14 



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



of continuing the Decades 1 . It was not until nine years after 

 his accession that Philip IV. wrote to the viceroy, the Conde 

 de Linhares, to look for a man to continue the history of India, 

 in accordance with which command Antonio Bocarro was 

 chosen 2 , who, however , wrote the history of only five years, 

 and, through a misunderstanding, commenced his record 

 with the succession to the viceroyalty of D. Jeronimo de 

 Azevedo in December 1612 3 , thus leaving a period of twelve 

 years unchronicled. 



We have seen above that up to the time of Couto's death 

 four of his Decades had been printed, viz., the fourth, fifth, 

 sixth, and seventh. Decade VIII. (or rather the summary thereof 

 made by Couto) was not printed until 1673, when it was pub- 

 lished in Lisbon, but from a faulty manuscript apparently 4 . 

 The fragmentary summary of Decade IX. was never published 

 separately, but first appeared in 1736 in conjunction with the 

 preceding Decades. Of Decade X. 120 pages were printed, 

 to form part of this edition, but for some reason the volume 

 was never finished 5 ; so that it was not until 1788 that this 

 Decade, the first that Couto wrote, appeared complete in 

 print 6 , forming part of the 1778-88 edition of Barros and 



1 See, however, Teixeira de Aragao, Descr. Ger. e Hist, das Moedas , &c. , 

 iii. 79, where it is stated that by an alvard of 21 May 1620 Fernao 

 de Albuquerque appointed Joao Vasco Casco (?) in substitution of 

 Gaspar- Aires (sic) ; that on 31 December 1622 D. Fran, da Gama 

 appointed to the office Gaspar de Sousa de Lacerda, knight of St. 

 James, on 14 November 1623 Alvaro Pinto Coutinho, intitled cosmo- 

 grapher, and on 2 December 1626 Bartholomeu Galvao, "with the 

 charge also of continuing to write the history." 



2 See Bocarro Introd. xvii. 



3 See Bocarro Introd. xvii. 2, 377. 



4 Inn. Fran, da Silva, in his Dice. Bibl. Port. ii. 154, says that, among 

 other faults, this edition is " full of locutions and phrases very different 

 from the style of Couto." The British Museum Library contains a 

 manuscript, written in 1654, of this summary of Dec. VIII., which 

 varies much from the printed edition. (It is evidently a duplicate of 

 the manuscript owned by the Visconde de Azevedo, described in Silva' s 

 Dice. Bibl. Port, ix., supplt. 122-3.) 



5 See Silva's Dice. Bibl. Port, ix., supplt. 122. 



6 From a manuscript in the library of the convent da Graca in Lisbon 

 (Dice. Bibl. Port. ii. 154). 



