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



but no record of any such letter exists. Then he says (2) that the 

 viceroy would probably wait until he Jearnt the result of the 

 expedition, " which would only occupy a few weeks, before com- 

 municating the matter to the king." Very probably ; but this 

 contradicts the previous proposition ; and as to the " few weeks," 

 Oastanheda, as I have stated in my Paper, implies that D. Loure- 

 nco did not return from Ceylon until the end of January or begin- 

 ning of February 1506, which makes the expedition last certainly 

 more than " a few weeks." Finally, Mr. Pieris would apparently 

 have it, on the authority of Correa, that the viceroy did not write 

 to the king at all regarding the expedition, but sent a messenger to 

 report it by word of mouth : which hypothesis, again, destroys the 

 one first advanced. 



With regard to Mr. Pieris' s next assertion, I have only to remark 

 that to accuse me of casting doubt on a statement in a letter of the 

 viceroy's, when in fact I suggested that the summarist of the 

 letter {which itself does not exist) had perhaps misinterpreted the 

 viceroy's words, is either gross carelessness or something worse. 

 If we had the viceroy's letter itself, all our doubts as to the time of 

 year when the " discovery " of Ceylon took place would probably 

 be resolved. 



Before I proceed to reply to Mr. Pieris' s further criticisms, I 

 would take this opportunity to adduce soms fresh evidence in 

 confutation of Castanheda's statements regarding D. Lourenco' s 

 expedition. That writer, as I have said, leads us to believe that 

 it was early in November 1505 that D. Lourenco left for the 

 Maldives and Ceylon, and that he did not return thence to Cochin 

 before the end of January 1506. Now, from the letter of Gaspar 

 Pereira to the king, referred toon page 295 of my Paper, we learn 

 that on 26 December 1505 D. Lourenco returned to Cochin in the 

 Flor de la mar from Cananor, whither the viceroy had sent him to 

 load that ship for Portugal. When D. Lourenco left Cochin for 

 Cananor we do not know ; but it must have been previous to 

 18 December, with which day Gaspar Pereira's letter commences. 

 (It is most unfortunate that his first letter to the king has perished.) 

 Therefore, if the expedition to Ceylon had already taken place, D. 

 Lourenco must have returned from that island in ample time for 

 his father to report its " discovery " to the king by the ships that 

 left for Portugal in January 1506. That he did not do so seems 

 absolutely certain. Further, Castanheda states that from Coulam 

 D. Lourenco returned to Cochin. On the other hand, Barros says 

 that from Coulam D. Lourenco proceeded to Caecoulao (Kayan- 

 kulam), where he left some ships to be loaded with pepper. This 

 seems to be borne out by Gaspar Pereira, who says that on 31 De- 

 cember Nuno Vaz Pereira arrived in his galley at Cochin, and 

 reported, among other things, that Gongalo de Paiva and Antao 

 Vaz were anchored off " Caycoulam." (On the same day there 

 arrived at Cochin a ship laden with cinnamon, which spice was 

 transferred to the S. Gabriel for transmission to Portugal ; and the 

 viceroy is said to have expected to get further supplies by native 

 vessels. Not a word, however, is said of any cinnamon brought 



