic for 1507), which begins 

 thus : — " Item : how the viceroy sent him late, and how they did not 

 wish there to allow [him] to serve in the manner that your highness 

 commanded, [so] that he came all in disorder, and how through setting 

 out late he was eight months with the westerlies [blowing] in an island 

 twelve leagues athwart Mombaca. Item : the risks that he passed in 

 the voyage as far as this island, through their taking from him his pilot 

 and giving him another who knew nothing." (Regarding this last 

 complaint see Cor. i. 658, Alg. Doc. 157.) 



f " Very ill," says the writer of the Com. of Af. Dalb. (i. 33) ; but 

 he is alone in the assertion, and Joao da Nova himself does not refer 

 to any illness in his letter quoted above. 



X " The chief captain " [Tristao da Cunha], says the writer of the 

 Com. of Af. Dalb. , ' ' was very glad to see him, for he was a friend of his." 1 

 In his letter to the king (u. s.) Joao da Nova explains why he returned 

 with Tristao da Cunha instead of proceeding to Portugal. What became 

 of his ship we shall see later on (p. 317, note). 



§ See Cast. ii. c. xxiv., Bar. I. n. iv., Travels of Lud. di Varthema 

 (Hak. Soc.) 271. According to Varthema's own statement, he arrived 

 at Cananor on Sunday, 6 September, an absurdly incorrect date, 

 since the viceroy's fleet, as we have seen, did not reach Anjadiva until 

 13 September : moreover, 6 September 1505 fell on a Saturday. 

 Barros does not give the date; but Castanheda's statement, that it was 

 in February 1506, is probably correct. 



c 36-07 



