ClIAP. III.] 



FRESn REVOLT. 



91 



bitecl a sullen indifference to the change.^ The remote- 

 ness of Britain rendered its abstract authority unhi- 

 telligible, and the Kandyans were unable to reahse the 

 myth for which they had exchanged a visible king. 

 The chiefs themselves soon discovered that thek rank 

 failed to command its accustomed homage and obedience ; 

 the nice distinctions of caste were unappreciable by 

 the Enghsh soldiers, and its prejudices and pecuharities 

 were unconsciously subjected to incessant violations.^ 

 Two years of the experiment were sufficient to ripen 

 the universal disappointment into an appetite for change.^ 

 So impatient had all classes become, that uniformity 

 of feehng supphed the place of organisation ^ ; and 

 without combination or concert, nearly the whole king- 

 dom rose simultaneously in arms in the autumn of 

 1817. An aspirant to the cro^vn was duly adopted and 

 obeyed ; the dissave of Oovah, who had been sent to 

 tranquillise the disturbed districts, placed hunself at the 

 head of the insurgents, and Eheylapola, the ardent 

 " friend of the British Government," was seized and 

 expatriated for fomenting the rebellion.^ A guerilla 

 war ensued, in wliich regidar troops, traversing damp 

 forests by jungle tracks and mountain passes, were less 

 distressed by the enemy than by exposiure, privations, 

 and disease. For more than ten months discomfiture 

 seemed imminent, and so universal was the conspiracy 

 of the inliabitants, that not a Kandyan leader of any 



A.D. 



181G. 



A.D. 



1817. 



^ MAESHALL,who was present during 

 the conference in Kandy, says, " they 

 did not leave their ordinary occupa- 

 tions even to look at the troops which 

 were assembled in review order in 

 the gi'eat square before the Audience 

 Hall. Apparently, they regarded 

 the transfer of the Government from 

 an Oriental to a European d^Tiasty 

 with perfect unconcern." — P. "lG.3. 



* Davy, ch. x. p. 320 ; Marshall, 

 p. 174. 



3 The Kandyans used to inquire 

 when the English meant to leave the 



maritime provdnces. ''You have 

 deposed the king," said one, "and 

 nothing more is required, you may 

 leave us now." " They showed no 

 dislike to us individually, but as a 

 nation, they abliorrcd us ; they made 

 no complaint of oppression or misride, 

 simply wishing that we shoidd leave 

 the country." — Marshall^ p. 175. 



4 Marshall, p. 179. 



^ Eheylapola was transpoi-ted to 

 the IMam-itius, where he died in exile 

 in 1829. 



