G6 



JtODERN HISTORY. 



[Part VI. 



A.n. 

 17r.( 



to make an attempt, though an inefTectual one, by means 

 of a special mission to the king, to effect the dehverauce 

 of tlie Enghsh seamen hekl in captivit}^ in Kandy.^ 



The first e\'idence of any deske to obtain a footing 

 in Ceylon is to be traced to the act of the governor 

 of Madi-as, who, in 1763, sent an envoy to Kandy 

 to propose to the king Kirti Sri an amicable treaty. 

 The overture was favourably received ; but, owing to 

 the subsequent indifference of the Enghsh Government, 

 no steps were taken to mature an alhance.'' 

 A. p. Twenty years later when war was levied against Hol- 

 ^''^•2. land by Great Britain in 1782, and Trincomalie occu- 

 pied by a British force under Sir Hector Munro ^ ; Hugh 

 Boyd was commissioned b}^ Lord Macartney to proceed 

 to the court of Kandy, and sohcit the active co-opera- 

 tion of Eajadhi Eaja Singlia against the Dutch. But 

 the recollection was still fresh in the minds of the 



temis from 1659 to 1679, states his 

 inability to assign any adequate mo- 

 tive in explanation of this strange 

 propensity of Eaja Singha. His 

 English captives all appear to have 

 been kidnapped sailors, whom sliip- 

 ■wi-eclis or other disasters had forced 

 to land on his shores (Hist. Relation, 

 pt. iv. ch. xiv.). Besides Kxox's o-wn 

 companions, there were at the same 

 time sixteen other Englishmen con- 

 fined at Kandy, the crew of a mer- 

 chantman, which had been wrecked 

 on the Maldives in 1656 (lb. ch. iv.) ; 

 Valentin! states that in 1672, two 

 Englishmen made their escape to 

 Colombo after twenty-two years' 

 detention at Kandy, having been 

 seized at Calpent^Ti when landing 

 fi'om a ship in search of fresh water. 

 (^^VLEXTTX, ch. XV. p. 802.) We have 

 no evidence of this seiziu-e and de- 

 tention of strangers being a national 

 ciLStom of the Singhalese kings, but 

 it is curious tliat in the tract of Pal- 

 ladius De Moritius Brachmfmoruvi, 

 erroneously ascribed to St. Ambrose 

 (see ante, Vol. I. Pt. v. ch. i. p. 589), 

 theTheban scholar who describes Cey- 

 lon, says that he was seized and de- 

 tained there by the king, for no other 



reason than that he had dai-ed to set 

 foot upon the island: lot; roXfuJTag 



Ivnox says that it was the practice of 

 Raja Singha II. to feed his European 

 prisoners with rice and provisions 

 sent daily for their use (pt. iv. ch. 

 ii.) ; and in the same way the Tlieban 

 throughout the six years of his forced 

 residence in Taprobane received 

 regularly a supply of gi-aia at the 

 expense of the Iring, KaTaaxt^'^k oi'v 

 Trn^ avTolg i^ai-iav v—rjoirtjaa Ttp 

 noTOKOTTiit irapacoOf'iQ (I'g (pynalnr. 

 (PsErDO-CALLISTHEXES, iii. ch. ix.) 

 De Foe has availed himself of this 

 habit of the Singhalese to seize the 

 persons of foreigners, to introduce an 

 incident in his story of the Adccntures 

 and Piracies of Captain Sinc/leton, ch. 

 xvii. The same propensity ha.s been 

 exhibited at times by the people of 

 Japan and other portions of the East. 



' Valextyx, ch. xiv. p. 200. The 

 Dutch liistoriiui calls him Lord 

 Winter. 



^ Lord Valentia's Travels, vol. i. 

 ch. vi. p. 278. 



^ Mill, Hid. Brit. India, book v. 

 ch. V. vol. iv. p. 225. Peecival's 

 Ceylon, ^-c, p. 50. 



