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



under the ramparts that a musket could not have been fired 

 through it. They could not inspect the third bastion, lying 

 sea-girt eastwards, so well as the others : I shall not dwell on it 

 further. 



When they had thus inspected these bastions, the 

 Governor of Samanture came to see them there. He told the 

 Vice-Commander Coster, Fiscal Herbers, and Major Scholtes, 

 that he had that night received letters from His Imperial 

 Majesty, in which his Majesty enjoined him to provide all the 

 Hollanders who came under his jurisdiction with every 

 necessary, and to do everything which they should desire him 

 to. His Majesty also said that Don Balthazar and his other 

 officers did not, when close to Colombo, treat us as we ought 

 to have been treated, on which account he believed we 

 had gone away from there ; and he was thus deprived of a 

 glorious victory which, with the aid of the Dutch, was in his 

 hands, as the Portuguese had deserted Maluane and other 

 Forts lying there about to defend Colombo in a body. There- 

 fore his officers were to blame that he did not become master 

 of the said Fort. The aforesaid Governor further stated 

 that His Majesty had, for this reason, imprisoned Don 

 Balthazar and his followers in Kandy, being dissatisfied with 

 what they had done, and was so enraged that no one could 

 approach him and scarcely dared speak to him. 



April 21. — In the morning the yachts "Ryswijck" and 

 " De Zeeusche Nachtegael " sailed with Vice-Commander 

 Coster to sound the N. E. side of the Fort of Trincomalee, 

 and returned to the fleet about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. 

 It was gathered from his report that on that side the anchor- 

 age was bad, so that the ships could not anchor there, as right 

 under the walls of the aforesaid Fort some Portuguese 

 boats lay moored. The yachts had scarcely returned to 

 the fleet anchored opposite Coutijar, when there arose such 

 a violent storm from the east that the vessels, notwith- 

 standing that they had two anchors, were driven before it, so 

 that their sterns were exposed to the fury of the surf ; and 

 if the wind, which was very violent for two hours, had 



