He gave an account of his journey to Angkor to historian Diogo do Couto, the main chronicler and "guarda-mor" (curator) of the Archives of Portuguese exploration-colonization in Asia.
Curiously, Diogo do Couto did not include Madalena's testimony in the sixth volume of the sum initiated by writer João de Barros, the Décadas da Ásia.
In 1589, the Franciscan friar perished during shipwreck of the Sao Tomé caravel off Natal (South Africa), probably while he was heading back home after many years spent in India, Malacca and Ayuthaya in Siam.
[2] After do Couto's death, his personal papers were kept by his brother-in-law and priest Deodato da Trindade, and his wife's brother, Luisa de Melo.
Madalena correctly attributes an Indian origin to the Khmer architecture while Jesuit Pedro de Ribadeneira and his Spanish sources still believed it could have been the work of Alexander the Great and even in 1604, Dominican friar Gabriel Quiroga de San Antonio believed it could be a temple of the lost tribes of Israel.