[581] — About a mile and a quarter. Nagalapur is the modern Hospett. If the measurement is accurate, this street, leading, no doubt, towards the capital, is now non-existent.
[582] — The Della Pontes are more than once mentioned in the history of the sixteenth century. They were probably an Italian family or Italien in origin, and engineers by profession, the Rialto at Venice having been constructed by Antonio della Ponte in 1588. This, however, may be a fanciful connection. It is possible that both in Portugal and in Italy families may have received that surname in consequence of their skill in bridge-building, or of one of the family having in former days distinguished himself by the construction of a particular bridge. The engineer mentioned in the text is probably the individual who at the end of April 1520 was sent by the king of Portugal to examine into the possibility of building a fortress at Tetuan in Morocco. Dom Pedro de Mascarenhas (afterwards, in 1554, Viceroy at Goa) sailed on this mission from Ceuta, and "Joao Nunes del Pont" is mentioned as accompanying him. The king and the Emperor Charles V. were both at this time anxious to prevent the Moorish corsairs from using Tetuan in future, as they had done in the past, as a base for their piratical attacks on Spain and Portugal. (Damiao de Goes, CHRONICA DE DOM MANUEL, edit. of Coimbra, 1790, vol. i. Part IV. p. 532; ALGUNS DOCUMENTOS DO ARCHIVO NACIONAL DA TORRE DO TOMBO, Lisbon, 1892; pp. 445 — 446.)
In 1521, some time after the month of March, when Dom Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, the governor of Goa, had returned from his expedition to the Red Sea, he was urged by his counsellors to build a fortress at Madrefaba near Goa, as the place contained an anchorage sufficient for an entire fleet. (Correct, LENDAS DA INDIA, ii. p. 622.) Correa continues: "The governor, however, thought better to send in a COTIA Antonio Correa and Pero de Coimbra, his chief pilot, to inspect the river of Madrefaba and measure the water on the bar, and Manuel da Ponte, Overseer of Works, and Joao de la Ponte, his brother, who understood it well, to view the land, and if there were stone, and if lime could be made for the work, and to bring him certitude of all."
If this man were the same as he who went with Mascarenhas to Tetuan, he had, in all probability, not been long in India when he went to Madrefaba. This seems to show that the great tank of Krishna Deva Raya, seen in process of construction by the chronicler Paes (see p. 244), and mentioned in the text by Nunez, was not begun till at least the autumn of 1521. If so, Paes did not WRITE his description of Vijayanagar till after that date (say 1522). (See above, p. 162.)
[583] — ESPACOS. This probably means sluices or weirs.
[584] — POR NOVE ANOS DE GRACA.
[585] — NAO HA NENHU MANIMETO NEM MERCADARYAS.
[586] — The original (itself a copy) has "NESTA TERRO NAO SE SERVEM DE BESTAS PERA CARREGUAS." I think that the words SE NAO must have been accidentally omitted before DE BESTAS, and have ventured so to render the passage.
[587] — About 3 1/2d. (?). A VINTEM is about 7 1/20d.
[588] — I have given the meaning here, not a literal translation. The writer begins: "After the death of King Crisnarao from his disease, as has been already recounted." Then he inserts a long parenthesis which might he read: "While he was sick … he had made a will … &c…." down to … "but only one of the age of eighteen months." Then he continues: "After his death (as I have said) Salvanay became minister," &c….