22 



MODERN HISTORY. 



[Part VI. 



A.D. 



1592. 



against Eaja Singlia.^ A few j^ears were wasted in desul- 

 tory warfare in the Kandyan highlands, and then fol- 

 lowed a decisive action at Kukul-bittra-welle, near the 

 pass of Kadaganauwa^, in which Eaja Singha was unsuc- 

 cessful, and died in 1592, refusmg sm^gical assistance for 

 a wound, and murmiuing at the departiu^e in his old age 

 of that good fortune which liad signalised his career in his 

 boyhood.^ 



Thus left undisputed master of the interior of Kandy, 

 Don Juan seized on the supreme power, and assumed the 

 Kandyan crown under the title of Wimala Dharma. To 

 secure the support of the priesthood, he abjured Christi- 

 anity, and, availing himself of the faith of the nation in 

 the dalada, " the sacred tooth of Buddha," as a palla- 

 chum, the possession of which Avas inseparable from 

 royalty, he produced the tooth whicli is still preserved in 

 the temple at Kandy as the original one ; and, notA\"itli- 

 standing the destruction of the latter at Goa in 1560*, he 

 had no difficulty in persuading the Kandyans that the 

 counterfeit was the genuine rehc, which he assured them 

 had been removed from Cotta on the arrival of the Portu- 

 guese, and preserved at Delgammoa in Saffragam. 



The Portuguese attempted to depose Don Juan, and 

 despatched a force to the mountains under the command 

 of Pedro Lopez de Souza, to escort the young Queen 

 Catharina to the capital, and to restore the croA\m to its 

 legitimate possessor. Don Pedi^o succeeded in expelhng 

 tlie usurper ; but, after a very short interval, Wimala 

 Dharma retm^ned, effectually detached the Kandyan forces 

 from their aUiance, utterly routed the Portuguese gar- 



1 The events of this period are 

 given with particidarily in the De- 

 seripiion of C'ej/Ion, by PuiLiP Ral- 

 D^rs, "Minister of the word of God 

 in Ceylon ; " printed at Amsterdam, 

 10)72, and of which an Enjzlish trans- 

 lation Avill be found in CiimcniLL's 

 Collection, vol. iii. p. 501. 



^ Rajavali, p. 312. 



^ " Since my eleventh year, no king 

 has made way against me till now ; 

 but my might is diminished ; this 

 king is more powerful than me." — 

 Ilajavali, p. SPj. 



■* For an account of the Sacred 

 Tooth and its destruction, see Vol. 11. 

 p. 29. 199. 



