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



the pillar being surmounted by the cross of Christus.* The 

 armada then set sail for Cochin, f where it arrived J before the 

 end of September. § The viceroy was doubtless highly grati- 

 fied at the news of his son's " discovery," || and forthwith 

 dispatched Lopo Chanoca in the Santo Sprito to Ceylon to 

 obtain a cargo of cinnamon, and to erect a fortress at Columbo.^f 

 Dom Lourenco and his fleet appear to have now resumed 

 their coastguard duty ; but very soon a message reached the 

 viceroy from Manuel Pacanha, captain of Anjadiva, that 

 during the " winter " he had again been besieged by the 

 Moors, who had obliged him to burn a brigantine and the ships 

 that had wintered there.** It was thereupon decided in council 



* The statements of Cast, and Cor. on this point are borne out by the 

 letter of the viceroy (B 2). Bar. gives no description of the padrdo, 

 but tells us that Dom Lourenco got the stone- cutter GonQalo Goncalves 

 to cut on it a short statement of the cause of its erection. The padrdo 

 had evidently been brought from Cochin to be erected at the Maldives or 

 Ceylon. (I give opposite a plate showing the probable form of the pillar. ) 



| Cor., with his love of the marvellous, and to glorify his hero Dom 

 Lourenco, relates the slaying of a monster in a cave. Bar. alone records 

 the interesting incident of Nuno Vaz Pereira and the fire-blackened 

 padrdo. 



J Cast, says that Dom Lourenco " on the way captured several 

 Moorish ships ;" but Bar. records a punitive attack by the Portuguese 

 armada on the village of Berinjam, which was burnt. 



§ It must have been before the end of September, because, according 

 to the viceroy's letter (B 2), Lopo Chanoca " left for Ceylao at the 

 end of September," 



i| Bar. says not a word about the reception of the news. According 

 to Cast, the viceroy " was greatly pleased with the cinnamon, to be 

 able to send it to Portugal." Cor., as might be expected, is equal to 

 the occasion ; and though what he tells us may not be absolutely true, 

 it probably very nearly approximates to the truth. 



If See B 2. I confess that this passage in the summary of the viceroy's 

 letter puzzles me. The statements in it are not borne out by any of 

 the historians ; and if it be true that the viceroy dispatched Lopo 

 Chanoca to Ceylon not only to get cinnamon but to erect a fortress, 

 which he hoped to complete in a month's time, it is strange that 

 nowhere else is this fact mentioned. Certain it is that no fortress 

 was erected then, nor for twelve years after, as we shall see. Perhaps 

 the summarist has misinterpreted the viceroy's words. 



** This is according to Cast. (ii. c. xxxii. ). As we have seen above, 

 Bar. has it that Anjadiva was besieged in March, and says nothing of a 

 later siege. I am unable to say if there were two sieges, or if both 

 historians refer to the same event, 



