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



Here my task ends ; and I think I have succeeded in show- 

 ing (i.) that from the time of Vasco da Gama's first voyage 

 to India (as before that event) Ceylon was universally regarded 

 as the " mother of cinnamon " (as Barros puts it) ; (ii.) that 

 the " discovery " of Ceylon by Dom Lourenco de Almeida 

 took place in September 1506 ; (iii.) that Columbo, and not 

 Galle, was the port where he made landfall, and where he 

 erected the commemorative padrdo ; and (iv.) that from the 

 time of that discovery until the erection of the first fortress 

 at Columbo in 1518 Portuguese intercourse with Ceylon, 

 though perhaps not very frequent, was uninterrupted. 



