CiiAP. III.] CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE. 623 



aud ofTerings to the shrine of the tooth, was insidted 

 and waylaid, and with difficulty effected an escape from 

 Ceylon. '^ According to the Ming-she^ or History of the 

 IVIing Dynasty, " the Emperor Clwig-isoo, inchgnant at 

 tliis outrage on his people ; and apprehensive lest the 

 influence of China in other countries besides Ceylon had 

 declined during the reign of his predecessors, sent Chiiig- 

 Ho, a soldier of distinction, mth a fleet of sixty-two 

 ships and a large mihtary escort, on an expedition to 

 visit the western kingdoms, furnished with proper cre- 

 dentials and rich presents of silk and gold, Ching-Ho 

 touched at Cochin-China, Sumatra, Java, Cambodia, Siam, 

 and other places, " proclaiming at each the Imperial edict, 

 and conferring Imperial gifts." If any of the princes re- 

 fused submission, they were subdued by force ; and the 

 expedition retm-ned to China in a.d. 1407, accompanied 

 by envoys from the several nations, who came to pay 

 court to the Emperor. 



Li the foUomng year Ching-Ho, having been de- 

 spatched on a similar mission to Ceylon, the king, A-lee-ko- 

 nae-wah, decoyed his party into the interior, threw up 

 stockades with a view to their capture, in the hope of a 

 ransom, and ordered soldiers to the coast to plunder the 

 Chinese junks. But Ching-Ho, by a dexterous move- 

 ment, avoided the attack, and invested the capital^, 

 made a prisoner of the king, succeeded in conveying 

 him on board his fleet, and carried liim captive to China, 

 together with his queen, liis children, his officers of state, 

 and his attendants. He brought away with him spoils, 

 wliich were lono; afterwards exliibited in the Tsino;- 

 hae monastery at Nankin ^, and one of the commentaries 

 on the Si-yu-ke of Hiouen Thseng, states that amongst 

 the articles carried away, was the sacred tooth of 



' Se-yih-kc foo-clioo, b. xviii. p. 15. \ ^ Gainpola. 

 This Cliiuese in-sasion of Ceylon lias ^ Suh- Wan-lucn tung-kaou, book 



been already adverted to in the sketch , ccxxxvi. p. 12. 

 of the domestic histoiy of the island, 

 Vol. I. Part IV. ch. xi'i. p. 417. ' 



9 s 4 



