the present edition, that no sufficient time has been allowed for the
discovery of errors or defects; and the work is re-issued almost as a
corrected reprint.

In the interim, however, I have ascertained, that Ribeyro's "Historical
Account of Ceylon," which it was heretofore supposed had never appeared
in any other than the French version of the Abbe Le Grand, and in the
English translation of the latter by Mr. Lee[1], was some years since
printed for the first time in the original Portuguese, from the
identical MS. presented by the author to Pedro II. in 1685. It was
published in 1836 by the Academia Real das Sciencias of Lisbon, under
the title of "_Fatalidade Historica da Ilka de Ceilão_;" and forms the
Vth volume of the a "_Colleção de Noticias para a Historia e Geograjia
das Nações Ultramarinas_" A fac-simile from a curious map of the island
as it was then known to the Portuguese, has been included in the present
edition.[2]

[Footnote 1: See Vol. II. Part vi. ch. i. p.5, note.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. p. 6.]

Some difficulty having been expressed to me, in identifying the ancient
names of places in India adverted to in the following pages; and
mediæval charts of that country being rare, a map has been inserted in
the present edition[1], to supply the want complained of.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. p. 330.]

The only other important change has been a considerable addition to the
Index, which was felt to be essential for facilitating reference.