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



to resist their attacks.* Having sent Varthema to the viceroy 

 in Cochin, Dom Lourenco proceeded to Anjadiva to bring away 

 a brigantine that was there ; and by the time he returned to 

 Cananor other vessels had arrived from Cochin, so that alto- 

 gether his fleet numbered eleven sail. The armada of Calecut 

 soon after hove in sight, and on the 18th of March ensued a 

 naval battle, or rather slaughter, in which between 3,000 and 

 4,000 of the enemy were killed or drowned, most of the vessels 

 (from 200 to 300) being sunk, and only a few of the larger ones 

 captured. f This event Dom Lourenco celebrated by founding 

 in Cananor a hermitage dedicated to Our Lady of Victory .J 



Meanwhile the fort at Anjadiva had been in great straits, 

 being besieged by a force from Goa, incited thereto by a 

 renegade Portuguese carpenter. Manuel Pacanha, however, 

 succeeded in holding the fort against the enemy, and dis- 

 patched a message to Dom Lourenco, who at once sent 

 succour, whereupon the enemy raised the siege and departed. § 



This brings us to the end of March or beginning of April ; 

 and we have now to consider the question, Did the " discovery " 

 of Ceylon take place in April 1506 ? The fact that the chapter 

 in Barros recording this event immediately succeeds that 

 describing the great sea fight would lead one to answer this 



* The Portuguese , we may be sure , knew of these preparations already , 

 though Varthema was able to furnish them with fuller information. 

 Barros rightly estimated the character of the man, and tells us that he 

 records in his history only those statements of Varthema 's which he 

 had proved to be correct by the testimony of others (see further, 

 regarding Varthema's veracity, under A 18, infra). 



f See Cast. ii. c. xxvi., Bar. I. x. iv., Varthema 274-80. Cor. 

 (i. 595-605), by a most extraordinary blunder, describes this fight 

 as taking place just after the viceroy had left Cananor for Cochin in 

 October 1505 ; and he names as taking part in it men who had already 

 left India or had not yet arrived there. Although the Portuguese 

 historians speak of the glorious victory achieved by Dom Lourenco's 

 fleet, and King Manuel, in his letter to the pope and cardinals (see B 3, 

 B 4), makes much of it, the affair was, as Whiteway says (Rise of Port. 

 Power in India 109), a mere massacre, with very little real fighting. 



% This house is referred to by the viceroy in his letter of 27 Decem- 

 ber 1506, to the king (Cartas de Aff. de Alt. ii. 391). 



§ This is according to Bar. (I. x. iv.). Cast, says nothing of a 

 siege of Anjadiva at this time, but records one later (see below, p. 312). 

 Cor. ii. 584-87 makes the siege take place in October 1505 ! 



