[521] Cf. Faria e Sousa (_laudari a laudato!_): _Yo le tengo por muy verdadero_; A. de Sousa Macedo, _Eva e Ave_, ii. 55, 1676 ed., p. 495: _El Rey Catholico D. Philippe II, quando veio a Portugal, gostava de ouvir a Fernão Mendes, em cujas peregrinaçoens & sucessos que dellas escreveo mostrou o tempo com a experiencia a verdade que se lhe disputava antes que ouvesse tantas noticias d’aquellas partes_; Soares, _Theatrum_: _diu apud Lusitanos fidem non meruit donec rerum qui secuti sunt eventus et aliorum scripta nihil Ferdinandum a vero discrepasse confirmarunt_; Manuel Bernardes, _Nova Floresta_, i (1706), p. 124: _as Relações do nosso Fernão Mendez Pinto que não merecem tão pouco credito como alguns lhe dão_. ‘Either never man had better memory or he was the most solemn liar that ever put pen to paper’ is the verdict of José Agostinho de Macedo (_Motim Literario_, 1841 ed., ii. 17). [522] In France he was known as du Jardin. Familiarly this great botanist seems to have been called Herbs. A copy of the first edition of the _Coloquios_ has GRACIA DORTA O ERVAS on the back of the binding. This might be an ignorant mistake for D’ELVAS. [523] The Governor’s brother, Pero Lopez de Sousa, wrote a _Diario da Navegação_ (1530-2) first published at Lisbon in 1839. The soldier in Couto’s _Dialogo_ says, _não vai tão mal negociado hir por Fysico môr pois todos os que este cargo serviram tiraram nos seus tres annos sete ou oito mil cruzados_. [524] _Libro di Odoardo Barbosa Portoghese._ [525] He must have spent many a half-hour in the corner bookshop in Goa mentioned by Couto (_Dec._ VI. v. 8, 1781 ed., p. 400): _o canto onde pousa um livreiro_--unless this is a misprint for _luveiro_, as the neighbouring _sirgueiro_ seems to indicate. The growth of Portuguese literature in the East would furnish matter for a curious essay. Great folios like the _Cancioneiro de Resende_ (see Lopez de Castanheda, v. 12, and Barros, _Asia_, III. iii. 4, for the strange use made of it in India) and the _Flos Sanctorum_ were taken out, and it is improbable that they were brought back when every square inch was required for pepper. Thousands of precious volumes must have gone down in shipwrecks, others--profane books and _autos_--were thrown overboard at the bidding of the priests. For the fate of a case of Hebrew Bibles (_briuias_) see Corrêa, _Lendas da India_, i. 656-7. _Amadis de Gaula_ was apparently in India in 1519 (Lopez de Castanheda, v. 16). A most interesting list of books ready to be sent to the Negus of Abyssinia in 1515 is given in Sousa Viterbo’s _A Livraria Real_ (1901), p. 8.