348 



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



Portugal by Johao da Nova or by Vasco Gomez Dabreu, whose 



ships had begun to load with a view to leaving for Portugal 



And he afterwards dispatched Johao da Nova and Vasco Gomez 

 Dabreu, to whom he intrusted an elephant to take to his lord the 

 king on account of its being so strange a beast in Portugal, whither 

 they set sail in February 1506, and Johao da Nova was driven 

 back from the Cape of Good Hope, his ships making so much 

 water that he was not able to proceed further, and wintered at the 

 island of Zanzibar ; and Vasco Gomez wintered in Mozambique, 

 because it was very late when he arrived there, and the westerly 

 winds were already blowing. 10 



1 In chap. xxv. Felipe Rodriguez is mentioned as captain of the 

 ship Spera (Esphera or Esfera). 



2 See supra, B 2. 



3 See infra, B 9. 



4 See infra, C 22, note 27 . 



5 See infra, B 9, B 10. 



6 Cf. what follows with the account in B 3. 



7 Malay bdju (see Hobson-Jobson s.v. " Badjoe"). 



8 The arms and device were one on each side, not at each end 

 (cf. B 2, note 12 ). The sphere was a device bestowed upon Dom 

 Manuel by King Joao II. Regarding the padrdes see Three Voy. of V. 

 da Gama 73, 141 ; First Voy. of V. da Gama 169-7 



9 Gf. B 9. 



10 On the foregoing see supra, p. 298. 



B9. 



Barros I. x. v. 

 [1506 ?] 



The Moors who engaged in the traffic of the spiceries and riches 

 of India, seeing that with our entrance into it they could no longer 

 make their voyages because of these armadas that we maintained 

 on the Malabar coast, at which they all called, sought for another 

 new route by which to convey the spiceries that they obtained 

 from the parts about Malaca, such as cloves, nutmegs, mace, 

 sandalwood, pepper, which they obtained from the island of 

 Qamatra at the ports of Pedir and Pacem and many other things 

 from those parts ; which route they followed by coming outside 

 of the island of Ceilam and between the islands of Maldiva, crossing 

 that great gulf until they reached the mouths of the two straits 

 that we have mentioned, 1 in order to avoid this coast of India 

 which we had closed to them. When the Adceroy learnt of this 

 new route that they were taking, and also of the island of Ceilam, 

 where they loaded cinnamon because all that was to be found in 

 those parts was there, on the ground of the great importance that 

 it would be to the king's service to stop that route, and to discover 



