No one has yet succeeded in discovering the author of the _Roteiro_. Prof. Kopke attempts to arrive at the name by a process of elimination, and in doing so starts with several assumptions which we cannot accept. First of all he assumes that Castanheda must have known the writer of the MS. of which he made such excellent use in writing his history. But Castanheda only became acquainted with this MS. after 1530, when he took up his residence at Coimbra on his return from India, that is, more than thirty years after it had been written. Of course, the author might then have been still alive, notwithstanding the lapse of years; but had this been the case, and had Castanheda been personally acquainted with him, he would surely have obtained from him an account of the termination of the voyage, instead of abruptly breaking off in the same way as the _Roteiro_ does, with the arrival of the fleet at the shoals of the Rio Grande (see p. 93), adding that he had been unable to ascertain the particulars of the further voyage of the captain-major, and only knew that Coelho arrived at Cascaes on July 10th, 1499.[16] It is probable, moreover, that if Castanheda had known the name of the author to whom he was so greatly indebted, he would have mentioned it in his book. Prof. Kopke assumes further that the writer was a common sailor or soldier, and most probably the former: first, because he frequently makes use of the expression “nós outros” (we others) as if to draw a distinction between the officers of the ships and the class to which he himself belonged; and, secondly, because “the style of his narrative would seem to point to his humble condition”. We can admit neither of these conclusions. The author by no means uses the expression “we others” in the restricted sense in which Prof. Kopke understands it. In proof of this we may refer to such sentences as are to be found at pp. 57 and 61:—“When the King beckoned to the captain he looked at us others”; “as to us others, we diverted ourselves”—the “others”, in both these cases, including the thirteen men who attended Vasco da Gama to Calecut, and among whom were the three pursers, the captain-major’s secretary, and others who may not have been “persons of distinction” but who nevertheless cannot be classed with “common soldiers or sailors”. As to the literary style of the Journal, we may at once admit that its author cannot take rank with Barros, Castanheda or Correa, but this by no means proves him to have been an uncultured man, or of “humble condition.” His spelling may not have been quite in accordance with the somewhat loose rules followed in the fifteenth century, but his narrative is straightforward and to the point, and shows that he was a man of judgment perfectly able to give an intelligent account of the many novel facts which came under his observation. If he looked upon the Hindus as fellow-Christians, he shared that opinion with the other members of the expedition, including its chief.