216 KAXDY AXD TERADENIA. [Part VIT. 



DECADE VIII. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Hoiv the King of Pegu sent to the King of Ceylon to demand 

 his Daughter in mamage. 



* * * "At the birth of Brama, king of Pegu, the astro- 

 logers who cast his nativity, predicted that he should marry a 

 daughter of the king of Ceylon, who was to have such and 

 such marks and features, and certain proportions of limbs and 

 figm-e. Brama, desirous to fulfil the prediction, sent am- 

 bassadors to Don Juan (the king of Cotta), whom he addressed 

 as the sole inheritor of the royal blood and the only legitimate 

 sovereign of the island : and sought his daughter in marriage, 

 accompanying the demand by a ship-load of rich presents, con- 

 sisting of things unknown in Ceylon, besides woven cloth and 

 precious stones. The envoys arrived about the time that the 

 king had abandoned Cotta to take up his residence within the 

 Fort of Colombo (a.d. 1564). He received the ambassadors 

 with much distinction, and learning the purpose of their coming, 

 he concealed from them the fact that the astrologers were in 

 error, as he was childless. He had, however, brought up in his 

 palace a daughter of his great chamberlain, a prince of the 

 blood royal, who had embraced Christianity through the instru- 

 mentality of the governor Francisco Barreto, whose name he 

 assumed ; and such was the influence of this man, in addition to 

 the claim of relationship, that in all things the king was directed 

 by his counsels. This girl the king treated with every honour 

 as his own child : on the arrival of the envoys she had a place 

 assigned to her at the royal table, and was addressed as his 

 daughter, and under that designation he sought to render her 

 wife to the king of Pegu. The opposition which he appre- 

 hended was from the captain-general of Colombo and the 

 Franciscans, who, although the girl was a Buddhist, might 

 nevertheless regard her as a lamb within their fold, whom they 

 could any day induce to become a Christian, and they were, 

 therefore, likely to interfere to prevent her leaving the island. 



