A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c2.8

c2.8

Since the first *Decada* of Barros was published in 1552,¹ this argument is not unreasonable; while a comparison between the accounts given by Nuniz and Barros of the siege and battle of Raichûr sufficiently proves that one was taken from the other. But we have fortunately more direct evidence, for the discovery of which we have to thank Mr. Ferguson. I have mentioned above that at the end of the MS. volume are copies of two letters concerning China. These were written subsequent to the year 1520 by Vasco Calvo and Christovão Vieyra. Mr. Ferguson has pointed out to me that, in the third *Decada* (liv. vi. cap. ii.), after quoting some passages almost verbatim from this chronicle of Nuniz regarding Vijayanagar, Barros writes: “According to two letters which our people had two or three years afterwards from these two men, Vasco Calvo, brother of Diogo Calvo, and Christovão Vieyra, who were prisoners in Canton, etc. . . .” He also mentions these letters in two subsequent passages, and quotes from them. This renders it certain that Barros saw those letters; and since they are copied into the same volume which contains the chronicles of Nuniz and Paes, we may be sure that Barros had the whole before him. It is of little importance to settle the question whether the chronicles of Nuniz and Paes were sent direct to Barros—whether, that is, Barros himself is the addressee of the covering letter—or to some other official (the “our people” of the passage from Barros last quoted); but that Barros saw them seems certain, and it is therefore most probable that the Paris MS. was a volume of copies prepared for him from the originals.