28 CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



devil-worship and heathenish superstitions practised in some pla- 

 ces the Governor in Council has issued good orders and pla* 

 cards, whereby as much as possible such practices are pre- 

 vented , as also against the public superstiticus practices of po- 

 pery, to which some are still strongly attached. " 



About this time the Batavian clergy put the question to their 

 brethren in Ceylon whether the Portuguese language as a me- 

 dium for the purposes of religion be necessary and useful. The 

 latter replied, that as it was a language commonly spoken in 

 the Island, especially in the Colombo district, its more general 

 adoption would be productive of great good ; and that although 

 in 1668 both the local Civil and Ecclesiastical authorities had 

 resolved that the language should be discouraged in order to 

 its dying away, and had taken strenuous measures to that ef- 

 fect, yet that experience had hitherto shewn them the imprac- 

 ticability. The new Testament in Portuguese had been published 

 in Holland by order of the Company, several copies were 

 distributed in Ceylon, and the demand for them was increasing. 

 But as it was not considered a very good version, the phrase- 

 ology being in several places incorrect, it became a subject of 

 correspondence whether a fresh supply should be granted, or a 

 revised edition published, the latter was resolved upon, but in 

 the mean time 50 copies of the old edition were received from 

 Batavia to be distributed and used (the incorrect places amended 

 with the pen) with the prospect of being soon superseded. 

 There was also in circulation a little Portuguese work against 

 popery, entitled a dialogue between a pastor and a farmer, 

 translated from the Dutch and published in Holland in 1682. 



In 1685 the number of clergymen stood thus, Jaffna 4, Co- 

 lombo 3, Galle % and Matura 1. Jaffna was looked upon as 

 the most import sphere of operation. 



An official letter from the consistory to the XVII Representa- 

 tives of the Company in t 689 gives this mention of rural Churches 

 and Schools. " At the conquest of Colombo by the Dutch, the 



