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.
The title of this original document, now first offered to the public in
modern English, is "_The first Booke of the Historie of the Discoverie
and Conquest of the East Indias by the Portingals, in the time of King
Don John, the second of that name. By Hernan Lopes de Castaneda;
translated into English by Nicholas Lichefield, and dedicated to Sir
Fraunces Drake. Imprinted at London by Thomas East, 1582_."
Though the transactions here recorded are limited in the title to the
reign of John II. they occupied the reigns of his immediate successor
Emmanuel, or Manuel, and of John III. Castanedas history was printed in
black letter at Coimbra, in eight volumes folio, in the years 1552, 1553,
and 1554, and is now exceedingly scarce. In 1553, a translation of the
first book was made into French by Nicolas de Grouchy, and published at
Paris in quarto.
