92 MODEEX IIISTOEY. [Part VT. 



A.D. consequence Avas taken, and not a district was either 

 1817. pacified or subdued.^ So great Avas the apprehension 

 of the Government, and such the horrors of the species 

 of warfare in whicli they were involved, tliat the 

 expediency had abeady been discussed of abandoning 

 the contest and A\dthdrawing the British forces to the 

 coast ^, when towards the close of 1818, the Kandyans, 

 harassed by the destruction of their villages and cattle, 

 rendered destitute by the devastation of theu^ country, 

 and disheartened by the loss of upwards of ten thousand 

 persons, either fallen in the field or destroyed by famine 

 and fever ^, beo-an to throw out sio-nals of submission. 

 The rebelhous chiefs were captured ; the pretender fled ; 

 the great palladium, " the sacred tooth " of Buddlia, 

 which had been stolen and paraded to arouse the fana- 

 tical enthusiasm of the people, was recovered and 

 restored to its depository in Kandy ; and before the close 

 of the year, the whole country returned to tranquillity 

 and order. 



The rebellion of 1817 was the last great occasion on 

 which the Enghsh forces were arrayed in hostihty against 

 the natives of any portion of Ceylon. Amongst the 

 Singhalese of the maritime districts, there has never 

 prevailed any long-sustained feeling of discontent with 

 the British rule, and the insurrectionary disturbances 

 around the coast, which followed the massacre of 1803, 

 were excited by the influence, and carried on by the 

 direct instrumentality, of the Adigar and the King of 

 Kandy. But a very few years' experience of the bene- 

 ficence of Enghsh government sufficed to eradicate any 

 tendency to disafiection, and in oiu' subsequent struggles 

 with the people of the liill country, the inhabitants of 

 the lowlands exhibited neither sympathy nor co-operation 

 witli the enemy. 



Tlie case was, however, diflerent witli the Kandyan 



» Davy, ch. x. p. 327. | 3 Davy, cli. x. p. .331. 



2 Mausuall, p. 191. I 



