CiiAP. III.] CEYLON AS liNOWN TO THE CHINESE. 



62^ 



liiimbly and periodically acknowledged ; tribute was 

 punctually paid to the emperor, and on two occasions, 

 in 1416 A.D., and 1421 a.d., the kings of Ceylon were 

 the bearers of it in person.' In 1430 A.D., at a period 

 of intestine commotion, " Cliing-Ho issued a proclama- 

 tion for the pacification of Ceylon," and, at a somewhat 

 later period, edicts were promulgated by the Emperor 

 of Cliina for the government of the island.^ In 1459 

 A.D., however, the series of humiliations appears to 

 have come abruptly to a close ; for, " in that year," says 

 the Ming-she^ "the King of Ceylon for the last time 

 sent an envoy with tribute, and after that none ever 

 came again." 



On their arrival in Ceylon early in the sixteenth 

 century^, the Portuguese found many evidences stiU 

 existing of the intercourse and influence of the Chinese. 

 They learned that at a former period they had esta- 

 blished themselves in the south of the island ; and both 

 De Barros and De Couto ventured to state that the 

 Singhalese were so called from the inter-marriage of 

 the Chinese with the Grallas or Chahas, the caste who 

 in great numbers still inhabit the country to the north 

 of Point de Galle.^ But the conjecture is erroneous, the 

 derivation of Singhala is clearly traced to the Sanskrit 



baliu, believing liis professions (be- 

 cause it had been customary in the 

 time of King Prakrama-bahu for 

 foreign countries to pay tribute to 

 Ceylon), acted incautiously, and he 

 was ti-eacherously taken prisoner by 

 the foreign king. His four brothers 

 were killed, and with them fell many 

 people, and the king himself was car- 

 ried captive to China." De Couto, 

 in his continuation of De Baekos, 

 has introduced the story of the cap- 

 ture of the king by the Chinese ; but 

 he has confounded the dates, mysti- 

 fied the facts, and altered the name 

 of the new sovereign to Pandar, 

 which is probably only a corruption 

 of the Singhalese Banda, " a prince." 

 — De Couto, Asia, Sfc, dec. v. lib. i. 



c. vi. vol. ii. part i. p. 51. Puechas 

 says : " The Singhalese language is 

 thought to have been left there by 

 the Chinois, some time Loi-d of 

 Zeilan. " — Pilgrimmie, c. xviii. 

 p. 552. The adventures of Ching 

 Ho, in his embassy to the nations of 

 the Southern Ocean, have been made 

 the ground-work of a novel, the 

 8c-ytmg-ke, which contains an en- 

 larged account of his exploits in 

 Ceylon ; but fact is so overlaid with 

 fiction that the passages ai'e not worth 

 extracting. 



^ 3Ihi(/-she, b. vii. pp. 4, 8. 



^ Ibid., b. cccxxvii. p. 7. 



3 A.D. 1505. 



■* " Serem os Chijis senhores da 

 costa Choromandcl, parte do Malabar 



