132 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



to homage ; and the gifts which they offered are all recorded in the 

 Chinese annals as so many " payments of tribute." At length, in the 

 year 1405 a.d.,* during the reign of the Emperor Yung-Lo of the Ming 

 dynasty, a celebrated Chinese commander, Chingo-Ho, having visited 

 Ceylon as the bearer of incense and offerings, to be deposited at the 

 shrine of Buddha, was waylaid, together with his followers, by the 

 Sinhalese king, Wijayo Bahu VI., and with difficulty effected an escape 

 to his ships. To revenge this treacherous affront Ching-Ho was des- 

 patched a few years afterwards with a considerable fleet and a formid- 

 able military force, which the king (whom the Chinese historian calls 

 A-lee-ko-nae-wih) prepared to resist ; but by a vigorous effort Ho and 

 his followers succeeded in seizing the capital, and bore off the sovereign, 

 together with his family, as prisoners to China. He presented them to 

 the Emperor, who, out of compassion, ordered them to be sent back 

 to their country on the condition that " the wisest of the family should 

 be chosen king." " Seay-pa-nea-na " was accordingly elected, and this 

 choice being confirmed, he was sent to his native country, duly provided 

 with a seal of investiture, as a vassal of the empire, under the style of 

 Sri Prakrama Bahu VI., and from that period till the reign of Teen- 

 shun, 1434-1448 A.D., Ceylon continued to pay an annual tribute to 

 China. 



Illustrations. 



Plate 1. — Photograph of the stone bearing the trilingual inscription. 



Plate 2. — Copy of the Chinese inscription made by Mr. Edward 

 Backhouse, Pekin. 



* The narrative in the text is extracted from the Ta-tsing-yi-tung, a 

 "Topographical Account of the Man choc Empire," written in the seventeenth 

 century, to a copy of which, in the British Museum, my attention was 

 directed by the erudite Chinese scholar, Mr. Meadows, author of "The 

 Chinese and their Rebellions." The story of this Chinese expedition to Ceylon 

 will also be found in tlie Se-yih-ke-foo-choo, " A Description of Western 

 Countries," 1450 a.d. ; the Woo heo-pecu, "A Record of the Ming Dynasty," 

 1522 A.D., b. LVIII., p. 3, and in tlie Ming-she, " A History of the Ming 

 Dynasty," 1739 a.d., CCCXXVI., p. 2. For a further account of tliis event 

 see Part V. of this work. Chapter III. 



