[488] _Tarsa_ is derived from _tarsiden_, “fearing, timid, a Christian, an infidel, a pagan, a worshipper of fire.”
[489] Upon the epoch of the creation of the world we have, according to Riccioli, 70, according to Dortous de Mairan, 75 or 90, and according to the marquis de Fortia d’Urban, 108 different systems, to which many more may be added. These epochs vary from 6984 to 3619 years; that of the Dabistan, 3199, is the lowest known to me.
[490] The deluge is placed: By the Septuaginta 2250 years before Christ. ―― Archbishop Usher 2348 ―― ―― ―― ―― Others 3882 ―― ―― ――
[491] The above epoch differs 94 years from that given by Archbishop Usher, viz.: 1921 years before Christ.
[492] The above epoch differs 19 years from that given by Archbishop Usher, viz.: 1510 years before Christ.
[493] The date of the birth of Christ, as given by our chronologers, varies from 747 to 754 years after the building of Rome, or is uncertain within seven or six years (see Chronologie de Jésus-Christ par M. le marquis de Fortia, p. 102-103, Paris, 1830).
[494] The viscount of Santarem, to whose most extensive learning in history and geography, I fortunately had an opportunity in Paris of applying for information upon the above mentioned fact, gave me the following notice: “In no town of Portugal do I find any indication of the existence of these relics. I think that there is, in the statement of the Dabistán, an error and a confusion with the fact related by Brandâo, in 1643, viz.: the famous Portuguese prince don Pietro, son of John I., having, on his return from Jerusalem to Spain, in 1428, married in the town of Alcoba in Catalonia, the countess Isabella, daughter of D. Jayme, count of Urgel, gave to the bishop of Valenza an image of our Saviour, taken by St. Veronica. These relics were still preserved in the cathedral of Valenza in Spain, called by distinction ‘the royal town,’ in the year 1643.” It was a few years after this (see p. 305), that the author of the Dabistán might have received from father Francia, the Portuguese missionary, the account above stated.