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



should continue that no more, dissimulated about what had happened, 

 and having repaired the yard of his ship returned to Don Lourenco, 

 whom he met on the coast of India. (Dec. I., lib. X., chap. V., p. 429.) 



Extract I. 



1508 a.d. — The Yiceroy,Don Francisco de Almeida, sent Nuno Yaz 

 Pereira in the ship Sancto Espirito to the Island of Ceylon to bring 

 cinnamon, but he did not succeed, for the reason that the king of the 

 country was very ill, and the Moors had corrupted the people to hatred 

 against us. And though Nuno Yaz could have done harm to them by 

 taking thither a regiment of the Yiceroy, yet he did not make war by 

 reason of the peace which his son Don Lourenco had agreed to, and 

 of which there stood as a testimony the padrao, which was left behind 

 at a place in Colombo, whither Nuno Yaz went. (Dec. II., lib. II., 

 chap. I., pp. 228, 229.) 



YI. — His Excellency the Delegate Apostolic to 

 His Excellency the Governor. 



Kandy, December 13, 1898. 



Your Excellency, — I have received Your Excellency's letter of 

 the 8th of this month, together with a copy of Mr. A. E. Buultjens' able 

 remarks regarding the archaeological discovery at the Colombo 

 Breakwater. 



I have no objection whatever to my few remarks on the subject 

 being communicated to the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society. 



I beg to add to the extracts from Barros, given by Mr. Buultjens, 

 a quotation from the manuscript of F. Fernao de Queiroz written in 

 1687, which shows that at this date the said stone with the Portuguese 

 coat of arms was known and still exposed to public view.* 



The stone cannot be properly called apadrao. The padrao had the 

 shape of a pillar, as shown by those which still exist on the African 

 coasts. On their voyages of discovery the Portuguese used to take 

 with them ready-made padraos, to be placed on the shores of newly 

 discovered countries of which they took possession. 



D. Lourenzo de Almeida had not provided himself with a padrao, 

 as the end of his expedition was the Maldive Islands, and he landed 

 at Ceylon accidentally, brought there by a storm. 



He had therefore to content himself with engraving the traditional 

 coat of arms on a boulder (rocha). 



We have the example of another Portuguese coat of arms engraved 

 on a boulder which can still be seen near the Zambezi falls. 



* Vide extract on next page. 



