418 



THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. 



[Part III. 



A.D. 



1505. 



It was in this state of exhaustion, that the Singhalese 

 were brought into contact with Europeans, during the 

 reign of Dharma Prakrama IX., when the Portuguese, who 

 had recently estabhshed themselves in India, appeared 

 for the first time in Ceylon, a.d. 1505. The paramount 

 sovereign was then living at Cotta ; and the Rajavali re- 

 cords the event in the followdnsi; terms : — "And now it 

 came to pass that in the Christian year 1522 a.d., in the 

 month of April, a ship from Portugal arrived atColombo, 

 and information was brought to the king, that there were 

 in the harbour a race of very white and beautiful people, 

 who wear boots and hats of iron, and never stop in one 

 place. They eat a sort of white stone, and drink blood ; 

 and if they get a fish they give two or three iHde in gold 

 for it ; and besides, they have guns with a noise louder 

 than thunder, and a ball shot from one of them, after tra- 

 versing a league, will break a castle of marble." ^ 



Before proceeding to recount the intercourse of the 

 islanders with these civilised visitors, and the grave re- 

 sults which foUowed, it wiU be well to cast a glance over 

 the condition of the people during the period which pre- 

 ceded, and to cull from the native historians such notices 

 of their domestic and social position as occur in passages 

 intended by the Singhalese annahsts to chronicle only 

 those events which influenced the national worship, or the 

 exploits of those royal personages, who earned immortahty 

 by their protection of Buddhism. 



Nissanga, who was siinimoned from 

 Calinga on the Coroinandel Coast. 

 On the extinction of the recognised 

 line of Suhnvanse in a.d. 1700, a 

 prince from Madura, who was merely 

 a connection by marriage, succeeded 

 to the throne. The King Raj a Singha, 

 who detained Knox in captivity, a.d. 



1640, was manied to a INIalabar prin- 

 cess. In fixct, the four last kings of 

 Ceylon, prior to its surrender to Great 

 Britain, were pure Malabars, without 

 a trace of Singhalese blood. 



^ Rajavali, UrnAM's version, p. 

 278. 



