OF DON STEPHANO DE GAMA FROM SUEZ IN 1541, TO THE REDUCTION OF PORTUGAL
UNDER THE DOMINION OF SPAIN IN 1581.


SECTION XIII.

_Account of an Expedition of the Portuguese from India to Madagascar in
1613._


Being anxious to find out a considerable number of Portuguese who were
reported to exist in the island of St. Lawrence or Madagascar, having
been cast away at different times on that island, and also desirous of
propagating the ever blessed gospel among its inhabitants, and to
exclude the Hollanders from that island by establishing a friendly
correspondence with the native princes, the viceroy Don Jerome de
Azevedo sent thither, in 1613, a caravel from Goa commanded by Paul
Rodrigues de Costa, accompanied by two Jesuits, some interpreters, and a
competent number of soldiers. This island is about 260 leagues in length
and 600 in circumference[1], its greatest extent being from N.N.E. to
S.S.W. It is 80 leagues from E. to W. where widest, but considerably
less towards the north, where it ends in a point named St Ignatius which
is about 15 leagues from east to west[2]. It may be considered as
divided into three parts. The first or northern portion is divided from
the other two by an imaginary line from east to west at Cape St
Andrew[3]. The other two divisions are formed by a chain of mountains
running nearly south from this line to Cape St Romanus, otherwise Cape
St Mary, but much nearer the east coast than the west. The island is
divided into a great number of kingdoms, but so confusedly and
ill-defined, that it were endless to enumerate them. It is very