NO. 50.— 1899.] ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERY. 



19 



(a) The historical evidence from the Portuguese authors, Joao de 

 Barros and De Couto, abundantly proves that the boulder was not 

 inscribed on to mark the site of the grave of a Portuguese grandee 

 as has been conjectured, but was undoubtedly the padrao, which the 

 Portuguese Lexicographer Yieyra explains as a post or pillar on which 

 they engrave an inscription, as discoverers used to do in those countries 

 they newly discovered. I have translated from the Portuguese those 

 passages which bear upon the subject, from which may be seen that 

 the padrao usually contained the escutcheon of the Royal arms of 

 Portugal, the cross, the date, and several other particulars (vide 

 Extracts A and B). 



The first of these padraos was set up by order of the King of 

 Portugal in 1484 at the river Congo. Vasco de Gama set up one in 

 1497 at Melinda, in East Africa, as a testimony of peace and friendship 

 with that king (vide Extract C). 



(b) With regard to the question, who engraved the particular padrao 

 now discovered at Colombo, there seems to be hardly any doubt, for 

 we have a graphic description (vide Extract G-) of how Gonzalo 

 Gonzalves engraved a padrao at Colombo, by order of Don Lourenco, 

 and put Ms name at the foot of it. The name is not visible yet, perhaps 

 because immediately after the departure of the Portuguese ships the 

 natives were incited by the Moors to kindle a large fire at the foot 

 of the padrao and efface all trace of .the Portuguese visit (vide 

 Extract H). This padrao was put up in 1505, and was seen there in 

 1508 by the Portuguese Captain Nuno Yaz Pereira (vide Extract I). 



(c) As regards the date 1501, it must be a mistake, unless indeed 

 two padraos were set up : one in 1501 by an unknown ad- 

 venturous Portuguese sea captain, and another by Don Lourenco in . 

 1505, which still remains to be brought to light ; or it may be that one 

 of the thirty captains who went to India as far south as Cochin with 

 Pedralvares Cabral in 1500-1501, or one of the four captains who 

 accompanied Joao de Nova in 1501-1502 (vide Extracts D and E), to 

 all of whom Ceylon was well known, was the real discoverer in 1501, 

 but that the honour and glory of the discovery were attributed to 

 Don Lourenco, the son of the first Yiceroy of India. 



I am, &c, 



A. E. BUULTJENS. 



Translation of Portuguese Extracts. 

 Extract A. 



At first crosses of wood were set up as a sign of the discovery of 

 new lands. Afterwards King Don John II., in his time, ordered 

 monuments of stone with inscriptions, in which were mentioned the 



C 2 



