CUAP. III.] 



MASSACEE. 



83 



sick, and the available strength of the British was reduced 

 to a handful of European convalescents and about four 

 hundred Malays and gun-lascars, under an incompetent 

 and inexperienced commandant, Major Davie. 



On the morning of the 24th June, Kandy was sur- 

 rounded by thousands of armed natives ; who assailed 

 the British garrison from the hills which overhang the 

 ancient palace ; numbers were killed, and the residue, 

 exhausted and helpless, were compelled to capitulate. 

 The Adigar guaranteed their safety and that of the 

 royal pi^otege, Mootoo Saamy, with wliom they were 

 permitted to march about three miles, to the banks of 

 the Mahawelli-ganga, on their way to Trincomahe. 

 But they were detained for two days, unable to pass the 

 river, which was swollen by the recent rains ; and here 

 they were forced to surrender the person of the prince, 

 who was instantly slain. Major Davie was led back to 

 Kandy, his soldiers were persuaded to give up then' 

 arms, the Malays were made prisoners, and the British 

 officers and men, led two by two into a hollow out of 

 sight of their comrades, were felled by blows from behind, 

 inflicted by the Caffres, and despatched by the knives of 

 the Kandyans. 



One soldier alone escaped from the carnage and sur- 

 vived to tell the fate of his companions.^ An officer '^ 

 who commanded at Fort MacDowall, about eighteen 

 miles eastward of Kandy, spiked his gun, abandoned his 



A.D. 



1803. 



idew wbicli the Adigar solicited at 

 Dambedenia, in the Seven Corles, 

 but the attempt was rendered abor- 

 tive by the unforeseen ariival of an 

 officer with a detachment of ^300 

 Malays, who came to pay their re- 

 spects to the Grovemor. — Coedinee, 

 vol. ii. p. 201. 



^ Tliis was Coi-poral Barnsley, 

 whose singular stoiy will be found in 

 the Historical Sketch of the Canquest 

 o/" Ce>/lon hy the British, written by 

 Henky Makshall, Deputy Inspec- 

 tor-General of Hospitals, a book 

 which contains by far the best ac- 



count of the militaiy operations of 

 tlie British from 1803 to 1804. Dr. 

 Davy, in his work on the Interior of 

 Ceylon (ch. x. p. 313), has given a 

 number of cmious particulars of 

 these occuiTences, gleaned by per- 

 sonal inquiry from the Kandyans — 

 from which it would appear that the 

 actual massacre was tlie worlc of the 

 king, and not of the Adigar. Cordi- 

 nek's Narrative of tlie same events 

 will be found in his 2nd vol. cli. iii. 

 p. 203. 



^ Captain Madge. 



