84 



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



[Vol. XX. 



continued around, in which could be seen these other letters 

 RMNgs . This chain and the medals were taken to Joao de 

 Mello, who prized them much, and took them to the kingdom 

 to give them to the king, and was lost at sea in the year 1590. 

 when he went in the ship Sad Bernardo in the company of 

 Manoel de Sousa Coutinho, who had terminated his governor- 

 ship of India and sailed in the ship Bom Jesus 1 . And it is 

 possible that these coins were some of those that the freedman 

 of Annius brought there, and that during the six months 

 that he was in that island he set about those buildings in the 

 Roman style, and that he placed in the foundations those coins 

 (a thing very common in the whole of Europe). And after 

 considering the letters on the coin, and having read many 

 ancient letterings, it seems to us that this letter C is the 

 first of the name of Claudius ; and thaf the following ones, 

 which were already worn away, must have read Imperator, 

 because the others RMNl^ clearly stand for Romanorum 2 . 



Another coin like this one was found in the Spanish Indies, 

 which was discovered by Pedro Colon (according to what is 

 stated by Lucius Marinseus Siculus in his book De las Cosas 

 Memorables de Espana, in the life of the Catholic kings 3 ) when 

 other foundations like these were being excavated, which bore 

 the likeness of Caesar Augustus. This coin Do in Joao Rufo, 

 archbishop of Cuenca, had, and sent it to the supreme pontiff, 

 from which Lucius Marinseus 4 inferred that the Romans 

 formerly sailed to those parts. 



And returning to our subject, if it is true, as Hector de 

 Laguna 5 says, that in the time of Pope Paul was found a stick 



1 See infra, p. 305, note 5 . Valentyn alters the date to 1591 (it was 

 really 1592), and for Bom Jesus has " Ban Tehis " ! 



2 Of course there is not a trace of Roman buildings in Ceylon ; 

 and though many Roman coins have been found in various parts of 

 the island, there is no proof that a single Roman ever landed on its 

 shores. See, on the above, my note in the R. A. S. Jl.,n. s., 1905, p. 156. 

 Valentyn makes nonsense of Couto's argument in the last clause, by 

 substituting " Keyser " for " Imperator," and " der Romeynen " 

 for " Romanorum." 



3 Obra compuesta por L. Marineo de las cosas memorables de 



Espana. Alcala de Henares, 1539. 



4 Valentyn has " Maximus." 



5 For " Hector " read " Andres." Couto seems to have evolved the 

 erroneous name in copying from Garcia da Orta, who throughout his 

 work refers to Laguna as " Tordelaguna," an error which his friend 

 Dines Bosque points out to him in the 58th Coloquio (see G-. da Orta i. 

 210, ii. 378-9). The reference here is to Dr. Andres de Laguna' s transla- 

 tion of Dioscorides, entitled Pedacio Dioscorides Anazarbeo, acerca de la 



