68 



MODEKN HISTORY. 



[Pakt YI. 



A.D 



179G. 



took possession of Negombo, and summoned the 

 garrison of Colombo, which, on the 16tli February, 

 marched out without strikino' a blow. Van Ano'elbeck, 

 the governor, had previously signed a convention by 

 which Caltura, Point de Galle, Matura, and all the other 

 fortified places, were simultaneously ceded to Great 

 Britain.^ 



By this capitulation Ceylon, with all its fortresses, 

 ammunition and artillery, its archives, and tire contents 

 of its treasury and stores, was ceded to the victorious 

 Enghsh. Private property was declared in\4olable, the 

 fluids of charitable foundations were held sacred, the 

 garrison marched out with the honours of war, piled 

 arms on the esplanade, and returned again to their 

 barracks. Night closed on the descending standard of 

 Holland, and at sunrise, the British flag waved on tlie 

 walls of Colombo.^ 



1 Anmial Register, 1796, p. 194. 

 Ibid. Appendix, p. 75. 



^ Pekctval, -who served hi this cam- 

 paign, gives a remarkable picture in 

 his Account of the Island of Ceylon, 

 of the degi-aded state to which the 

 Dutch military establishments were 

 reduced at this crisis. The march of 

 the British from Negombo to Colombo 

 was entirely unimpeded, although it 

 lay through thick woods and jungle, 

 from behind which an enemy might 

 have been destroyed whilst tlie as- 

 sailants were unseen. The English 

 were allowed to cross tlie Kalany 

 river at ^lutwal without molestation, 

 upon rafts of bamboo ; a batteiy 

 erected at (xrand Pass was abandoned 

 by the Dutch, who fled on the appear- 

 ance of the British. A few shots were 

 aimed at them as tliey approached Co- 

 lombo, but the firing party were re- 

 pulsed, and fled witliin the fortifica- 

 tions, whence, without waiting to be 

 attacked, they instantly sent to pro- 

 pose tenns of suiTender. Van An- 

 gelbeck, the go-\-enior, afterwards 

 confessed, such was the demoralisa- 

 tion and mutiny of the garrison, that 

 he lived in peqietual dread of assas- 



sination, and although eager to defend 

 the fortress to the last, he was unable 

 to prevail on his officers to encoimter 

 the enemy. This state of things 

 Percival ascribes to the thirst for 

 gain and private emolument, which 

 had OA'ercome eveiy other feeling, 

 and produced a total extinction of 

 every sentiment of public spirit and 

 national honour. "\Yhen the English 

 entered the gates the Dutch " were 

 found by us in a state of the most in- 

 famous disorder and drunkenness, in 

 no disciplhie, no obedience, no ^irit. 

 The soldiers then awoke to a sense 

 of their degi'adation, but it was too 

 late ; they accused Van Angelbeck 

 of beti-aying them, vented loud 

 reproaches against their comman- 

 ders, and recklessly insulted the 

 British as they filed into tlie for- 

 tress, even spitting on them as they 

 passed." — Percival, p. 118, loO, 

 180. 



The Dutch tell a difiercnt stoiy. 

 They openly assert the treason of 

 Van iVngelbeck, and imply that as 

 the Stadtholder in 1705 had tlirown 

 himself on the protection of the En- 

 glish, the Governor of Ceylon had 



J 



