The Commentaries of the Great Alfonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India

Book excerpt: The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 53, 55, 62 and 69 of the series contain the English translation of The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, translated and edited by Walter de Grey Birch. Afonso de Albuquerque (1453-1515) was a Portuguese naval officer and nobleman whose successful military campaigns helped establish Portugal's colonies in India. Volume 1, published in 1875, contains an account of de Albuquerque's expeditions to India from 1503 to 1509 and his first conquest of Ormuz (modern Hormuz Island, Iran).