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



351 



mode of communication with us, and that perchance the Moors 

 had frightened him that he should not do it ; so without desiring 

 to inquire further into the matter, because the weather would 

 not allow his remaining longer in that port, where he ran risks, he 

 set sail to return to Cochij. And because Nuno Vaz Pereira, 9 

 through the rough weather that had forced them to leave, broke 

 the main yard of his ship, he found it necesary to return once 

 more to the port, where he found that our padram was already 

 blackened by fire, as if they had lighted one at the foot of it ; and on 

 asking the reason of this of the Moors who were there, they laid the 

 blame on the heathens of the country, saying that the latter being 

 an idolatrous people had their fancies about a thing wherever 

 it was made. Nuno Vaz, dealing with the matter in the form of 

 threats if they carried this further, overlooked the past offence ; 

 and having mended the yard of his ship returned to Dom Lourenco , 

 whom he found on the coast of India in a place called Berinjam, 10 

 which is in the lordship of Coulam. And because some Moors 

 who were there had taken part in the murder of Antonio de Sa, 11 

 Dom Lourenco went ashore and burnt the village, in which affair 

 moreover there was bloodshed, both of the natives and of our 

 people, owing to the resistance that they made to the landing and 

 the burning of certain ships that were there awaiting cargo ; and 

 having taken this revenge for the injury that those Moors had 

 done, 12 Dom Lourenco left for Cochij, where he arrived with 

 his fleet. 13 



1 The reference is to Dec. I., liv. vni., cap. L, in which Barros 

 describes the spice trade as it was carried on before the Portuguese 

 arrived in India. The " two straits " are those of the Persian Gulf and 

 the Red Sea. 



2 Cf. C 12. In Dec. III., liv. in., cap. vii., in describing the 

 Maldive islands, Barros treats of coir in more detail. 



3 See infra, C 24 and C 26. It is in Dec. III., liv. n., cap. i., that 

 Barros fulfils the promise here made. 



4 In Osorio, De Rebus Emmanuelis , &c. (1571), 170, this name 

 appears as " Pelagius Sousa," and in this form it occurs in later writers 

 {cf. VaL Ceylon 90). Regarding Payo de Sousa see supra, p. 302, note J. 



5 According to Bar. (II. n. viii.) this man was killed with D. 

 Lourenco at Chaul in 1508. 



6 See B 8, B 10. 



7 Cf. B 13. 



8 See infra, C 24. 



9 See supra, p. 307, note f. 



10 In liv. ix., cap. i., of this Decade Barros spells the name 

 " Berinjan." The place intended is Vilinjum near Covelong Point, 

 some miles south of Trevandrum in Travancore. 



11 At Quilon in October 1505, as Barros relates in liv. IX., cap. 

 iv. , Dom Lourenco avenged the murder in November by burning all the 

 shipping in the port. 



12 It will be noticed that neither Castanheda nor Correa mentions 

 this affair. 



13 It is strange that Barros says not a word regarding the reception 

 by the viceroy of the news of his son's " discovery." 



