No. 60. — 1908.] barros : history of ceylon. 45 



heathens of those parts, these two things go together, priest- 

 hood and government of men. And as the kings have a great 

 regard for their priests, and much more for the chiefs of them, 

 who have that jurisdiction that as regards the clergy the 

 bishops have amongst us, the kings themselves are brammanes 

 and are superior to all in their kingdom. So powerful is the 

 ambition to rule, that the princes of the earth are not content 

 to hold in subjection their vassals by means of the adminis- 

 tration of the secular government which God has given to 

 them, by which they have made themselves masters of their 

 bodies and external actors of the works that each one does, in 

 order to execute upon him the laws of justice, according to 

 those that were given for that purpose ; but they have also 

 wished to be masters of the souls and internal authorities of the 

 mind, which belong to God alone, or to those who (according 

 to our gospel) are heirs of this mystery. Having made this 

 agreement, Lopo Soarez, both with the help that the king 

 commanded to be given for that purpose , of the people of the 

 country, as also with the people of the armada, in a few days 

 finished the fortress, almost at the end of November, to 

 which he gave the name of Nossa Senhora das Virtudes 1 . 

 And at this time there arrived at it Dom J oam da Silveira, who 

 (as we have said above) was sent with certain ships to the 

 islands of Maldiva 2 ; on whom, because of his being a person 

 who had the necessary qualifications and being also his nephew , 

 Lopo Soarez bestowed the captaincy of it, leaving with him the 

 troops needful for its defence, and also officials for transacting 

 the affairs of commerce. And because the Moors were accus- 

 tomed to go to that island, having been scared away by our 

 armadas that went about Malabar (as we have said), Lopo 

 Soarez wished to deprive them of that place of refuge, leaving 

 as captain -major of the sea, with four sail for the guarding of 

 that port of Columbo, Antonio de Miranda Dazevedo 3 . 



1 Barros and Correa both give this as the name of the fortress. If it 

 was actually so called by Lopo Soares, the name must have been soon 

 changed ; for Antonio de Miranda de Azevedo, writing to the king on 

 8 November 1519, from the fortress, calls it Santa Barbara (see Alg. 

 Doc, 436). The festival of St. Barbara falls on 4 December. 



2 The reference is to III. i. x. (p. 29). In the chapter following 

 this one Barros describes Dom Joao's expedition (see p. 46). 



3 Correa does not mention this man. Castanheda says that he was " a 

 man who had been long in India and who was very experienced in war," 

 and that it was for this reason Lopo Soares left him as captain-major of 

 the sea at Columbo, his nephew, D. Joao da Silveira, being only a 

 youth, 



