A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar | Page 4

papers was sent with a covering letter by some
one at Goa to some one in Europe. The names are not given, but there
is every reason for believing that the recipient was the historian Barros
in Lisbon.
Both these papers are in the same handwriting, which fact -- since they
were written by separate Portuguese merchants or travellers at
Vijayanagar in different years, one, I believe, shortly subsequent to
1520 A.D., the latter not later than about 1536 or 1537 -- conclusively
proves them to be copies of the originals, and not the originals
themselves.[2] I have inserted a facsimile of two pages of the text, so
that no doubt may remain on this point. The first portion consists of the
conclusion of the text of Fernao Nuniz; the second of the covering
letter written by the person who sent the originals to Europe; the third
of the beginning of the text of Domingo Paes.
Paes being the earlier in date (about 1520) I have given his account of
personal experiences first, and afterwards the historical summary
composed by Nuniz about the year 1536 or 1537.
I have stated that the person to whom the documents were sent from
Goa was probably the celebrated historian Barros. He is alluded to in
the covering letter in the words: "It seemed necessary to do what your
Honour desired of me," "I send both the summaries ... because your
Honour can gather what is useful to you from both;" and at the end of
the long note on "Togao Mamede," king of Delhi, quoted in my
introduction, "I kiss your Honour's hand."
Since the first DECADA of Barros was published in 1552,[3] this

argument is not unreasonable; while a comparison between the
accounts given by Nuniz and Barros of the siege and battle of Raichur
sufficiently proves that one was taken from the other. But we have
fortunately more direct evidence, for the discovery of which we have to
thank Mr. Ferguson. I have mentioned above that at the end of the MS.
volume are copies of two letters concerning China. These were written
subsequent to the year 1520 by Vasco Calvo and Christovao Vieyra.
Mr. Ferguson has pointed out to me that, in the third DECADA (liv. IV,
caps. 4, 5), after quoting some passages almost verbatim from this
chronicle of Nuniz regarding Vijayanagar, Barros writes: "According to
two letters which our people had two or three years afterwards from
these two men, Vasco Calvo, brother of Diogo Calvo, and Christovao
Vieyra, who were prisoners in Canton, etc...." He also mentions these
letters in two subsequent passages, and quotes from them. This renders
it certain that Barros saw those letters; and since they are copied into
the same volume which contains the chronicles of Nuniz and Paes, we
may be sure that Barros had the whole before him. It is of little
importance to settle the question whether the chronicles of Nuniz and
Paes were sent direct to Barros -- whether, that is, Barros himself is the
addressee of the covering letter -- or to some other official (the "our
people" of the passage from Barros last quoted); but that Barros saw
them seems certain, and it is therefore most probable that the Paris MS.
was a volume of copies prepared for him from the originals.
* * *
These documents possess peculiar and unique value; that of Paes
because it gives us a vivid and graphic account of his personal
experiences at the great Hindu capital at the period of its highest
grandeur and magnificence -- "things which I saw and came to know"
he tells us -- and that of Nuniz because it contains the traditional
history of the country gathered first-hand on the spot, and a narrative of
local and current events of the highest importance, known to him either
because he himself was present or because he received the information
from those who were so. The summaries of the well-known historians
already alluded to, though founded, as I believe, partly on these very
chronicles, have taken all the life out of them by eliminating the
personal factor, the presence of which in the originals gives them their
greatest charm. Senhor Lopes, who has published these documents in

the original Portuguese in a recent work,[4] writes in his introduction:
"Nothing that we know of in any language can compare with them,
whether for their historical importance or for the description given of
the country, and especially of the capital, its products, customs, and the
like. The Italian travellers who visited and wrote about this country --
Nicolo di Conti, Varthema, and Federici -- are much less minute in the
matter of the geography and customs of the land, and not one of them
has left us a chronicle." They are