ClIAP. III.] 



ATTEMPTED TREATY. 



67 



A.n. 

 1795. 



Kandyans of the slight endured in 17Go, and the Em- a.d. 

 peror dechned to negotiate witli the East India Company, ^782 

 or to enter into any treaty, except with the King of 

 Great Britain du^ect.^ Mr, Boyd, on his return to 

 Trincomahe, had the mortification to discover that, 

 during his absence, the fort had been surprised by a 

 French fleet under Admiral Suflrein, and the British 

 garrison transported to Madras. Trincomahe on the 

 occurrence of peace in the year following, was restored 

 to the Dutch. 



At length, in 1795, Holland, after being overrun and 

 revolutionised by the armies of tlie French Eepublic, 

 found herself helplessly involved in the great war 

 which then agitated Europe — and the time at last 

 arrived when Ceylon was to be absorbed into the Eastern 

 dominions of the British Crown. 



This consummation was facihtated by the renewal 

 of hostihties between the Dutch and the court of 

 Kandy, the sovereign being now as willing to avail 

 himself of the aid of the English to expel the forces of 

 Holland, as his predecessor, one hundred and fifty years 

 before, had been eager to accept the assistance of the 

 Dutch to rid his coimtry of the Portuguese. 



On the 1st August, 1795, an expedition fitted out by 

 Lord Hobart, the governor of Madras, and commanded 

 by Colonel James Stuart, landed at Trincomahe, which 

 capitulated, after a siege of three weeks ; Jaffna sur- 

 rendered within the following month, and Calpentyn 

 was occupied on the 5th November. A Singhalese 

 envoy ^, with the high rank of Adigar, was now de- 

 spatched to Madras by king Eajadhi Eaja Smglia, to 

 negotiate a treaty between Grcjit Britain and Kandy ; 

 but before his return, Colonel Stuart, early in 1790, 



' An interosting- account of Mr. 

 Boyd's Enil)a.'t.-*y to Kaudy will be 

 found in his MiscvUcinconn Works, 

 vol. ii. p. 107, and in the voliunc of 



the Asiatic Anmnil Rcqider for 

 1799. 



"^ iNIigasthene, Dissave of tlie Seven 

 C'oi-les, who died in 1800. 



r 2 



