NO. 50.— 1899.] ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERY. 



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and the sovereigns of the couDtry, that for a certain price they should 

 give us their merchandise and receive ours, just as was agreed to with 

 the kings of Cananor, Challe, Cochin, Coulon, and Ceylon, which are 

 the chief places for all sorts of spiceries in India. But this method 

 of contract is only as regards the spiceries which they give to the 

 officers of the king, who reside there in their warehouses, for the cargo 

 of the ships which go to that kingdom. (Dec. I., lib. VI., chap. I., 

 pp. 11, 18, 19.) 



Extract F. 



1502-1504 a.d. — Vasco de Gama went to India on his second voyage 

 and reached as far south as Cochin in 1502. Alfonso de Albuquerque 

 in 1503 and Lopo Suares in 1504 were the captains of the annual fleet 

 of ships to India, but neither of them touched Ceylon, although the 

 produce of this Island, especially cinnamon and rubies (p. 177), had 

 been known in Europe before the Portuguese came to Ceylon. 



1505 a.d. — Don Francisco de Almeida was sent to reside in India as 

 Captain-General, and was afterwards entitled Viceroy of India. Upon 

 the occasion when he made solemn covenant with the King of Cochin 

 an inscription was made on a padrao that a yearly payment of six 

 hundred cruzaclos* would be made by the latter. (Dec. I., lib. IX., 

 chap. V., p. 356.) 



Extract G. 



1505 A.D.; — And therefore Don Lourenco asked some people of the 

 country [Colombo'] to come, and with their consent he set up a padrao 

 of stone on a boulder, and on it he ordered to inscribe a device to 

 show that he had come there and discovered that island. Since 

 Hercules cannot boast to himself with regard to the padraos of his 

 discovery ; Gonzalo Gonzalves, who was the engineer of the work, 

 had in this matter so great glory, since he placed his own name at the 

 foot of it. And so Gonzalo Gonzalves became more truly the architect 

 of that column than Hercules of the many which the Greeks attribute 

 to him in their writings. (Dec. I., lib. X., chap. V., p. 425.) 



Extract H. 



After Don Lourenco set out for Cochin, one of his captains, Nuno 

 Vaz Pereira, had the great yard of his ship broken in a storm, and he 

 was therefore obliged, in order to repair it, to return once more to the 

 harbour [Colombo'], where he found that our padrao was already singed 

 by the fire which had been placed at the foot of it. Upon inquiring 

 into the reason of this, the Moors who were there laid the blame upon 

 the heathens of the country, saying that they were an idolatrous nation 

 and had some superstitious reason for what they did. Nuno Vaz 

 having admonished them about the matter by way of threats that they 



* Cruzado = two shillings and threepence. 



