434 THE XORTHEEX FOKESTS. [Pakt IX. 



to control the Avill and direct the action of these rural 

 municipalities. This salutary authority was superseded, 

 and eventually anniliilated by the Malabar invaders. 

 They do not appear to have molested or wantonly de- 

 stroyed the village tanks ; (in fact, the only recorded 

 instance of the dehberate destruction of a tank was by 

 the Portuguese in the sixteenth centmy^ ;) but the 

 presence of an enemy paralysed the organisation under 

 which alone they could be administered for the general 

 advantage of the community, and the gradual decline 

 of the peasantry involved the neglect, and eventually 

 the ruin, of the reservoirs and canals. Between the 

 seventh century and the twelfth, agricultm'e was so 

 successful, that Ceylon produced ample supplies for the 

 sustenance of her teeming population ^ ; but in the 

 thirteenth and fom'teenth centuries, when the baneful 

 domination of the Malabars had become intolerable, 

 industry was stifled, and the remnant of the people 

 became helplessly rehant on the continent of India for 

 their annual supphes of food — a dependency wliich has 

 continued unrelieved to the present time. 



The difficulties attendant on any attempt to bring 

 back cidtivation by the repair of the tanks are too 

 apparent to escape notice. The effort must be made 

 by judicious degrees. The system to be restored was 

 the growth of a thousand years of freedom which a 

 brief interval of despotism sufficed to destroy ; and it 

 would require the lapse of centuries to reproduce the 

 population, and re-create the wealth in cattle and 



1 This event took place during the 

 siege of Colombo by Raja Singha 



clesembarcaram e tomaram huma 

 tranqiieira." — Asia, dee. x. ch. xv. ; 



II., A.D. 1587, when Thome de Faeiv y Souza, Poiiur/uese Asia, 



Souza d'AiTOuches was despatched, 

 to make a diversion by ravaging the 

 southern coast of Ceylon. De 

 CorTO recounts, amongst other atro- 

 cities then pei-peti'ated, tliat after 



vol. iii. p. 5-3. An accoimt of this 

 infamous expedition of Souza D'-\i'- 

 ronches will be foimd in another 

 part of the present work, Vol. II. 

 rt. VI. ch. i., and Vol. II. Pt. vii. ch. i. 



sacking the town of BeUegam, a j ^ " La population est agglomeree, et 



party was sent to a river which he la ten-e produit des gi-aius en abou- 



caUs the Meliseu, where they halted dance." — IIiouEX Thsaxg, Voyages, 



and destroi/ed the tank, " no qual I i^V., tom. i. p. 194. 



