82 3I0DEIIX HISTORY. [Part VI. 



A.D. of ]\Ii\ Xortli, by accepting a subsidiary force, and con- 

 ceding extensive territory to the British Crown. The 

 Adigar, who, in the midst of the tm^moil, contrived to 

 retam his influence with all parties, entered into a separate 

 convention with the general, by which the grand object 

 of his ambition was at last to be realised : — The fugitive 

 king was to be dehvered up to the English, the king de 

 facto was to be relegcited with a suitable appanage to 

 Jaffna, and " the illustrious Lord Pilame Talawe," with 

 the title of Grand Prmce (Ootoon Kumarayen\ was to 

 wield the supreme authority at Kandy. On the faith of 

 tliis convention with an undisgiused traitor, the British 

 general retired to Colombo on an ominous anniversary, 

 the 1st April, 1803; leaving behind him 300 Enghsh 

 and 700 Malays as the subsidised British contingent. 



But it was soon ascertained that the new king wq,^ 

 despised by his own countrymen ; he had undergone 

 public punishment at a former period for convicted fi'aud, 

 " he met with no adlierents, and remained in the palace 

 surrounded only by domestics, and supported by no other 

 power than the British army," ^ who were speedily deci- 

 mated by disease. 



The Adigar, apparently hm-ried beyond his usual (hs- 

 cretion by the rapid success of his treason, saw but 

 another step between him and the throne. Of the two 

 kings, one was an outlaw, the other an imbedWe faineant ; 

 the British troops were prostrated by sickness, and the 

 moment appeared propitious to grasp the crown he had 

 so long coveted. He formed the bold design to seize the 

 person of the Enghsh governor ; to exterminate the 

 attenuated Enghsh garrison ; to desti^oy the rival sove- 

 reigns, and found a new dj^nasty in Kandy. The first 

 plot was defeated by an accident '^, but the massacre of 

 the f jrces was fearfully reahsed. 



The hospitals at the moment were surcharged with 



^ Lord Yalentia, ch. vi. vol. i. I ^ jhe person of Mr. Xorth was 

 p. 298 ; CoKDiXKR, vol. ii. p. 188. | to have been seized during an inter- 



