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



313 



to demolish the fort at Anjadiva and abandon the island ; 

 and Dom Lourenco was dispatched thither to effect the 

 demolition and bring away the Portuguese who were there.* 



Meanwhile the viceroy had been making arrangements 

 for supplying Sofala with a new staff of officials ; and at 

 the end of October or beginning of November Nuno Vaz 

 Pereira sailed in the ship of Goncalo Vaz de Goes for Sofala, 

 to act as captain and empowered to settle the disputes at 

 Quiloa, another ship accompanying him, the captain of 

 which was his nephew Duarte de Mello de Serpa, in one or 

 other of which vessels went a number of persons in official 

 capacities or as friends of Nuno Vaz.f 



On the 17th of November, it would appear from the letter 

 of Gaspar da India already referred to, J Dom Lourenco left 

 Cochin with an armada of six ships, two galleys, and a brigan- 

 tine for Ormuz to compel the ruler of that island to become 

 a vassal to the king of Portugal. All the historians, however, 



* When exactly this dismantling took place, I cannot find. Bar. 

 (I. x. iv.), after relating the siege of Anjadiva in March 1506, and its 

 relief by Dom Lourenco, states that on his return to Cochin the latter 

 reported to his father the risk that the fort would run during the coming 

 " winter " owing to its proximity to Goa and its distance from Cochin, 

 and adds that " for these reasons, and others important to the service 

 of the king, it was a little while after that dismantled." Cast. (ii. c. xxxii. ) 

 implies that the demolition was effected at once, in October ap- 

 parently. Cor. (i. 708), with characteristic inaccuracy, makes Tristao 

 da Cunha, arriving at Anjadiva from Socotra in August 1507, the 

 bearer of the news that the king had sent orders for the demolition of 

 the fortress ; a statement which he repeats further on (714), when he 

 tells us of the viceroy's determining (in September 1507) to go and carry 

 out the work ; and later (727) he records the demolition, apparently in 

 December 1507! That the dismantling of the fortress took place 

 before the end of 1506, we know for certain ; since the viceroy, in his 

 letter of 27 December 1506, informed the king of the fact (see Cartas 

 ii. 391, 395 ; also Cor. i. 908). 



f See Theal's Beg. of S. A. History 194-95 ; Cartas 391, 394-95. (At 

 the last reference there is a quaint copyist's error, " no vaara " for " n" 

 vaaz.") 



1 Cartas ii. 379-80. In view of the disreputable character of the 

 writer, we might be inclined to regard his statements regarding this 

 expedition as fiction, were it not that in the summary of the viceroy's 

 letter of 27 December 1506 (Cartas ii. 393) occurs the sentence, 



