(52 MODERN HISTORY. [Part VI. 



A.D. not altogether unrelieved by passages indicative of more 

 1/6G. generous impulses, but these were so transient and so 

 uniformly succeeded by reversions to the former pusil- 

 lanimous sj^stem, that the general character of their 

 administration is unredeemed from the charge of mean- 

 ness and tyranny. The presence of such Governors as 

 ImliofF and Falck were but episodes in the wearisome 

 tale of extortion and selfishness; and when at length 

 towards the close of the last century the British troops 

 made their appearance before Colombo, after occupying 

 the other strongholds in the island, the siQTender of the 

 fortress without a struggle for its defence may be 

 regarded as an e\ddence that the Dutch had become as 

 indifferent to its retention as the Singhalese were rejoiced 

 at its capture. 



