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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. X. 



of his sons and his brother, in company with the Vice-Com- 

 mander Coster and the Fiscal. He said that the Fort of 

 Trincomalee had three bastions. On that to the landside 

 there were six guns, and on the bastion which commanded the 

 inside of the bay also six guns. Upon the seaside bastion 

 there were two guns, which could scour the bay over some 

 rocks. They were all of iron, shooting 5 to 6 lb. iron, having 

 been taken from a certain Danish ship which was wrecked 

 here on a rock about twenty years ago. The garrison stationed 

 there consisted of forty European-Portuguese, also blacks 

 and Mestices to the number of about a hundred or little more. 

 There were among them about thirty married men with their 

 wives and children. The extent of the Fort was about as great 

 as that of Batticaloa. The walls on the side facing the inner 

 bay were about 2 J to 3 fathoms high, built of black and hard 

 stone, and on the Pagoda side about 4 to 5 fathoms high and 

 5 cubits thick. There was, besides, a suitable place where one 

 could safely land with men and guns beyond the reach of 

 their cannon. In order to sail in safely it was right that we 

 should reconnoitre the place with some of our boats. The 

 question, therefore, having been put whether one hundred of 

 our soldiers would be able to land there without peril, (the 

 Governor) replied, laughing, that the Portuguese had not one 

 hundred in the Fort, and that they would not have the 

 courage to meet so many soldiers, as he himself intended that 

 day to provision his blacks and land them that evening or 

 early next morning, and to maintain them without any assis- 

 tance from us. They consisted of four hundred Coutijar 

 soldiers and workmen and five hundred soldiers from Batti- 

 caloa, who were to unite at the place where we intended 

 encamping, and to bring there a quantity of long straight 

 poles to make ladders of, and to see that there should 

 be in readiness a goodly number of baskets to carry 

 earth in. As regards provisions and ammunition, those in 

 the Fort were well provided, and had resolved (so it wa s 

 understood) to stand to the end and defend themselves to th e 

 last man. 



