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



328 



also grow on the mainland, around this city, but the quality is 



inferior to the products of the islands 



******* 



In the island of Zilon, where the cinnamon grows, are found 

 many precious stones and the biggest sapphires. 



1 The text of this letter was printed (anonymously) for the first 

 time in Fracanzio di Montalboddo's Paesi Novamente Retrovati 

 (Vicenza, 1507). An English translation from a manuscript copy in 

 the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, is given in App. B of the First Voy. 

 of V. da Gama : from this the above extracts are taken. The writer 

 of the letter, a Florentine, was settled as a merchant in Lisbon for many 

 years. Tennent (i. 638 n. ) has the following extraordinarily erroneous 

 reference to Sernigi : — " There are two other Italian travellers of this 

 century who touched at Ceylon ; one a ' Gentleman of Florence,' whose 

 story is printed by Ramusio (but without the author's name), who 

 accompanied Vasco de Gama, in the year 1479 [sic], in his voyage to 

 Calicut, and who speaks of the trees ' che fanno la canella in molta 

 perfettione.' " Sernigi, as I have said, was a merchant, not a traveller, 

 and did not accompany Vasco da Gama in 1497 (1479 is doubtless a 

 misprint), and could not therefore have " touched at Ceylon." Finally, 

 it was to " a gentleman of Florence " that his letters were written. 

 (Suckling, in his Ceylon i. 271, copies Tennent's errors and adds some 

 on his own account. ) 



2 The version in Paesi Nov. Betr. adds " cloves." 



3 P. JV. R. reads " certain islands." 



4 P. JV. R. " which islands are near." 



5 P. JV. R. has nothing about going " overland " : it says : " from 

 the said city one goes there." 



6 P. NR. " they are." 



7 P. N. R. adds " and not by Christians, and the Moors are lords." 



8 P. N. R. adds " of spices." 



9 P. N. R. has " to carry them to the said city." 



10 P. N. R. has " very " before " flat-bottomed " and " little." 



11 This clause is not in P. N. R. 



12 The words " nails or " are wanting in P. N. R. 



13 P. N. R. adds "it is a short distance from there from the said 

 islands." As regards the nail-and-ironless vessels and the loadstone, 

 see Tennent, Ceylon i. 442-43. 



14 Not in P. JV. R. 



15 These two words are not in P. N. R. 



16 P. JV. R. has " it is not worth vi " (i.e., ducats). 



17 P. JV. R. has " Ginger is less by half." 



18 P. JV. R. has " islands are called." 



A 4. 



Giroktmo Sernigi' s Second Letter to a Gentleman of Florence.* 

 [? August or September 1499.] 



Since I sent you full particulars about India and its discovery 

 there has arrived here the pilot 2 whom they took by force ...... 



This man told wonderful things about those countries, and 

 their wealth in spices. The good and fine cinnamon is produced 



