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



383 



carbuncle, lesitione 3 (?), catseyes, and garnets and chrysolites 

 which are there in the greatest abundance. Thence comes the 

 good cinnamon, which is not found in other parts. This island of 

 Zelan appears to me to be Traprobana, and not Samatora as many 

 say, although last year I wrote to the contrary : having since then 

 well considered the matter, I affirm that Samatora was not at that 

 time discovered 



1 Like the preceding (C 20), this letter was written from India. 

 It was printed at Florence (?) in 1518 (?), and was reprinted, with 

 emendations, by Ramusio in the first volume of his Navigationi. 



2 In the original the letter is dated "15 kal. Oct. mdxvii." For 

 this Ram. substitutes "18 September 1517," which is a day out. 



3 In original " lesitioe," which Ram. slightly alters to " lesicione." 

 I cannot find any word in the least like this as the name of a precious 

 stone ; and the early French translation of Corsali's letters, in torn. ii. 

 of Historiale Description de VAfrique (1556), avoids the difficulty by 

 omitting the word. The only other translation that I know of, of 

 Corsali's letters, viz., the German, in General Chronicen (1576), renders 

 the mysterious word by " gelblichte Rubin," that is, " yellowish 

 ruby," by which perhaps the orange-coloured spinel is meant ; and 

 if the above list of precious stones is compared with that in Corsali's 

 first letter it will be seen that the " lesitione" of the one corresponds 

 with the "spinette" of the other. 



C 24. 

 Barros III. n. ii. 

 [1518.] 



King Dom Manuel, because he had much information regarding 

 the fertility of this island, and learnt that from it came all the 

 cinnamon of those parts, and that the lord of Galle, by the 

 manner in which he acted towards D. Lourenco (as we have related 

 above 1 ), desired to pay him tribute, in order to retain his friend- 

 ship ; and that afterwards, by means of Afonso Dalboquerque, 

 the king of Columbo, who was the true lord of the cinnamon, 

 wished to obtain this peace and amity, 2 wrote to the said Afonso 

 Dalboquerque that he should go in person to this island, if he 

 thought well, and should erect in this port of Columbo a fortress, 

 in order by its means to secure the offerings of this king. 3 How- 

 ever, as Afonso Dalboquerque, whilst he lived, considered other 

 affairs of more importance to the state of India, and that they 

 should first be made secure, rather than this island of Ceilam, and 

 the more so as the king supplied us very well with all the cinnamon 

 that we needed, he dissembled with the reminders which the 

 king sent him each year regarding this matter, giving him these 

 and other reasons why he neglected to carry it out. 4 When Lopo 

 Soarez came out to India he also carried this instruction 5 ; and 

 nevertheless he first proceeded to the strait of the Red Sea, which, 

 for the reasons given by Afonso Dalboquerque, was of more import- 

 ance ; but seeing how little he had effected by this expedition, 



