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



347 



other riches in great quantity; and he sent with him Lopo 

 Chanoca 2 and Nuno Vaz Pereira. 3 



******* 



Dom Lourenco having set sail for the islands of Maldiva with 

 the other captains, as his pilots were as yet new to that course, 

 they did not take heed to guard against the currents, which are 

 strong in that latitude, and these made them miss the islands 

 and brought them in sight of the cape of Comorim where land 

 winds were blowing, and by the help of these Dom Lourenco 

 directed his course for the island of Ceilao, whither the viceroy 

 had ordered him to go 



Dom Lourenco directing his course toward this island made 

 landfall at the port of Gabaliquamma, 4 which our people now 

 call the port of Gale : and his arrival becoming known to the lord 

 of the country, the latter feared that he would burn the ships that 

 were in the port, or devastate his country, as he had not enough 

 men to venture to defend it ; wherefore he at once sent a message 

 to Dom Lourenco offering peace and friendship with him, and that 

 he would do all that was in reason. And as this agreement could 

 not be made without someone of our people's going ashore, the 

 king having given hostages for the safety of the person who should 

 go, Dom Lourenco sent on shore a knight named Fernao Co trim 5 

 that he might make the compact : and he having arrived at 

 the king's palace 6 found him at the end of a very large room 

 seated on a very handsome dais made in the form of an altar ; 

 he was clad in a silken bajo, 1 which is a garment after the fashion 

 of a close jacket, and girt with a cloth likewise of silk which reached 

 to his knees, and thence downwards barelegged, with many 

 rings on his fingers and toes ; and in place of a crown he had 

 on his head a cap with two horns of gold and very fine precious 

 stones, and he had earrings of the same. On each side of the dais 

 were three of his gentlemen who held lighted wax candles although 

 it was day , and there were also many other lighted Moorish candle- 

 sticks of silver in every part of the room, which was full of many 

 gentlemen and nobles of the country, and between them was left 

 a passage, by which Fernao Co trim came to where the king was 

 by Whom he was very well received, and they thereupon both 

 agreed to friendship and a treaty, and that the king should 

 give every year as tribute to the king of Portugal one hun- 

 dred and fifty quintals of cinnamon ; and this was agreed to on 

 condition that the viceroy were satisfied with it , and this cinnamon 

 was at once delivered to Dom Lourenco. And whilst it was 

 being loaded, he ordered to be erected on the shore, with the 

 consent of the king, a stone padrdo with the arms of Portugal at 

 one end and the device of the sphere at the other 8 : and this in 

 token that that country was at peace with the Portuguese. All 

 these matters having been concluded, Dom Lourenco turned about 

 for Cochim, and on the way captured several Moorish ships. 9 And 

 on his arrival at Cochim he gave the viceroy an account of what 

 had befallen him, and of what had been agreed to with the lord 

 of Gale, whom he thought tc be the proper king of Ceilao ; and he 

 was greatly pleased with the cinnamon, to be able to send it to 



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