The Preface is dated “Madrid, October 20, MDC.VII”, but this is evidently a misprint, for reference is made in it to a list of captains who went to India since 1497 as containing information up to the year 1612; and instead of VII, we ought therefore to read XII, the date of the book being thus 1612. The author had access to the original records in the India House, and claims to have expended three years upon the compilation of his work, which certainly contains a mass of information of the highest interest. Nevertheless, his book is not free from errors, many of which have already been pointed out by Cunha Rivara in an Appendix to a translation of the _Viagem de Francisco Pyrard_, published at Nova Goa in 1858. Texeira de Aragão (_Boletim_, Lisbon Geographical Society, vi, p. 578) also warns against accepting without question all the statements made by this author. We quote the following information on Vasco da Gama’s first voyage from a “List of Captain-majors and Captains who went to India since 1497”, p. 137:— 1497. In the year 1497 there departed for India Vasco da Gama, the first discoverer, as captain-major of four vessels. He left Lisbon on July 8th, 1497. _São Miguel_, flagship Pilot: Pero d’Alenquer. _São Raphael_ Captain: Paulo da Gama, brother of Vasco da Gama. Pilot: João de Coimbra. _Berrio_ Captain: Nicolao Coelho. Pilot: Pero Escolar. A ship (_nao_) Captain: Gonçalo Nunez, a retainer of Vasco da Gama. She carried provisions.[388] The _Berrio_, with her captain, returned and reached the bar of Lisbon on July 10th, 1499. Vasco da Gama went from India to Cape Verde, where he remained with his brother, Paulo da Gama, who died there, and whose body he conveyed to the island of Terçeira, and he sent one of his servants with the _São Raphael_ to Lisbon. Vasco da Gama himself reached Lisbon in a caravel on August 29th, two years and nearly two months after he had left that port. It is scarcely necessary to point out that the flagship was the _São Gabriel_, and that Paulo da Gama came back in that vessel and not in the store-ship. It was, indeed, Paulo’s own ship, the _São Raphael_, which was burnt off Tangáta. As an instance of the author’s inconsistencies, we need only quote the following passage from a “Summary Statement of Vessels which left Portugal for India”, p. 194:— Between July 10th, 1499, on which day there arrived in the port of Lisbon the ship _São Raphael_, in which Vasco da Gama had gone to India in 1497, and 1612, there came back from India 425 vessels. It was the _Berrio_ which came back on July 10th, the _São Raphael_ having been burnt off Mtangata; and Vasco da Gama did not go in the _S. Raphael_, by the author’s own (erroneous) statement.