[480] He speaks of their _lingua alquanto negletta e lo stile molto semplice, naturale e piano, la qual cosa deveva apparire un’ anomalia a confronto della lingua purgata con cui si scriveva allora in Portogallo_ (_Contenuto della storia del Patriarca Alfonso Mendez_, p. 115). This work was written in Latin in 1651 by AFONSO MENDEZ (1579-1656), born at Moura, who became Patriarch of Ethiopia in 1623. This splendid edition (_Rerum Aethiopicarum Scriptores_) also contains three volumes of _Relationes et Epistolae Variorum_ (Romae, 1910-12). [481] Nicolás Antonio dwells more than once on the invisibility of Brito’s authorities (_Bib. Vet._ i. 65, 453; ii. 374): _Nos de invisis hactenus censere abstinemus_. Antonio Brandão, Brito’s successor, he says, _nullum horum vidit librorum quos Brittus olim historiae suae Atlantes iactaverat; nihil autem horum librorum (quod mirum si ibi asservabantur) vidit_. Soares (_Theatrum_) remarks epigrammatically: _fama est eloquentiam minus desiderari quam fidem_. [482] From a comparison of inscriptions he notes the similarity between the Etruscan and ‘our ancient’ (Iberian?) letters. The Iberians may have originally gone East from Tuscany. [483] His _Elogios dos Reis de Portugal_ appeared in 1603. [484] ff. 248 v.-249 v. give a very curious description of Ireland: _tam remota de nossa conversação e metida debaixo do Polo Arctico_. Brito had not inherited Barros’ knowledge of geography and confuses Ireland with Iceland, but is far richer in fables, as these pages delightfully prove. [485] To Spanish readers they were presented later by Faria e Sousa in his _Asia_. [486] _Flores de España_ (1631), f. 248. Arias Montano refers to him as a close friend (_Doc. inéd._ t. xli. p. 386). [487] See _Cronica_, p. 46. [488] Ten chronicles from Afonso I to João III. He says (1824 ed., p. 12): _Estam em este presente vollume recopiladas, sumadas, abreviadas, todas as lembranças dos Reys de Portugal das caroniquas velhas e novas sent mudar sustancia da verdade._ [489] _Dise ̃q hee de jdade de setenta anos, hos faz ẽ este feuʳᵒ ̃q vẽ_ (Examination before the Inquisition, April 19, 1571). The name appears as Goes, Gooes, Goiz, Guoes, Guoez, Guoiz, Goyos. Goes is a small village some twenty miles north-east of Coimbra. The name also occurs in the Basses-Pyrénées. See P. A. de Azevedo, _Alguns nomes do departamento dos Baixos Pirineos que teem correspondencia em Portugal_ (_Boletim da Ac. das Sciencias de Lisboa_, viii (1915), pp. 280-1). It may be one more trace of the former occupation of the whole Peninsula by the Iberians (= high, on the height, as in Goyetche, &c.). [490] See Marqués de Montebello, _Vida de Manoel Machado de Azevedo_ (1660), p. 3, ap. J. de Vasconcellos, _Os Musicos Portugueses_, i. 268. [491] ff. 269 v.-71. The original manuscript disappeared, but a copy (that of the Marqueses de Castello Rodrigo) is in the Biblioteca Nacional at Lisbon.