The Portuguese in India and Other Studies, 1500-1700

Book excerpt: The studies brought together in this volume were published over the last thirty years and are concerned, directly or indirectly, with the Portuguese presence in India between about 1500 and 1650. They have been arranged into four groups of which the first, 'The Portuguese in India', includes pieces on the changing character of the empire in India, Goa in the 17th century, the Portuguese India Company of 1628-33, smugglers, the great famine of the early 1630s and the ceremonial induction process for new viceroys. A second group focuses on the life, career and background of the count of Linhares, before, during and after his term as viceroy at Goa. The third group consists of studies on travel and communications between India and Portugal, both by sea and by land. The collection concludes with studies under the heading of 'historiography and problems of interpretation', on Charles Boxer as a biographer, and on Vasco da Gama's reputation for violence.