the honour of relieving Ceuta.

[Footnote 252: Astley, I. 107. Purchas, II. 1422.]

When Don Garcia de Noronha went viceroy to India, Don John was captain
of one of the ships in his fleet; and when about to embark, the king
sent him a commission by which he was appointed governor of Ormuz, and a
gift of 1000 ducats to bear his charges till he obtained possession. He
accepted the latter, because he was poor; but refused the government,
saying that he had not yet deserved it. After the expedition to
Suez[253], contained in the present chapter, he returned into Portugal,
and lived for some time in retirement in a country house near Cintra,
giving himself up entirely to study. He was recalled from this retreat
by the advice of the infant Don _Luys_, and sent out governor-general to
India in 1545; where he died with the title of viceroy in 1548, when 48
years of age. We shall hereafter have occasion to speak farther of this
great man, who made himself illustrious in the _second_ siege of Diu by
the forces of the king of Guzerat. In his life, written by _Jacinto
Freire de Andrada_, there is a particular account of this siege, with a
map to illustrate its operations. The author also treats of the
Discoveries, Government, Commerce, and affairs of the Portuguese in
India. This book was translated into English, and published in folio at
London in 1664.

[Footnote 253: De Faria in his Portuguese Asia, says that Don Juan went
up to Mount Sinai, where his son Don Alvaro was knighted. But this does
not appear in his journal.--Astl. I. 107. a.]

Such was the illustrious author of the following journal, which was
never published in Portuguese; but having been found, if we are rightly
informed, on board a Portuguese ship taken by the English, was
afterwards translated and published by Purchas. Purchas tells us that
the original was reported to have been purchased by Sir Walter Raleigh
for sixty pounds; that Sir Walter got it translated, and afterwards, as
he thinks, amended the diction and added many marginal notes. Purchas
himself reformed the style, but with caution as he had not the original
to consult, and abbreviated the whole, in which we hope he used equal
circumspection: For, as it stands in Purchas[254] it still is most
intolerably verbose, and at the same time scarcely intelligible in many
places; owing, we apprehend, to the translator being not thoroughly
acquainted with the meaning of the original, if not to the fault of