_ 155 _ I shall refer later, but I must explain at once that the reason I am bringing them to your attention today is, of course, because of their relevance to the quincentenary celebrations of the birth of the discoverer of Brazil. I hope that my audience will accept this modest documentary discovery as a contribution to Cabral studies. It may well be that other such evidence may yet appear, for one never knows what surprises history has in store for those who search for sources; and small tiles are incorporated in majestic buildings. Here are two more of these, found among the ancient rubble preserved in the Torre do Tombo. In 1950, I was at the Torre in search of new sources for a study of the factory of Sofala when I found two fragments which, on reading them, I was sure were texts relating to the voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to India in 1500. I was at the time influenced by the vivid impression made on me by a reading of the famous Mensagem of King Manuel to the Samorin of Calicut, a text which I regard as, more than any other, an exact and prophetic exposition of Portuguese policy towards India which, as a result of a sequence of events which became unfavourable to Portugal, had to be put into effect almost immediately. In 1955, when four and a half centuries had passed since the foundation of the State of India in 1505, I had an opportunity to draw attention to that decisive step
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