ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“THEY INSPIRED ME..
My thanks to Veronica Siccardi, Alvaro Figueiredo, Ernestine Macedo, Donald Cordeiro and Dr. Luis Dupont who were the first to help me gather material for this book.
My gratitude goes to the social, cultural and historical organizations, high schools, colleges and universities in the United States and abroad, for inviting me to lecture on “Portuguese Pilgrims and Dighton Rock”.
I am especially grateful to the several thousands who attended my lectures (140) for they inspired me to write this book. (Now, March 2001, I am up to 346 lectures).
I am thankful to all the American newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for informing the public about my research; also to all Portuguese-American newspapers, radio and television programs. I also acknowledge the communication media in Continental Portugal, Azores, Madeira, the overseas Portuguese provinces and Brazil.
My special appreciation to Dr. Pinto Ferreira, Director of Casa do Infante (Oporto), Astragildo Gonçalves, the official photographer from the City of Oporto, and my cousin, António Pacheco Almada, for obtaining photographs of old Portuguese maps.
In particular I want to express my thanks to Dr. Tavares de Almeida, Dr. Dutra Faria, Director of ANI, the Secretariado Nacional da Informação and Casa de Portugal (New York City) for obtaining many photographs of Portuguese monuments, and to Dr. João Corte Real and Dr. José Pereira da Costa, Director of Portuguese National Archives (Torre do Tombo) for sending me photographs of Portuguese Royal Charts.
I am indebted to James Brennan, Marbelle Cormack, Ernest Dodge for their valuable suggestions; to Roswell Bosworth, Jr. for his friendship and expert advice; and especially to Professor Steven Tegu for his important contributions.
For illustrations and drawings, my thanks to Albert Costa Jr., Francisco José Dias Jr., Chipi Tegu and Norman Gendron; for the photographs I want to thank all contributors.
My gratitude to former Commissioner Charles Foster for allowing me to exhibit the story of Dighton Rock and to Clayton Morse for helping me set up this permanent exhibit at Dighton Rock State Park; and especially to Senator Claiborne Pell in recognition of the interest he has always shown in Dighton Rock and other Portuguese monuments.
I remember also the valuable assistance given to me by Dr. Alberto Iria, Dr. Baptista de Lima, João Silva Junior, newspaper writer, Crimilda Pontes and the many others, too numerous to mention who helped me in one form or another. My thanks to the late Sandra Mello Totman whose work on the original manuscript remains a gentle memory; and to Donald H. Rams bottom, Raymond D. Devlin, Joseph Boucher, Frank F. Johnson, Jr.. and Alan A. Levrault for the personal enthusiasm they gave shown in the publishing of this book.
My heartfelt deep thanks to my good friend, Dr. Nelson Dias Martins, the Editor of this book. We spent many, many hours together in my library, testing and retesting every detail of this entire book. We both learned a lot in the process of doing it and had lots of fun at the same time! It was great! Many thanks again, Nelson!
To all my friends, colleagues, my kind family and devoted wife, my high esteem.
Manuel Luciano da Silva, M.D.
May 10, 1971.
Bristol, Rhode Island, U.S.A.