84 



:\IODERX HISTORY, 



[Part VI. 



A.D. 



1803. 



sick, and with difficulty succeeded iii bringing off liis 

 men to Trincomalie — another held his position at 

 Dambedeuia till brought ofT by a rehef from Colombo ; 

 but ^vithin the briefest possible space, not one British 

 soldier was left -within the dominions of Kandy.^ 



Years were allowed to elapse before any adequate re- 

 tribution was inflicted on the authors of this massacre. 

 CoRDiXEE, who was at Colombo when the intelhgence 

 arrived, describes the effect as " imiversal consterna- 

 tion ; it was like a burst of thunder portended by a 

 dark and gloomy sky and foUowed by an awful and 

 overpowering calm." ^ The first impidse of the Enghsh 

 was for general and indiscriminate vengeance on the 

 Kandyan people ; but death and disease had so reduced 

 the British force, that even this was impracticable for 

 want of troops, and the few that remained serviceable 

 had soon ample occupation in defenduig thek own 

 territory from the dangers with which it was tlu^eatened 

 from Kandy. 



The bloody triumph he had achieved seemed to 

 have suddenly hiflamed the savage king with a sense 

 of his own strength and a consciousness of the im- 

 pregnabihty of his natural defences. By a strenuous 

 exertion of his authority and influence over the low- 

 couutiy Singhalese, he succeeded in exciting a spirit of 

 revolt, and in a very few weeks there was not a point 

 throughout the entire circuit of the island, fi'om Ham- 

 bangtotte and Tangalle to Jaffna and Trincomahe, at 

 wliich the native population were not preparing to take 

 up arms for the expulsion of the British ; whilst the 

 Kandyans themselves, descending in hordes from the 

 hills, made simultaneous attacks upon Matura on the 

 south, Chilaw and Putlam on the west, Moeletivoe and 



* Major Davie was detained in 

 captivity at Kandy till 1810, when 

 he died without ha'viug any opportu- 

 nity to communicate with his countiy, 



or to leave a defence of his memory 

 from the serious imputations that 

 rest upon it. 



* CoEDETEE, ch. iii. vol. ii. p. 210. 



