No. 35. — 1887.] CAPTURE OF trtncomalee. 



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men, soldiers and sailors, fully armed on the open ground 

 in front of the Fort, in such array as though he were about to 

 storm it. Hereupon the padre, fearing that we should com- 

 mence the storm, returned at once with most of the Cartas 

 and delivered the keys of the Fort to the Commander, who 

 thereupon entered it with guns and a company of soldiers and 

 ordered th e surrendered to leave all their arms inside the Fort 

 and sign their names on a roll. 



Whilst we were under the Fort in battle-array, the Com- 

 mander ordered Vice-Commander Coster (the padre being 

 with us) to see by way of experiment whether he could 

 mount the breach made in the bastion with safety. 

 It was done so easily, that the storming of the Fort would 

 not have been a very difficult matter for us. On entering the 

 Fort the Governor with his Captains and soldiers came to 

 meet the Commander and delivered to him, as victor, his 

 silver-gilt rapier, which the Commander took, and after 

 inspecting it, returned it to the Governor, who considered this 

 an act of great courtesy. They now entered and found that 

 both on the St. Jago and St. Cruz bastions eight guns had not 

 only been shot away from the ramparts, but were nearly 

 buried beneath the heap of stones and debris which our guns 

 had caused. The Commander at once gave orders that there 

 should be erected on the top of the mast a little tower 

 expressive of their great joy ; which was done : meanwhile 

 the well-known strains of " Wilhelmus van Nassau" were 

 played, in honour of our victory, the soldiers joining in 

 chorus. 



We had scarcely been in the Fort two hours when 

 there came here from the King of Kandy the two Muda- 

 liyars with about 3,000 men, although His Majesty had 

 before this written that he would send us 4,000 men for the 

 purpose of capturing Trincomalee and Jaffnapatnam. These 

 Mudaliyars brought with them some letters from His 

 Majesty addressed to the Commander, the contents of 

 which were of no particular moment ; but he referred to the 

 letter and verbal reports of the Captain of the Fort of 



