•20 



MODERN HISTOKT. 



[Part VI. 



A.D. 



1586. 



continued to harass it by repeated assaidts till the end 

 of May in the following year. The barbarities practised 

 by the garrison are related A^dthout emotion by the Por- 

 tuQ-uese historians of the sieo-e— the tortures inflicted on 

 the h\ing, and the orgies perpetrated over the remains 

 of the dead^ — and as the entire country beyond the 

 walls of Colombo was in possession of the enemy, 

 Portuguese galleons were despatched to destroy the 

 \-illages along the southern coast. The expedition, ac- 

 cording to the complacent narrative of De Couto, 

 achieved its mission with circmnstances of signal atrocity, 

 especially towards the women and theu^ httle ones, 

 whose hands and arms tlie soldiers hacked off m then* 

 eagerness to secure then- pendants and bangles ; and 

 returned to Colombo m triumph, with their spoils and 

 captives.^ 



In a second expedition these outrages were repeated 

 on a still greater scale. Thome de Sousa d'AiTonches, 

 in February, 1587, sacked and burned the villages of 

 Cosgodde, Madampe, and Gindm^a, surprised and ra- 

 vaged Galle, Belhgam, and Matura, and utterly de- 

 stroyed the great temple of Tanaveram or Dondera, 

 then the most sumptuous in Ceylon, built on vaulted 

 arches on a promontory overlooking the sea, with 

 towers elaborately carved and covered with plates of 

 gilded brass. De Sousa gave it up to the plunder of 

 his soldiers ; overthrew more than a thousand statues 

 and idols of stone and bronze, and slaughtered cows 

 Avithin its precincts in order indehbly to defile the 

 sacred places. Carrying away quantities of ivory, pre- 

 cious ornaments, jeAvehy, and gems, he committed the 



1 De CorTO relates, that an ai-achy 

 of singular bravery, who on a former 

 occasion had killed Avith liis OAvn 

 hand twenty-nine Singhalese las- 

 carins, having been brought prisoner 

 into Colombo, a Portuguese soldier 

 cut open his heart and drank the 

 blood out of his hands, "hum delles 

 chamado Maroto, a quern devia deter 



bem escandalizado, Ihe deo huma 

 cutUada sobre o cora^ao, que abrio 

 todo, e por tres vezes Ihe tomou o 

 sangue com os maos, e bebeo por for- 

 tai' a sede do odio que Ihe tinlia." 

 — Dec. X. ch. v. vol. vi. pt. ii. p. 562. 

 2 Rajavali, p. SOSj Faria t bouzA, 

 vol. iii. pt. i. ch. vi. 



