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



305 



Meanwhile the secretary at Cochin, Gaspar Pereira, accom- 

 panied by Gaspar da India, was sent by the viceroy to the 

 various Portuguese settlements at the Malabar ports to inquire 

 regarding reported illicit trading.* They left Cochin in the 

 S. Miguel, captain Rodrigo Rabello, on 1 September ;f and 

 after visiting CananorJ and other ports arrived at Batecala§ 

 on the 28th, returning on the 20th of October to Cananor, 

 and thence to Cochin. 



The " summer " season had now set in ; and the Portuguese 

 ships, having been refitted, were once more ready to put to 

 sea. Tidings seem to have reached the viceroy that in spite 

 of all his efforts the Moors continued to carry on their trade 

 between Malacca and the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, their 

 vessels now avoiding the Malabar coast and taking their course 



myself with the affairs of Malaca, if your highness were well informed 

 of me, and of what I am doing here, you would neglect to remind me 

 of it. Let us destroy these new folk [Venetians and Turks], and settle 

 the old ones, and the natives of this country and coast, and then let 

 us go and see new lands, and all will be done there in so far as this field 

 shall be ours, so that they will offer them to us [?] ; because from here 

 to Malaca is a separate monsoon and limited seasons, adverse the one 

 to the other." By 1508, however, the king had again changed his 

 mind, and, in sending Diogo Lopes de Sequeira to " discover" Malacca, 

 ordered him to go thither from Madagascar by way of the Maldives 

 and Ceylon (see C 2, infra). 



* This is one of the matters referred to in the alvard of 25 August 

 1506, mentioned above. 



f So says Gaspar da India in his letter (Cartas ii. 373) ; but in Cartas 

 ii. 371 is printed a license of the viceroy's addressed to Gaspar Pereira, 

 permitting " the people of this armada " (what " armada " is meant, 



1 cannot say) to sell their cargo shares; and as this is dated at Cochin, 



2 September 1506, Gaspar Pereira could not have left on the 1st. 



% It is probable that Varthema went by this ship to Cananor (see Hak , 

 Soc. Varthema 280-81). He says that the viceroy gave him "the 

 factorship of these parts," an office which he held for '* about a year and 

 a half." I can find no confirmation of his statement, which is probably 

 a characteristic piece of exaggeration. More to our purpose, however, 

 is the fact that he says not a word about the " discovery " of Ceylon — 

 doubtless, because he took no part in it. 



§ Bhatkal on the Kanara coast (see Hobson-Jobson s.v, " Batcul "). 

 At this time the viceroy was endeavouring to arrange for a Portuguese 

 factory at this port (see Cartas ii. 385, 393). The place is referred to 

 by Albuquerque in a letter of 1512 quoted infra (C 9). 



