26 



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



IX.— Note by Mr. D. W. Ferguson * 



Me. Bell, Honorary Secretary, C. B. R. A. S., has asked me to give 

 my views regarding the inscribed boulder discovered in September, 

 1898, under the site of the old Breakwater Office, Colombo. I am, 

 however, somewhat at a disadvantage, as I am not able to inspect the 

 boulder in situ, nor have I a photograph of the coat of arms and date 

 (or letters) regarding which my opinion is asked. I have before 

 me simply the lithographic drawing accompanying the Paper read at 

 the Annual Meeting of the Society on February 23, 1899 ; and how 

 far this is an accurate representation I am unable to judge. 



I have read carefully the letters of the Delegate Apostolic and of 

 Messrs. F. H. de Yos and A. E. Buultjens. The so-called " trans- 

 lations" which the latter appends to his letter are mostly statements 

 in his own words and are full of inaccuracies.f 



Mr. De Vos's remarks are worth consideration, though even he has 

 fallen into some errors.^ 



I am unable to explain the saltire-wise arrangement of the 

 escutcheons found in this stone and the Menikkadawara one. The 

 two " Trinitarian monks " taken by Yasco de Gama in 1497 are held 

 to be mythical by the best authorities (see Vasco de Gama's First 

 Voyage, Hakluyt Soc, 1898, p. 177). Moreover, Yasco de Gama 

 returned to Portugal in 1498, and not in 1501, as Mr. De Yos 

 supposes. 



The Delegate Apostolic quotes a passage from an unpublished 

 manuscript by Fernao de Queiroz, written in 1687, which, he says, 

 " shows that at this date the said stone with the Portuguese coat of 

 arms was known and still exposed to public view." The extract is so 

 misprinted in the proof sent to me that I cannot be sure of the sense ; 

 but, if the Delegate Apostolic is correct as to its meaning, how is it 

 that no other writers refer to this boulder? Whence did Fernao de 

 Queiroz, so late a writer, get his information ; and who was the 

 " Capitao Mor " he speaks of ? The statements of the Delegate 

 Apostolic regarding Lourenco de Almeida's not having a padrao with 

 him when he arrived at Ceylon, and having therefore to content him- 

 self with engraving the coat of arms on a rock, are contradicted by 

 all the Portuguese historians. 



For many years past the subject of the first visit of the Portuguese 

 to Ceylon has occupied my attention, and I think I can assert with 

 absolute confidence that Lourenco de Almeida's envoys were the very 



* Received since the Annual General Meeting. — lion. Sec. 



f At paragraph (a) of his letter he refers to De Couto as an authority 

 for the period under discussion, and quotes Yieyra in one line to contra- 

 dict the assertion he confidently makes in the line before. The last 

 paragraph of his letter is not reliable. 



+ I do not know why Mr. De Vos describes the coat of arms in French 

 the jargon of English heraldry would have done as well. 



