60 



.TOUftNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[VOL. XX. 



Dec. IV., Bk. vi., Chap. vii. 

 ******* 



From there 1 we went to India 2 ; and the king 3 



(whom God keep), being cognisant of my good services, sent 

 me the offer of Ormuz or Ceilao , whichever I chose, which did 

 not have effect on account of my being in the kingdom, 

 because I left there in the year that Lopo Soarez went to 

 India 4 



1 Ormuz. 



2 The speaker is Lopo Vaz de Sampaio, governor of India, 1526-9, 

 who, having been sent home a prisoner, after an incarceration of two 

 years was brought before King J oao II. to make his defence and have 

 sentence passed upon him (see Whiteway 211). The passage here 

 given is from his lengthy speech in his defence : he is speaking of the 

 time when he accompanied Albuquerque on his last expedition in 1515. 



3 Dom Manuel (died 1521). 



4 That is, in 1515. He must, therefore, have left for Portugal at the 

 end of that year ; and the king's offer must have crossed him on the 

 way. The fortress at Ormuz was finished only at the end of 1515, and 

 that of Ceylon not until the end of 1518 : so that in both cases the offer 

 was anticipatory. 



