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



headquarters of those that go a-pirating, the said island being so 

 situated, that on the whole coast of India there is not another ; 

 from which island they then go to the coast of Cananor and Cucin 

 to trade for goods with the natives. They reach there about the 

 end of September, and there make an end of their voyage, nor 

 do the ships, I mean those of merchandize, go further, as a rule, 

 except some that cruise along the coast of India towards the 

 south-west and south-east in order to discover newer countries, 

 and to reach that famous staple of Malacca and the island of 

 Taprobana, where the greater part of the ships of the Moors load. 

 ******* 



Beyond this Malacca, at the end and the cape of India Minor , some 

 hundred and fifty miles at sea more towards the south, is that very 

 famous island that is called Taprobana, in which island is produced 

 cinnamon and many other wares, 3 to which country the king 

 of Portugal has ordered to be sent in this last voyage four ships 

 with a factor, who had to remain in that place 4 and trade with 

 the natives, who are heathen, as do the Moors. 



1 This is printed in the Relazioni degli Ambasciatori V eneto al Senato 

 of Eugenio Alberi, Appendice, 1-19. The writer, having accompanied 

 Philip of Burgundy to Spain on the succession of the latter to the throne 

 of Castille, took the opportunity, being on the border of Portugal, 

 to gain " some information from various persons deserving of credit 

 regarding the voyage to Calicut," in order to report the same to the 

 Venetian senate. The document is undated, but was written probably 

 in May or June 1506. Henry Harrisse, in his Americus Vespuccius 35, 

 has " 1506, October 10th (?)," evidently because on that day, according 

 to the Diarii di Marino Sanuto, Quirini made a verbal report to the 

 senate of his mission to Spain, and, among other matters, "di le cosse 

 di Coloqut, et di quella navegation, molto diffuse e le starie e porti." 

 This document is, naturally, not so valuable as that of Leonardo Ca' 

 Masser, and contains manifest errors, due to the writer's ignorance of 

 the subject. 



2 Anjadiva. 



3 It will be noticed that the writer has confused, under the name 

 of Taprobana, the two islands — Ceylon and Sumatra — whose claim to 

 the title has formed the subject of so much controversy. 



4 Malacca. The " four ships " referred to were those under the 

 command of Alfonso de Albuquerque, as stated by Leonardo Ca' 

 Masser. 



