and was preferred to some considerable offices in the government.  Frequent epistolary intercourse took place between him and the king of Portugal, who spared no expence to keep open the interesting correspondence.  In his dispatches, Covilham described the several ports which he had visited in India; explained the policy and disposition of the several princes; and pointed out the situation and riches of the gold mines of Sofala; exhorting the king to persist, unremittingly and vigorously, in prosecuting the discovery of the passage to India around the southern extremity of Africa, which he asserted to be attended with little danger, and affirmed that the cape was well known in India.  He is said to have accompanied his letters and descriptions with a chart, in which the cape and all the cities on the coast of Africa were exactly represented, which he had received in India from a Moor.  Covilham was afterwards seen by, and intimately acquainted with Francesco Alvarez, his historian, who was sent on an embassy into Abyssinia by Emmanuel king of Portugal.  Alvarez, who appears to have been a priest, calls Covilham his spiritual son, and says that he had been thirty-three years in great credit with Prette Janni, so he calls the king of Abyssinia, and all the court, during all which time he had never confessed his sins, except to GOD in secret, because the priests of that country were not in use to keep secret what had been committed to them in confession.  This would protract the residence of Covilham in Abyssinia, at least to the year 1521, or 1522; but how long he may have lived there afterwards does not appear.

[1] Clarke, i. 384.  Purchas, II. 1091.

[2] El Tor is on the Arabian coast of the Red Sea, near the mouth of the
    Bahr Assuez, or Gulf of Suez, in lat. 28 deg. 10’ N. long. 33 deg. 36’ E.—­E.

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF INDIA BY THE PORTUGUESE, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1497 AND 1525:  FROM THE ORIGINAL PORTUGUESE OF HERMAN LOPES DE CASTANEDA.

INTRODUCTION.

Although, in strict conformity to chronological arrangement, the discovery of America by COLUMBUS in 1492, ought to precede our account of the discovery of the maritime route from Europe to India by the Portuguese, which did not take place until the year 1498; it yet appears more regular to follow out the series of Portuguese navigation and discovery to its full completion, than to break down that original and vast enterprise into fragments.  We might indeed have stopt with the first voyage of De Gama, which effected the discovery of India:  But as the contents of this Chapter consists of what may be considered an authentic original record, and carries on the operations of the Portuguese in India to the year 1525, it seemed preferable to retain this curious original history entire.  It is obvious that Castaneda must have used the original journals of De Gama, and other early Portuguese commanders, or of some persons engaged in the voyages and transactions; as he often forgets the historical language, and uses the familiar diction of a person actually engaged, as will appear in many passages of this Chapter.