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



are silent regarding this expedition ; and it seems certain 

 that Dom Loureneo never did visit Ormuz. 



The non-arrival in India of any of the ships that had left 

 Portugal in the early part of the year* caused the viceroy 

 and the rest of the Portuguese in those parts much annoyance 

 and some anxiety, the Moors being correspondingly elated. f 

 Desirous of informing King Manuel of Dom Lourenco's victory 



curiously interposed between two paragraphs relating to the " dis- 

 covery " of Ceylon: "Item: how Dom Loureneo went to Armuz ;" 

 and in the summary of a letter of 6 February 1507, from Affonso de 

 Albuquerque to the king {Cartas i. 416), we read : " Item : regarding 

 the coming of Dom Loureneo to Ormuz and the ships of his captaincy 

 divided up." It is very probable that the viceroy, having received 

 intelligence of the probable visit of Affonso de Albuquerque to Ormuz , 

 was desirous of forestalling him and of adding to his son's laurels. 

 Whatever the object, however, the plan was, for some cause unknown 

 to me, frustrated. 



* These were the two fleets under Tristao da Cunha and Affonso de 

 Albuquerque which sailed from Lisbon in March or April 1506 (the 

 authorities are divided as to the month). Regarding the doings of these 

 ships see Morse Stephens's Albuquerque 49 et seq., Whiteway's Rise of 

 Port, Power in India 112 et seq., and especially the Com. of Af. Dalb. 

 i. 20 et seq. The cause of the non-appearance in India of any of these 

 ships was their late arrival at Mocambique owing to storms. Whiteway 

 {op. cit. 113) says that they did not reach this place until December, 

 which, although having the authority of Castanheda, is certainly wrong. 

 A comparison of the narrative of events in the Com. with the letter of 

 Albuquerque in Cartas i. 1-6 shows that it was probably in October 

 that the ships arrived at Mocambique. In any case it was too late for 

 them to pass over to India ; so they had perforce to winter on the 

 African coast. We shall return to them again. 



f A paragraph of the summary of the viceroy's letter of 27 Decem- 

 ber 1506 runs as follows {Cartas i. 391) : " Item : that he had ready 

 for loading four hundred quintals, and many things of those that come 

 from Malaca, and that they were much embarrassed by the non-arrival 

 of the armada, and the Moors very joyful." Gaspar da India also, at 

 the beginning of his letter of 16 November 1506 {Cartas ii. 371), 

 tells the king : " We are much troubled by reason that no ship of the 

 fleet has come this year, and the Moors are strengthening themselves 

 along the whole coast against us." Barros (II. i. iv.) tells the same 

 story at greater length, and states that the minds of the Portuguese 

 were still further exercised by the occurrence, on Wednesday, 13 

 January 1506, of an eclipse of the sun, which lasted from 11 a.m. to 

 2.30 p.m., and on 15 July 1507 of a severe earthquake, lasting for 

 an hour with some intervals. 



