Chap. V.] STORY OF THE TOOTH. 221 



immediately despatched an envoy to Pegu, whom the king 

 received with distinction. He opened the object of his mission, 

 and disclosed, on the part of his master, that the lady whom 

 Don Juan had passed off as his own child, was in reality the 

 daughter of the great chamberlain, and that the tooth, which 

 had been received with so much pomp and adoration, had been 

 fabricated out of the horn of a deer ; but he added that the king 

 of Kandy, anxious to ally himself with the sovereign of Pegu, 

 had commissioned him to offer in marriage a princess who was 

 in reality his own offspring, and not supposititious : besides 

 which he gave him to understand that the Kandyan monarch 

 was the possessor and depositary of the genuine tooth of Buddha, 

 neither the one which Don Constantine had seized at Jaffna- 

 patam, nor yet that which was held by the king of Pegu, being 

 the true one, — a fact which he was prepared to substantiate by 

 documents and ancient olas. 



" Brama listened to his statement and pondered it in his 

 mind; but seeing that the princess had already received the 

 oaths of fidelity as queen, and that the tooth had been wel- 

 comed with so much solemnity, and deposited in a mhare, 

 specially built for it, he resolved to hush up the affair ; to avoid 

 confessing himself a dupe, (for kings must no more admit 

 themselves to be in error in their dealings with us, than we in 

 our dealings with them). Accordingly, he gave as his reply, 

 that he was sensible of the honour designed for him by the 

 proffered alliance with the royal family of Kandy, and likewise 

 by the offer of the tooth ; that he returned his thanks to the 

 king, and as a mark of consideration would send back by his 

 ambassadors a ship laden with presents. He caused two vessels 

 to be prepared for sea, with cargoes of rice and rich cloths, one 

 for Don Juan, and the other for the king of Kandy ; and in that 

 for Don Juan, he embarked all the Portuguese subjects whom 

 he had held in captivit}^, and amongst them Antonio Toscano, 

 who has told me these things many times. These ships having 

 arrived at Ceylon, the one which was for the Kandyan port had 

 her cables cut and was stranded before she could discharge her 

 cargo, so that all was lost and the ambassador drowned ; some 

 said that this was done by order of the Singhalese king, Don 

 Juan, and if so, it was probably a stratagem of the great cham- 

 berlain, for the king himself had no genius for plots. Thus 

 things remained as they were, nothing farther having been at- 

 tempted or done." 



