The Great Actions Which The Subjects Of Your Highness Have Worthily
Accomplished, Must Be Deemed To Have Been Permitted And
Appointed by
the providence of God; that so those barbarians, with their vain idols,
and the false sectaries of Mahomet,
Might be brought into the catholic
faith, as at this time great numbers have been added to the Christian
religion. For, since these great exploits, your highness, as a most
godly and Christian prince, hath taken especial care, and hath given
command that the Christian doctrine of the _brotherhood of the company
of Jesus_ should be taught in India, which you ordered to be brought
from Rome, and have always supported at your expence. Thus likewise,
you have erected, and founded the noble and sumptuous university of
Coimbra, to augment the honour and reputation of your kingdom; where,
besides many divines and colleges of poor begging friars to expound
the evangelical law, there are temporal men also to instruct those of
your subjects that defend and enlarge the commonwealth by deeds of
arms, and those who adorn the same by means of learning.
All these heroic virtues of your highness being well known to me, have
encouraged me to publish this work and others, which have some taste
of learning, that they may remain a perpetual memorial of the noble
deeds of so many gentlemen and knights of Portugal, your subjects. In
this I have been much forwarded by having been in India, where I
sojourned with my father, who was sent into that country by your
highness as a judge. I spent all my youth in the pursuit of learning,
and in the study of ancient historians. Being in India, I set myself
with all diligence to learn and understand all that had been done in
regard to the discovery and conquest of that country by the Portuguese,
with the intention of making the same known and common to all men. By
my inquiries, and through the information derived from sundry
gentlemen and captains, both such as were actually present in the
various transactions, and employed in their execution, as by others
who were engaged in counselling and preparing the means of their being
performed, I have derived much authentic information; as, likewise, by
the perusal of many letters and memorials, which were written by men
of credit and reputation, all of which I have examined as evidences of
the authenticity of my work, both while in India and since my return
into Portugal. As the matters I meant to write of were many, so it
became necessary for me to acquire information from many sources; and
as those whom I examined were upon oath, it is lawful for me to bring
them forward as sure evidence. In these researches some of these men
had to be sought after in almost every part of Portugal; and being
separated in sundry places, my inquiries have occasioned great travel
of my person, and much expence; to which I have devoted the greater
part of my life, and have constituted the preparation for this work my
sole recreation.
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