Documental Anthology

AN ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRIES BORDERING ON THE INDIAN OCEAN AND THEIR INHABITATNTS*

Duarte Barbosa

[INTRODUCTION]

The first version of Duarte Barbosa's [ °ca 1480-†1520] Livro das coisas do Oriente [...] (An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants [...]) was completed around 1516 and was a work which later became the object of a series of revisions. It was one of the first global accounts of the Orient, which apart from giving valuable information of a geographical nature, also presented a lot of data concerning the social habits and cultural practices of several races, along with their political systems and religious beliefs, plus important information on linguistics and details of nautical and military practices.

A certain amount of confusion has arisen among historians regarding Duarte Barbosa's biography, explained by the existence of several similarly titled works in the first decades of the sixteenth century. In 1500 the real author of Livro [...] (An Account [...]) set off for India in Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet, settling not long after in the region of Cannanore where he quickly became familiar with local customs and the Malay language. Following a short trip to Portugal, Duarte Barbosa returned to the western coast of Hindustan where he remained until about 1545, a date when he was lost track of having in the meanwhile taken on several administrative posts. João de Barros stated that this Portuguese author held the post of"[...] commercial clerk in Cannanore [... being...] very skilled in the ways and customs of the Malabars [... as well as...] knowing their language well [...]." [Décadas da Ásia -- IV [Decade of Asia -- IV]]

Duarte Barbosa's Livro das coisas do Oriente [...] (An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants [...]) would have been finished around 1516, according to the author himself, and it circulated widely in manuscript form as proven by the numerous copies which survive today. The work is also mentioned several times in contemporary texts. Gaspar Correia for example, attested that he saw the treatise written by Duarte Barbosa, "[...] about all the lands, people, laws, customs, ways of living, beginning with the Liuqiu• [Archipelago], running to the sea and ending at Cape of Good Hope." [Lendas da India (Tales of India)] Another man of letters from the 1500's, Damião de Góis, also mentioned the"[...] book written by Duarte Barbosa in Portuguese, on the customs of all the people living from Cape of Good Hope to China and Liuqiu· [Archipelago]". [Crónica de Dom Manuel I (Chronicle of the [King] Dom Manuel I)]. Nevertheless the work stayed in manuscript form up until the nineteenth century, being printed only in Italy in 1550. In spite of Barbosa's work being constantly published from then on, there has not been a critical work on it published up until today.

According to what can be inferred from the available documentation, the clerk from Cannanore never travelled east of Ceylon [presently Sri Lanka], concentrating his activities on the western coast of Hindustan. However his Treatise included some important accounts about the Far East. The part of the book dedicated to China is relatively short but includes important information which was gathered together from Asian and Portuguese travellers returning from Malacca [presently Melaka].

* MS., Cannanore, 1516.

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