FERDINAND, was born at Monte-moro-velho in Portugal, and was at first servant to a Portuguese gentleman. In expectation of making a fortune, he embarked for India in the year 1637. But his vessel being taken by the Turks on his passage out, he was carried to Mokkha, and sold to a Greek renegade, and afterwards to a Jew, in whose possession he continued till he was redeemed by the governor of Ormus, who procured him an opportunity of proceeding out to India, agreeably to his original design. During a residence of twenty-one years in that country, he was an eyewitness of many important transactions, and experienced many singular adventures. He returned in 1658, to Portugal, where he enjoyed the reward of his labours, after having been thirteen times a slave and sixteen times sold. A very curious account of his travels was written by himself, and published at Lisbon, in 1614, folio. This work was translated into French by Bernard Figuier, a Portuguese gentleman, and printed at Paris, in 1654, 4to. It is written in a very interesting manner and in a style more elegant than might have been expected from a man whose whole life had been spent in the camp and in slavery. It elucidates a great variety of particulars relating to the geography, history, and manners of the inhabitants of China, Japan, Pegu, Siam, Achem, Java, and other countries. But his name, like that of Munchausen, has unfortunately become the synonym of an imaginative romancer who sacrifices to a love of the marvellous or the incredible not only truth but probability.