Chap. I.] COTTA DISMANTLED. 17 



tiira, Caltura, Barberin, Galle, and Belligam were ravaged a.d. 

 by the partisans of Maaya Dunnai, their chnrches and 

 buildings destroyed, and their Christian inliabitants butch- 

 ered by the Singhalese.^ 



In these sanguinary forays, the renown of Maaya 

 Dunnai himself was echpsed by that of his youngest 

 son ; who, beginning his military career whilst yet a 

 child, had accompanied the army of liis father in an 

 expechtion against one of the refractory chieftains of the 

 south, on which occasion the boy won the title of Eaja 

 Singha, " the Lion King." - 



This fiery leader had the audacity to besiege Colombo 

 in 1563 ; and afterwards attacked Cotta mth such 1503". 

 vigour and perseverance, that the Portuguese officer, 

 Ataide, alarmed at the failure of provisions during a 

 protracted defence, caused the flesh of those killed in 

 tlie assault to be salted as a resource aojainst famine.^ 

 Warned by this critical emergency of the impossibility 

 of mamtaining Cotta as a fortress, it was judged expe- 

 dient, in 1564, to dismantle it*, and the humiliated 15(34. 

 king thenceforth resided witliin the walls of Colombo ; 

 where, says Faria y Souza, " he was no less tor- 

 mented by the covetousness of the Portuguese Com- 

 mander than he had been before by the t}T.'anny of 

 Eaja Singha."^ 



During this wretched struggle, it was the pohcy of 

 Portugal to induce the minor chiefs of Ceylon to detach 

 themselves from the national party, by inflaming their 

 apprehensions, and exciting theu' jealousy of the ascend- 

 ancy and pretensions of Maaya Dunnai and his son ; and 

 tlie more firmly to consohdate an aUiance, the strongest 

 inducements Avere held out to them to profess Christia- 



^ A.D. 1555. Faria t Souza, vol. | ^ Faria t Souza, vol. ii. pt. iii. ch. 

 ii. pt. ii. ch. xii. p. 181 ; De Couto, ii. p. 249. 



dec. vi. lib. x. ch. xii. torn. iii. p. * De Couto, dec. viii. lib. vii. ch. 



479. I vii. torn. i. pt. i. p. 57. 



* Rajavali, p. 29 ; Ribetro, b. i. I '- I'ortm/ucse Asia, vol. ii. pt. iii. 



ch. V. I ch. ii. p. 248. 



VOL. IL C 



