No, 56.— 1905.] PORTUGUESE INSCRIPTIONS. 
357 
There is a reference to an officer of this name in a 
History of the Company of Jesus in Asia," by an Italian 
Member of the Order, Father Danielle Bartoii,* who lived 
1608-1685, which, relating how on one occasion the plague 
was stopped by St» Francis Xavier, adds : " Many more 
details are given about what happened in the island of Man- 
nar (where took place the martyrdom of 600 Christians, 
which we related a few pages higher up). The fact is made 
known to us by the report of an eye-witness, D. Giovanni 
Melio Sampaio, a Portuguese nobleman, who in after years 
held the office of Captain in the fortress of the same island 
and in the Kingdom of Kandy." Doubtless we have here 
part of the tombstone of the wife of this officer.f There were 
Deha Istoria 
DeUa 
"Compagnie DeJesu h'Asia 
Descritta 
Dal P. Daniello Bartoli 
Delia Medesima Compag-nia 
It was reprinted in 1833 at Venice 
I am indebted for this reference to the Very Rev. Father Vorlander, 
0. M.I., and the Rev. Father Beand, O.M.I., Principal of St. Patrick's 
College, Jaffna. 
t Mr. Ferguson writes : "The captain of Mannar (where the memorial 
was found) in 1587-1588 was Joao de Mello, accroding to Couto (V,, x. i.), 
who in a previous decade (V., i. vii.) mentions him by his full name, 
Jo'aO de Mello de Sampaio. He was probably the same person whom 
Couto names in dec. IX., cap. xiii., as son of Dr. Graspar de Mello ; if 
so, he was brother-in-law to the unlucky Pedro Lopes de Sousa (Couto, X., 
1. ix.), who met his fate on the Kandyan hills in 1594 (Ribeiro, I., vii.) 
When Joao de Mello de Sampaio assumed the charge of Mannar I do not 
know, but Couto tells us (V., i. viii.) that it was during his captaincy 
that there were unearthed at Mantota certain coins and an iron chain, 
which were thought to be Roman. This occurred, says Couto, in *1574 or 
1575,' which I take to be an error for ' 1584 or 1585.' The great Portu- 
guese historian also informs us that the above-mentioned relics were taken 
with him, to be presented to the King of Portugal, by Joao de Mello when 
lie sailed from India in ' 1590 ' (actually 1592) by the ' S. Bernardo,' which 
was lost with all on board. As to Dona Maria de Lacerda, I can only say 
that she was possibly the daughter of one of the Pereiras de Lacerda 
whom Couto mentions as taking part in the defence of Columbo and 
Cota." 
