No. 60.— 1908.] 



LIFE OF COUTO. 



7 



expressed intention to send the king a volume each year, 

 Couto seems to have kept back Decade V. , in order to forward 

 it by the homeward fleet of 1599 1 ; but he was unable to do 

 this, the ships that were to have left Portugal for India in 

 March 1598 having been prevented from sailing by an 

 English armada under the command of the Earl of Cumberland 

 blockading the mouth of the Tagus 2 . It is probable therefore 

 that he sent this volume, together with Decade VI., by the 

 homeward fleet of 1600 3 . 



In compliance with a request of the king's, and possibly 

 because his seventh Decade was not quite complete, Couto 

 sent to Philip III. by the fleet leaving India in 1602 4 the 

 volume that he had " finished " so far back as 1593, and for 

 which Philip III. had several times asked in vain, viz., Decade 

 X. 5 By one of the ships of the homeward fleet of 1602 Couto 

 forwarded his Decade VII. 6 ; but unfortunately this vessel, 

 the Sao Tiago, was captured by the Dutch at St. Helena on 

 16 March after a severe fight, Couto's manuscript perishing 

 with all other documents on board 7 . On receiving the news 

 of this disaster, which might have staggered a younger man, 

 Couto (who seems to have sent home nothing by the fleet of 

 1603) with characteristic energy set to work and re-wrote the 

 whole Decade, completing it in time to send it to the king by 

 the ships that left India for Portugal in 1604. Well might he 

 say, in the letter 8 to King Philip that accompanied this 



1 In his letter of 6 November 1603 (prefixed to Dec. VII.) Couto 

 states that he sent the fourth and fifth Decades by the armada of 1597-8, 

 but in his letter of 20 November 1597 (quoted above), and in Dec. XII. I. 

 ix. , he distinctly mentions only Decade IV. as having being sent. 



2 See Travels of Pedro Teixeira, Introd. xli. n. 



3 Couto in his letter of 6 November 1603 (u.s.) says only that he sent 

 his sixth Decade by this fleet. 



4 See Couto's letter of 6 November 1603 (u.s.). 



5 Internal evidence shows that between 1593 and 1600 Couto must 

 have made additions to and alterations in this Decade. 



6 See his letter of 6 November 1603 (u.s.). 



7 See Faria y Sousa Asia Port. III. n. vi. 5. According to this writer 

 the galleon itself was destroyed ; but Valentyn tells us (Sumatra 29) that 

 the two Dutch ships (Zeelandiaaxid-Langebercque) carried her to Zealand, 

 where silver medals were struck in commemoration of the event. 



8 Dated 6 November 1603. 



