&2 



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



Salzburg 1 , in which he gave him an account of the first voyages 

 that the Portuguese made to India, says that they arrived at 

 the shores of Calicut, and thence at Qamatra, which anciently 

 was called Tapobrana. 



Benedeto Bordone in his Insulario 2 says that the island of 

 Madagascar (which is that of Sao Lourenco) lay to the west of 

 Ceilao one thousand three hundred miles and to the south of 

 Tapobrana one thousand eight hundred ; and many other 

 geographers who write in the same way, whom we omit, to 

 avoid prolixities. 



Our great Joao de Barros alone, a man most learned in 

 geography, speaking in his Decades of the island of Ceilao 3 , 

 says that it is the Tapobrana of Ptolemy, as he proved more 

 fully in his Tables of Geography, which after his death dis- 

 appeared, which was a very serious loss. And although his 

 authority were enough as sufficient proof of Ceilao's being 

 Tapobrana, and Ptolemy's putting it on the hither side of 

 the Ganges on the coast of India (which cannot be under- 

 stood of Qamatra, which lies so far beyond the Ganges), 

 nevertheless we shall examine the ancient geographers whom 

 we have named, and shall show how all speak of Ceilao, and 

 not of Qamatra. 



Pliny 4 says that Tapobrana is six thousand stadia in length, 

 which is two hundred and ten leagues, and that in the time of 

 the emperor Claudius it was discovered by a freedman of Annius 

 Plocamus, who going along Arabia in a ship was caught by 

 the westerly gales, and in fifteen days passed beyond Carmania. 

 and arrived at Tapobrana, and that the king of that place 

 received him very well, and he gave him some coins which he 

 had brought of those that were current in Rome, which had 

 the likeness of the emperor engraved on them ; and that the 

 king sent with him his ambassadors to visit that emperor. 



By all these facts we consider it to be proved that this is 

 the island of Ceilao. As to the size of the island, it is the same 

 that Ptolemy 5 gives to it, because in his tables it extends as 

 far as to pass the equator two degrees to the south, by which 



1 De Mollucis insulis, itemque aliis pluribus mirandis, quae novissima 

 Castellanorum nauigatio szreniss. Imperatoris Caroli V. auspicio sus- 

 pecta, nuper inuenit : Maximiliani Transylvani epistola ad Reverendiss. 

 Cardinalem Saltzburgensem lectu per quam jucunda. Coloniae, .... anno 

 .... MDXXIII. mense lanuario. (Often reprinted.) 



2 Isolario .... net qual si ragiona di tutte Vlsoledelmondo .... Vinegia, 

 1534 (and later editions). 



3 See supra, III. II. i. (p. 29 et seq.). 

 1 See McCrindle's Anc. Ind. 120 ff. 



5 See McCrindle's Anc. Ind. as desc. by Ptol. 247 ft*. 



