203 
1873.] T. W. H. Tolbort —History of the Portuguese in India. 
by Sr. cl a C u n h a Rivara from the records of the 16th century. This 
work the “ Archivo Portuguez oriental” is in five fasciculi, comprising altoge¬ 
ther eight volumes. Of these, fasciculus No. 1 is out of print, the remaining 
seven volumes may be obtained from the Imprensa Nacional at Goa. The 
contents of the eight vols. are as follows : 
Fasciculus 1, letters from the Kings of Portugal to the City of Goa. 
Do. 2. .Book of the privileges of the City of Goa. 
Bo. 3 (2 parts or vols). Letters and instructions from the Kings of 
Portugal to the Viceroys and Governors of India, and also charters and ordi¬ 
nances of the Kings and Viceroys. 
Bo. 4. The Ecclesiastical Councils held at G oa and the Synod of Biam- 
par. 
Bo. 5. (3 parts). Various documents of the 16th century. Among 
these are important regulations regarding the administration of justice, the 
management of the Goa hospital, military and commercial matters. The 
references to the contemporary history of Muhammadan India are nob very 
many. There are, however, some diplomatic documents referring to Bija- 
pur. 
In the preface to his third fasciculus, Sr. da Cunha Rivara discusses an 
interesting question regarding some of the 16tli century records. Buring 
the 16th and 17th centuries, the intercourse between India and Portugal 
was chiefly carried on by annual fleets to and fro, and the annual letters 
that they carried. As the arrival and despatch of the fleets were regulated 
by the monsoons, the registers containing copies of official letters were 
known as the ‘ Livros das Mon^oens,’ £ Books of the Monsoons.’ At the 
time Sr. Rivara wrote his preface, the record rooms at Goa appear to have 
contained fragments of the “ Livros” for the years 1568 and 1583, then a 
series from 1584 to about the end of the century, and then (after a gap of 
fifty years) a continuous series from 1651 to modern times. It was long 
believed that the absence of the “ Livros” earlier than 1568 had been caused 
by the Marquis de Pombal, under whose orders sixty volumes of the series 
were despatched to Portugal in 1777. Sr. Rivara, however, proves that the 
sixty volumes so despatched, were those between 1606 and 1651, and that 
they at least are safely housed in the Torre do Tombo at Lisbon. About the 
same time, and in obedience to the same order all the ecclesiastical records 
of an early date were also sent to Lisbon, but these, it seems, have been lost 
sight of. 
I believe I am right in adding that the remaining “ Livros das Man- 
^oens” have been recently transmitted to Lisbon, since the publication of 
Sr. Rivara’s Archivo. Possibly some of the missing records are to be found 
in our own British Museum ; for Sir Emerson Tennent in the introduction to 
his “ Ceylon” writes—“ Within the last few years, the Trustees of the British 
