6 



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



every assistance possible should be afforded to Couto in the 

 preparation of his history 1 . At the same time the king 

 appears to have begun to entertain doubts regarding Couto's 

 capacity forvthe work that he had intrusted to him 2 . No 

 doubt these suspicions were due to enemies of Couto's ; and 

 they were soon set at rest. 



By D. Affonso de Noronha, captain-major of the homeward 

 fleet, who left Goa on 21 December 1597, Couto sent his 

 Decade IV. to the king 3 ; but Philip II., who had committed 

 to Couto the task of writing this history, was fated not to see 

 a single volume of it : for when the ships reached Lisbon in 

 August 1598 he was already past cure, and he died on 13 

 September. In a letter 4 , dated 20 November 1597, accom- 

 panying this volume Couto states that he had already completed 

 six Decades, viz., IV., V., VI., and X., XI., XII. 5 , these last 

 three having been written before he received the royal com- 

 mand to go back and begin where Barros left off. The history 

 of the intervening period, he adds, he will strive to write, if life 

 and the royal favour be continued to him. The receipt of this 

 letter and the sight of the volume that it accompanied seem to 

 have dispelled any doubts that the new king Philip III. may 

 have had in regard to Couto's capabilities, and we find him 

 writing now and then to his viceroy to afford the historian all 

 the assistance he might require 6 . In accordance with his 



1 See A.P.-O. iii. 842-5, 498 n. 



2 In his letter of 15 February 1597 {A.P.-O. iii. 710-1), the king 

 speaks of having incharged the writing of the history of India upon one 

 Diogo do Couto of Goa, and requests the viceroy to obtain information 

 as to his talent for the task ; while in hi s letter of 3 ( 5) March 1598 

 {A.P.-O. iii. 845-6), the crown prince tells the viceroy that he learns 

 that Couto is not as capable as he was at first informed, and that he has 

 a fault in his birth : regarding which matters he orders the viceroy to 

 inquire in consultation with the archbishop of Goa, and that if they find 

 him not fit to be intrusted with the history, or the care of the Torre do 

 Tombo, the king is to be advised thereof, Couto being dissembled with 

 meanwhile. 



3 As he states in Dec. XII. i. ix. 



4 It is prefixed to the printed edition of Dec. IV. 



5 Probably no more than the first five books of this Decade. 



6 See royal letters of 11 January 1599 (c. 5), 25 January 1601 (c. 1). 

 31 January 1602 (c. 22), and 26 February 1602 (c. 2), in Brit. Mus. Lib. 

 I dditl. Mss. 20861-2. 



