180 



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



[Vol. XX. 



adjacent to them and to all the coast, separating from it the 

 great and widespread Christianity that lies in the interior of 

 Cochim, Cranganor, and Coulao, and in the mountains of 

 Malavar, which was ruled and governed by Armenian arch- 

 bishops and bishops that follow the false sect of the heresiarch 



Nestor, 



******* 



Deo. VII., Bk. vra., Chap. x. 



******* 



And the winter setting in 1 , he [the viceroy] spent it in revising 

 the general muster-roll, and in making a new one, in order to ex- 

 clude from it all the artizan mechanics that received the king's 

 pay, who were a great number, by which he saved the state a 

 good sum of money, and prevented an excessive number of 

 old soldiers, who were always paid either by patronages or by 

 bribes 2 ; and at the same time he ordered the whole fleet to be 

 got ready, and many provisions and munitions to be collected, 

 as he had determined to cross over to Ceilao against the 

 king of Jafanapatao, which lies at the northern point of the 

 island ; because the king 3 (in an instruction) had strongly 

 recommended him to take steps to destroy him and capture 

 his kingdom, because he was there acting the pirate and had 

 ordered all the ships and vessels of the Portuguese that passed 

 by his coast to be set upon, and was using stratagems to get 

 them to put in to the coast, so as to rob them 4 , sending by 

 night to cut their cables, by which means he had committed 

 great robberies and destructions ; and to strive as much as 

 possible to transfer to that part the inhabitants of the town of 

 Sao Thome, so that they might not be subjected to the insults 

 and affronts that the king of Bisnaga sought to offer to them, 



1 In May 1560. 



2 In the fleet of 1559 there left Portugal for India nearly three thou- 

 sand men of arms. Couto himself, a lad of 15, came out in the admiral 

 ship, the Flor de la mar, as he tells us in VII. vm. ii. 



3 By "the king" is apparently meant Dom Sebastiao, who succeeded 

 to the throne on the death of his grandfather I). Joau III., 11 June 

 1557. But as D. Sebastiao was at this time (1560) only six years of age, 

 we must suppose that the 4 ' instruction ' ! referred to came from the 

 regent, his grandmother Dona Catharina, and his uncle the cardinal 

 D. Henrique. In this year the Inquisition with all its horrors was 

 established in India. 



4 Cf. the statement of Xavier quoted on p. 120, note s . 



