No. 60. — 1908.] barros : history of oeylon. 



29 



had need of them for the Ceilam expedition, as will be seen 



further on he 1 set out for India, and arrived at the time 



that Lopo Soarez had gone to the island of Ceilam to build 

 a fortress, which the king Dom Manuel had commanded 

 him to make 2 . And because of this island's being so notable 

 a thing, and one regarding which many have written some 

 things without trustworthy information, we shall enter upon 

 the second book of this Third Decade by describing the position 

 and the notable things of it. 



Dec. III., Bk. h., Chap. i. 



In which is described the position and things of the island of 

 Ceilam, which the ancients call Tapobrana 3 . 



The island which we generally call Ceilam 4 , whose king 

 Lopo Soarez had gone to place under the obedience of the 

 king Dom Manuel, is situated in front of Cape Comorij, which 

 is the southernmost land of the whole of Indiafthat lies between 

 the two famous rivers Indus and Ganges. The which island 

 is almost of an oval form, and its direction is along this coast 

 of India towards the rumb that the seamen call north-east, 

 the point of which, that which' lies furthest south, is in the 

 altitude of six degrees, and that of the north almost in ten 5 , 

 whereby the length of it will be seventy- eight leagues, and 

 the extreme breadth forty-four 6 ; and the point nearest to the 

 mainland will be distant therefrom sixteen leagues a little more 

 or less 7 . And this passage and strait between the two coun- 

 tries is so full of islets, shoals, and sandbanks, that it can only 

 be navigated through certain channels ; and if it is out of the 

 season, with so much danger, that there is current among the 

 people of that East another fable like that of Charybdis and 



1 Antonio d© Saldanha. 



2 See III. ii. ii. (p. 38). 



3 It will be noticed that Couto also (V. I. vii., p. 80 ff.) uses this 

 erroneous form. In Portuguese writers of the 15th and 16th centuries 

 we find frequent instances of similar metathesis : such as, frol for flor, 

 Madanela for Madalena, Grasto for Castro, &c. 



4 Of. what follows with Couto V. i. vii. (p. 88). 

 6 Really 5| and 9|-. 



6 The actual length and breadth are 270 and 140 English miles, to 

 about 4^ of which the Portuguese league corresponded : so that Barros's 

 figures are exaggerations. 



7 This, again, is too much. From Point Palmyra to Point Calimere 

 is about 46 miles. 



