No. 60. — 1908.] couto : history of ceylon. 



165 



Dec. VI., Bk. x., Chap. xiv. 

 * * * * # * * 



Summer having begun, in the early part of September [1553] 

 there arrived at the bar of Goa two ships from the kingdom : 



The viceroy warmly welcomed the captain-major, who 



delivered to him the bag of vias 1 , in which he found various 

 instructions regarding matters which the king commanded 

 him to attend to at once, and of some oi these we shall give 

 the purport, because it is necessary for our history. 



The viceroy found an alvard 2 , in which the king commanded 

 him immediately, as soon as he had read it, to return to the 

 king of Ceilao all the money and jewels that he had taken 

 from him ; and if any had been sold, to pay him their value; 

 because the king considered that the viceroy had done him 

 great disservice by his conduct towards that king, for which 

 he reprehended him in his letters. The viceroy at once 

 began to carry into execution the alvard, and dispatched the 

 galleon of the Ceilao voyage 3 , in which he ordered to embark 

 Affonso Pereira de Lacerda, whom he appointed to the 

 captaincy of that island, ordering Dom Duarte Deca to return 4 , 

 and by him he sent to that king all the jewels that still remained 

 to be sold ; and of the rest, which might be worth some 

 two hundred thousand pardaos, a declaration was made in the 

 journal of Belchior 5 Botelho (upon whom all had been 

 incharged) , in order that it might be repaid to him little by 

 little ; but of the whole the poor king did not get back twenty 

 thousand pardaos, by instalments, and by articles that were 

 sent to him, because all the rest was deducted, part in the 

 tribute, and the greater quantity in gifts and favours that he 

 bestowed upon captains, alcaides mores, secretaries, fidalgos, 

 officials, and servants of the viceroys and governors. And in 

 these gifts was well fulfilled that old adage that says : " Monro 



1 The royal dispatches were termed vias, because they were generally 

 sent in quadruplicate, one set, or via, in each ship. 



2 A royal order. 



3 See supra, p. 121, note 3 . 



i From VII. i. vii. and VII. ii. iv. it appears that, although " dis- 

 patched " at this time, Affonso Pereira did not actually enter on the 

 post until April 1555 (see pp. 169, 170, infra). If D. Duarte Deca left 

 Ceylon, as he was ordered to do, ,it is to be presumed that Fernao 

 Carvalho continued to act as captain of Columbo. 



5 This must be a slip of the pen for " Simao," as it was upon Simao 

 Botelho that all the Ceylon plunder was incharged (see supra, 

 p. 150). Belchior was Simao's eldest son (see O Thesouro do Bei de 

 Oeyldo 7). 



