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



by the Maldive islands.* Determined to prevent this,f and 

 desirous at the same time to get information regarding the Mal- 

 dives J and " discover " Ceylon, § Dom Francisco de Almeida in 

 August incharged his son Dom Lourenco with this expedition. 

 Accordingly, at the end of August or beginning of September)] 

 1506, Dom Lourenco set sail with a number of vessels selected 

 from the armada of which he was captain-major. The exact 

 number of vessels and the names of their captains are uncertain, 

 the historians differing widely on these points. That Lopo 



* All three historians mention this fact (see infra, B 8, B 9, B 10), 

 only they differ as to the date when the viceroy took steps to stop this 

 traffic. 



f It will be seen from the extracts from the viceroy's letters given 

 below (B 2, C 5) that one of his chief reasons for desiring to have a 

 fortress in Ceylon was to block this route to the Moors. It was not, 

 however, until after Albuquerque captured Malacca and erected a 

 fortress there that the traffic ceased (see C 10, infra, and c/. the 

 viceroy's statement to the king in 1508 (Cor. i. 907). 



% On the history of the Maldives before and after the Portuguese 

 came to India, see Gray's Pyrard (Hak. Soc.) ii. 423 et seq. In his in- 

 structions of 1505 to D. Francisco de Almeida the king does not mention 

 these islands ; but in his letter of March or April 1506 (see infra, A 21) 

 he refers to them as " the archipelago of the twelve thousand islands," 

 and urges upon the viceroy the importance of finding them. Whether 

 Dom Manuel had expressed any similar wish in his letter sent by Cide 

 Barbudo (see above), or whether the viceroy acted on his own initia- 

 tive, I do not know ; but in his letter of 27 December 1506 (see infra, 

 B 2) he informed the king " how he sent Dom Lourenco to the islands of 

 Maldiva and Quymdiquel." In the instructions given to Diogo Lopes 

 de Sequeira in February 1508 (see infra, C 2), the king, it will be 

 noticed, says: " ..... .when you shall take your course for Ceillam, 



you shall endeavour to take your course by the island of Camdaluz or by 

 Maldiva, which we shall be glad to have discovered." " Discovered " 

 the islands were in a very few years, to become, as Mr. Gray says 

 (op. cit. 475), "the hunting ground of Portuguese pirates." 



§ As he had been commanded by the royal instructions (see A 19, 

 infra). 



II See infra, B 1 and notes 4 and 5 . 



% Cast. (seeB8) writes as if only three vessels went, viz., that of 

 Felipe Rodrigues (the Esphera ?) with Dom Lourenco on board and those 

 of Lopo Chanoca and Nuno Vaz Pereira ; Bar. (see B 9) says that Dom 

 Lourenco took nine sail of those that he had in his armada, but mentions 

 the name of only one captain, Nuno Vaz Pereira; while Cor. (see B 10) 

 is, characteristically, very explicit, telling us that Dom Lourenco went 



