364 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XVIII, 
this Island with Churches and Christians and built Saint 
Leo and this house with the aid of faithful Christians and 
his great munificence, expecting here in this abode of a quiet 
life rest from the great disturbances and dishonours of the 
Sinhalese, in the year 1536."] 
This, wherever it is gone, is the oldest Portuguese 
inscription in Ceylon, with the exception perhaps of the 
enigmatical one on the Breakwater rock, at any rate the 
oldest with a legible date/'^ I am afraid that this stone is 
not likely to reappear until the latest equivalent of the New 
Zealander contemplates the ruins of the present St. Lucia's 
Cathedral from a shattered girder of the Victoria Bridget 
* The next oldesfc is the tombstone of Helena Roiz, 1565 (No. 9). 
f I append Mr. D. Ferguson's interesting remarks on this stone, which 
throw much Hght both on the ancient inscription and the actual fate of 
the stone : — 
"The transcript printed in the Colomho Otsermr of 11th November, 
1836, and reprinted in the C. Lit. Beg.. I., 8, is evidently not quite correct ; 
and the translation thereto appended is very faulty. Mr. J. H. da Cunha 
Rivara, in his " Inscripgoes Lapidares da India Portugneza," published in 
the Boletim of the Geographical Society of Lisbon, 1894, gave an expanded 
version from a faulty copy of the above transcript which had been sent to 
him, I think the following was what was actually inscribed on the stone 
(I separate the combinations) : — 
Aqvi iaz Lviz (2) Monteiro de Setvvel 
o primeiro vigairo confirmadoe primaz 
nesta ilha de Ceilao 
qve edeflqvov esta terra de igreias e cristaos 
e fez Sao L90 e esta casa 
com aiutorio dos fies cristaos e sev. 
Ho gram iuizo esperamdo 
iago aqui nesta morada 
da vida camsada 
descamsaodo 
e dos gramdes trabalhos e desaras de Ceilao 
na era de 1536. 
''The only word I am doubtful about in the above is 'Lviz,' The 
Colombo Observer transcript has ' Ivaz ' (Juaz), which is impossible ; 
Cunha Rivara's version reads ' Luiz,' which seems the best solution. The 
correct translation is as follows : — 
" Here lies Luiz (?) Monteiro of Setuvel, the first confirmed vicar and 
primate in this island of Ceylon, who edified (or built up) this land with 
