30 MODEKX HISTORY. [rART VI. 



A.D. to Jaffna clurinGf the commotions in the Buddhist states. 

 The Portuguese insist that it was the tooth of an ape \ 

 and worshipped in honour of Hanuman. It was mounted 

 in gold, and liad been deposited for security in one of the 

 pagodas. On the inteUigence of its capture by Don Con- 

 stantine, the King of Pegu sent an embassy to Goa to 

 tender as a ransom three or even four hundred thousand 

 cruzadoes, mth offers of liis alhance and services in many 

 capacities, and an engagement to pro\ision the Portu- 

 guese fort at Malacca as often as it should be reqidi'ed 

 of him.- The fidalgos and commanders were unanimous 

 in theu' wish, to accept the offer as a means of reple- 

 iiisliing the exhausted treasury of Lidia. But the arch- 

 bishop, Don Gaspar, was of a different mind. He firmly 

 resisted the offer, as an encouragement to idolatry, and 

 was supported in his opposition by the mquisitors and 

 clergy. The Viceroy, in consequence, rejected the pro- 

 posal of the infidel king, the tooth was placed in a 

 mortar by the archbishop, in presence of the coiu-t, and 

 reduced to powder and bm'ned, its ashes bemg scattered 

 over the sea." ^ " All men," says Faria y Souza, " then 

 applauded the act ; but not long after, two teeth being set 

 up instead of that one, they as loudly condemned and 

 railed at it^^ 



In 1591 and IGOl, fresh expeditions were sent out 

 from Goa, to punish the King of Jaffna for assisting 

 the Singhalese chiefs in their opposition to the Portu- 

 guese, but on each occasion a ready submission on the 

 part of the weaker power sufficed to avert the threatened 

 danger.^ The determination, however, had been akeady 



^ De Couto, dec. v. lib. ix. cli. ii. cli. ii. p. 251. A detailed account of 



vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 316. ] the destruction of the Sacred Tooth, 



^ De CorTO, dec. vii. lib. ix. ch. as narrated by De Corio, ■will be 



xvii. vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 428 ; Faria x j found appended to the account of 



SorzA, vol. ii. pt. ii. ch. xt i. p. Kandv in the present work, "N'ol. II. 



209. Pt. vfi. ch. V. 



2 De Couto, dec. vii. lib. ix. ch. ^ Fauta y SorzA, vol. iii. pt. i. ch, 



xvii. viii. p. 65 ; pt. ii. ch. v. p. 125. 



^ Faria t Souza, vol. ii. pt. iii. 



