12 



MODERN HISTORY. 



[Part VI. 



A.D. resistance which no blandishments could divert and no 

 1527. reverses allay, and which served to keep ahve an interne- 

 cine war, never relaxed nor suspended till the Portuguese 

 were expelled from Ceylon, one hundred and fifty years 

 after their first landing. 



The efiects of this long-sustained struggle left strongly 

 marked impressions upon the national character of the 

 Kandyans. It not only called forth their patriotism and 

 daring, but taught them the profession of arms, and, as 

 an illustration of the maxim of Scipio, that a continual 

 war against a single people teaches the aggressors in 

 time to strengthen themselves by adopting the tactics 

 of their enemies, De Couto instances the remarkable 

 fact, that whereas on the arrival of Almeyda, in 1505, 

 the Singhalese were ignorant of the use of gunpowder, 

 and there was not a single firelock in the island, they 

 soon excelled the Portuguese in the manufiicture of 

 muskets, and before the war was concluded, they 

 coidd bring twenty thousand stand of arms into the 

 field.i 



' The astonisliment of the natives 

 at the first discharge of a cannon by 

 the Portuguese at Colombo, is forci- 

 bly described in the Rajamli : " ma- 

 king a noise like thimder when it 

 breaks upon Jimgara Parwata — and 

 a ball from one of them, after flying 

 some leagues, will break a castle of 

 marble." (p. 278.) The passage in De 

 Couto is as follows : — " neste tempo 

 nem huma so espingarda havia em 

 toda a Ilha ; e depois que nos entra- 

 mos nella, com o continuo uso da 

 guen-a que Ihe fizemos, se fizeram 

 tao destros como hoje estam ; e a 

 fundirem a melhor, e mais formosa 

 artilheria do mimdo, e a fazeram as 

 mais fonnosas espingardas, e me- 

 Ihores que as nossas, do que hoje ha 

 na Ilha de vantagem de vinte mil." 

 — Dec. \. lib. i. ch. v. 



Faria y SouzA mentions that the 

 Singhalese at the close of the Poi'- 

 tuguese dominion " made the best 

 firelocks of all the East." (Vol. ii. 



pt. iv. ch. xix. p. 510.) See also 

 KoDRlGTJES DE Saa, Rehelion, SiC, ch. 

 i. p. 29. LiNscnoTEN, the Dutch tra- 

 veller, who visited Ceylon in 1805, 

 says, " the natural bom people or 

 Chimjahts, make the fairest barrels 

 for pieces that may be foimd in any 

 place, which shine as bright as if 

 they were silvei-." Lond. 1598. And 

 Ptraed, the French traveller, who 

 landed at Galle after having been 

 wi'ecked on the Maldives, in 1605, 

 expresses unqualified admiration of 

 the Singhalese workmanship on me- 

 tals ; and especially in the fabrication 

 and ornamenting of arms, which he 

 says were esteemed the finest in In- 

 dia, and even superior to those of 

 France. " le n'eusse iamais pens6 

 q'ils eussent esttS si excellens a bien 

 faire des arquebuses et autres amies 

 ouurag^es et fa^ onntSes, qui sont plus 

 belles que celles que I'on fait icy." — 

 Pyrakd de Laval, Voyages, Sfc, 

 Paris, 1679, ch. x. tom. ii. p. 88. 



