But Although In That Former Collection, Published
At London In 1745, An Absolutely Verbal And Literal Transcript Is Used
So
Far as the Editor has been pleased to follow the translation of
Stevens, many very curious and important particulars contained
In that
author are omitted, or slurred over by a hasty and careless abridgement.
From where we take up Faria, in consequence of the loss of Castaneda,
we have given his work nearly entire, only endeavouring to reduce the
language of Captain Stevens to the modern standard, and occasionally
using the freedom to arrange incidents a little more intelligibly, and
to curtail a few trifling matters that seemed to possess no interest for
modern readers. We have however availed ourselves of many valuable notes
and illustrations of the text by the Editor of Astleys Collection, all
of which will be found acknowledged and referred to in their proper
places. And we have adopted from the same source some valuable additions
to the text of Faria, intimately connected with the subject, which are
likewise carefully acknowledged. Thus, like many former articles in this
Collection, we trust that the present, as being greatly fuller, will be
found more satisfactory and informing than any similar account in former
Collections of Voyages and Travels.
After so considerable an interval employed on the Discoveries in
America, it may be proper to remark that the former Account of the
Discovery of the maritime route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and
the commencement of the Portuguese Conquests in the East, as contained
in the Second Volume of this Work, Part II. Chap. VI. Sections I. to
IX. pp. 292-505, comprises only a period of nine years, from the
setting out of Vasco de Gama in July 1497, on his adventurous Voyage,
by which he completed the discovery of the way by sea to India from
Europe, projected by Prince Henry in 1412, eighty-five years before.
On that former occasion, following the narrative of Hernan Lopez de
Castaneda, we brought down the Transactions of the Portuguese in India
to the year 1505; including the almost incredible defence of Cochin by
the intrepid Pacheco against the immensely more numerous forces of the
Zamorin of Calicut; the relief of the chivalric besieged, by the arrival
of Lope Suarez de Menezes in September 1505; and the voyage of Suarez
back to Portugal in 1505, leaving Manuel Telez de Vasconcelles as
captain-general of the Portuguese possessions in India. It has been
formerly mentioned, Vol. II. p.500, note 5, that Castaneda names this
person Lope Mendez de Vasconcelles, and that he is named Manuel Telez de
Barreto by the editor of Astleys Collection, in which we now find that
he had followed the author of the Portuguese Asia. The difference
between these authorities is irreconcileable, but is quite immaterial to
the English reader. - E.
SECTION I.
Course of the Indian Trade before the Discovery of the Route by the
Cape of Good Hope, with some account of the settlement of the Arabs on
the East Coast of Africa[66].
Before the Discovery of the Route to India by the Cape of Good Hope,
formerly related in PART II.
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