8 



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



volume : — " Every time (most Catholic and powerful king 

 and our lord) that I consider the brevity and little time in 

 which I finished five Decades of the History of India, which 

 by command of the most Catholic king D. Filippe, your 

 father of glorious memory and the first of that name 1 , I went 

 continuing on the three of Joao de Barros 2 , . . . certainly 

 I myself marvel : because I know not what spirit led 

 me to gather and discover things that were so forgotten, and 

 of which there was almost no remembrance ; and of countries 

 so distant and separated as are from remote Maluco to the 

 Cape of Good Hope : for which were necessary season? and 

 monsoons, in order to send for and get the matters and infor- 

 mation so that the History might be written . ' ' No wonder , also . 

 that his letter to the king concludes hopefully with these 

 words : — " And I beg your majesty to be pleased to accept 

 this small service, in order that with the more gusto I may 

 prosecute this History, which the king your father and your 

 majesty have enjoined on me, until I arrive at the time of 

 your majesty, whom may our Lord preserve in health and 

 long years of life, as is necessary to all Christendom ;"— for 

 on 10 February 1602 Philip III. had written to Couto 3 

 acknowledging a letter of his, with suggestions regarding the 

 Torre do Tombo, of which the king expressed approval, add- 

 ing that he had ordered provisions to be passed 4 , which he 

 was commanding the viceroy to have fulfilled 5 . Philip con- 

 cluded his letter thus : — " I have seen the Decades of the 

 History of India that you sent me 6 , in which I consider myself 

 very well served by you, and in the good manner in which you 

 are proceeding with this, which I enjoin on you to go on 



1 That is, the first King Philip of Portugal. 



2 Couto then specifies the Decades and the years in which he sent 

 them, as I have stated above. 



3 The letter is prefixed to Dec. V. 



4 This provision, dated 13 February 1602, is printed in a footnote 

 in A.P.-O. hi. 498-501. It refers to the provision of 25 February 

 1595 (see above), which, it says, had not yet been fulfilled, and pro- 

 ceeds to formulate it anew, ordering that it be duly carried out. 



5 The letter to the viceroy containing this command is dated 31 

 January 1602. 



6 These were Decs. TV., V., VI., and X. 



