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



From the first of the above letters we find that in March, 

 1643, Joao Rodriguez de Sa e Menezes (who was then about 

 thirty-five years of age) left for India in command of the 

 usual annual fleet. That he had not been to the East before 

 seems evident, the duty of taking care of his widowed 

 mother and of his younger brothers having prevented his 

 following in his father's footsteps. How long he remained 

 in India I am unable to say ; but I think it probable that he 

 returned to Portugal in command of the ships of 1644. 



The second letter furnishes fuller details of the sums 

 due to Constantino de Sa e Noronha ; and we learn that it 

 was the Conde de Linhares who took from him, in the 

 King's name, the elephant referred to in the first letter. As 

 this nobleman became Viceroy only in March, 1630, and 

 Constantino de Sa was killed in August of the same year, 

 the transaction must have taken place between these months. 

 Sa e Menezes says nothing of it ; but he tells us (op. cit. 

 p. 590) that the Count wrote twice to Constantino de Sa in 

 harsh terms, upbraiding him for his inaction with regard to 

 the Sinhalese enemy : and these letters seem indirectly to 

 have hurried the unfortunate general to his fate. Ribeiro 

 (Fat. Hist, p. 79) also mentions this fact : and Baldeus 

 (Ceylon, chap. XVII.) professes to give the insulting terms 

 in which the Viceroy wrote to the General. 



The letter of 15th March, 1675, with its verbal repetition 

 of the instructions issued ten years previously, and re-issued 

 in 1670 and 1673, is the last reference to Joao Rodriguez 

 that I have found in these despatches : whether the matter 

 referred to was ever settled, and how, I am unable to say. 

 But shortly afterwards (if he had not already done so, which 

 is possible) Sa e Menezes took his pen in hand to write his 

 book, which appears to have been submitted to the censors, 

 for license to print, in 1678, though it did not appear until 

 1681, the year before he died. 



Since writing the above I have found the following record 

 in Addtl. MS. 20,902 in the British Museum Library, which 

 is entitled " Relacao das Naos e Armadas da India, Com os 



