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stantial accuracy. His itinerary, with its number of ex- traordinary proper names, is quite impossible to follow in detail, but his story owes its value to the fact that it is the earliest extant account of the exploration of the shores of Indo-China by men of European race, and because it is illustrative to a remarkable degree of the spirit which animated the Portuguese at this period, of their methods, and of the attitude by them assumed towards the East and its peoples. After reading Pinto's artless book one is at no loss to understand why the Portuguese speedily became an object of such intense detestation to the na- tives of Asia.

In the spring of 1540, Pinto tells us, he was sent to Pahang (Pan) on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula to fetch a cargo which had been purchased by a native agent on behalf of Pedro de Faria, the Governor of the citadel of Malacca. During a disturbance which occurred while he was still in Pahang, Pinto was robbed of all the prop- erty in his charge, and he escaped with just his life and his ship, and sailed forthwith for Pětâni. Here he learned that three junks belonging to some Pahang merchants were lying at anchor inside the mouth of the Kelantan River, and though it was not suggested that they were the property of the ruffians who had robbed him, the fact that they hailed from Pahang was, in these lawless days, sufficient grounds for making them the objects of repris- als. Accordingly, the permission of the Râja of Pĕtâni having been obtained, the Portuguese fitted out a small fleet, raided the Kĕlantan River, captured the Pahang junks after a hard fight, and carried their prizes back to