540 



THE XORTIIERX FORESTS. 



rPART IX. 



and title of independent princes down to the seven- 

 teenth century. The Rajavali recounts the occasions 

 on wliich they carried on wars with the Singhalese 

 kings of the island ^ ; — and their authority and influence 

 in the fourteenth century are attested by the protection 

 which the Eaja (whose dominions then extended as far 

 south as Chilaw) afforded to Ibn Batuta, whom, Avith 

 his companions, he permitted to visit the sacred footstep 

 on the summit of Adam's Peak.- 



Elsewhere, the story has been told of the persecution 

 of the native converts who had embraced Christianity 

 under the preaching of St. Francis Xavier, about the 

 year 15-44, and of the wars undertaken by the Portu- 

 guese to avenge them, which terminated, a.d. 1617, in 

 the conquest of their country and its final annexation 

 to the possessions of Portugal in Ceylon.^ In their turn, 

 the Portuguese were expelled by the Dutch m 1658 ; but 

 although the tenure of Jaffna by the former did not 

 much exceed forty years, the exertions which they made, 

 during that brief period, to establish the Eoman 

 Catholic rehgion are attested by the number of churches 

 they built. These remain to the present day, having 

 served in turn for the missionaries of three nations, 

 of Portugal, Holland, and England, and successively 

 "v\dtnessed the celebration of the rites of three commu- 

 nions, the Eoman Catholic, the Eeformed, and the Epis- 

 copahan.* The Portuguese divided the peninsula into 

 parishes, with schools and a mansion for the priests in 

 each ; and within the town they maintained a college of 

 Jesuits, a convent of Franciscans, and a monastery of Do- 

 minican Friars.'^ 



» Rajavali, p. 208. 



^ Ibx Batuta, Travels, S^c, Trans, 

 by Lee, pp. I8.S-I80. 



' 3 Faria y SorzA, aoI. iii. ch. xii. 

 p. 259. See the poi-tion of tlie pre- 

 sent work relative to tlie Portug-uese 

 in Ceylon, Vol. II. Ft. vi. cli. i. p. 20. 



* Views of the most important of 

 these buildin<rs as thev were found 



by the Dutch, ai'c given in the illus- 

 ti-ations to the ■work of Baxdjetjs on 

 Ceylon. 



'-> For an account of the missionary 

 proceedings of the Portuguese at 

 Jaffiia, see Sir .1. Emeesox Tkxxext's 

 Hidorifof ('hristianitii in Cci/h», ch. i. 



p. 10. ■ ■ 



