— 109 — 
mention of D6 Garcia Noronha, in whose fleet of 16 ships 
which left Portugal in 1511, the name of Pedro Mascarenhas, 
one of his captains first occurs. (Cap. II.) This Chapter is, 
of all others, the one most bearing on the point, and his vo- 
yages in these parts, as well as his route from Madagascar is 
copied in full ; and his whole career up to his return to Por- 
tugal in 1527, is extracted. In this Cap. there is mention of 
a ship called Galeya ; but not the most distant intimation of 
anything bearing on the discovery of the Islands, afterwards 
Bourbon and Mauritius, is to be found. 
CASTANHEDA (1552.) 
This historian is one of the most complete and elaborate of 
the Portuguese writers. The extracts made from his work, 
particularly from Books II and III at the time of the Gover- 
norship of Almeida when Bourbon and Mauritius have been 
set down as having been discovered by Mascarenhas ; the 
account of the discovery of Ceylon and Madagascar, showing 
how they reached those islands and by what route they left 
them, will show what authority there is for any such asser- 
tion. No mention is made of these islands under any of their 
many names, nor does the name of Mascarenhas occur at all, 
even as a subordinate, in any of their ships, of which, at the 
commencement of every expedition, it was the custom to re- 
cord the names of the commanders and officers in full. Some 
writers, Strickland among the number, surmise that it is pos- 
sible the Portuguese may have come across those Islands 
when they reached the River Matatana on the East Coast o^ 
Madagascar, at which point they were the nearest to them, 
being nearly opposite to Bourbon : (See Extracts C. XXIII 
C. CVII Book II.) Near this point some of the ships were 
dispersed. (See also Barros, Dec. II Cap. I and VI of lib. 
1.) In this expedition, there was no Mascarenhas, nor does 
his name occur until Book VI Cap. CL (Lie of the ships of 
the expedition was called irne, (Book II Cap XXXV.) A 
list of the Islands known at that time to the Portuguese, is 
appended, selected with considerable trouble from Castenhe- 
da’s Great History. 
