94 



MODERN HISTORY, 



[Part VI. 



A.D. 



1817. 



1820. 



concocted by the cliiefs, and rebellion again threatened 

 to disturb the ancient Kandyan kingdom. But civil 

 authority had become consolidated and supreme ; the 

 pretenders and consph'ators were in every mstance ar- 

 rested and punished, and the island was saved the 

 calamity of renewed civil war.' 



One event, in the meantime, had for ever altered the 

 aspect of Kandyan warfare. The indomitable mountains 

 which encircled their dominions, had long inspired the 

 kings of Kandy mth an audacious confidence in their 

 own security.^ From the summits of these towering 

 bulwarks they had been accustomed to look down with 

 scorn and defiance on theu^ enemies in the lowlands. 

 The power that crouched behind them was regarded 

 by the Europeans on the coast with a feehng of mystery 

 and alarm ; and mindftd of the many calamities that had 

 overtaken those who had made the attempt, the under- 

 taking to scale them, should it ever become unavoidable, 

 was regarded Avith gloomy apprehension. The captor of 

 Kandy in 1815 conceived the bold idea of giving perma- 

 nence to his conquest, by breaching this gigantic rampart, 

 and forming a highway from the lofty fastness in the hills 

 to the level plains below. The reahsation of the project 

 was impeded by the outburst of rebelhon in 1817 ; but 

 no sooner was it quelled than Sir Edward Barnes, who 

 succeeded Sir Eobert Brownrigg as Governor in 1820, 

 apphed with energy all the resources of the Govern- 



^ Such was the impatience of the 

 Kandyan chiefs and the Buddhist 

 priests to restore the Kandyan mon- 

 archy, that, in addition to the fomii- 

 dable rebellion of 1817, a pretender 

 agitated Welasse in 1820 ; a Budd- 

 hist priest made a similar attempt at 

 Matelle in 1823 ; a plot was dis- 

 covered at Bintenne in 1821 ; aiTests 

 for treason took place in 1830 ; and in 

 1835 six chiefs of the highest rank 

 were tried for a conspiracy to levj 

 war against the king, and seduce the 

 army from its allegiance in support 

 of a native aspirant to the crown. 



In 1843, Chandrayotte, a priest, was 

 convicted of high treason at BaduUa, 

 and in 1818, the most fomiidable 

 rising of the Kandyans since 1817 

 was crushed and defeated by the 

 promptness and ■vigour of Viscount 

 TorrinGlon. 



2 "lie (Raja Singha) hath no 

 foi-ts or castles, but nature hath sup- 

 plied the want of them. For his 

 whole coimtiy standing upon such 

 high hills, and these so difficult to 

 pass, is all an impregnable fort."' — 

 Knox, Hchitiun, c$c., pt. ii. ch. vi. p. 

 44. 



