No. 37.— 1888.] capture of Colombo. 



405 



Captain Borough, Lieutenant Hayter, and John Macdowall, Esquire, 

 will have the honour to deliver this letter to you, and are empowered 

 by me to arrange the terms of surrender. 



I have the honour to be, with every consideration of respect and 

 esteem, &c. 



J. Stuart, 



Commanding-in-Chief the Troops of His Britannic 

 Majesty on this Island of Ceylon. 



To the Right Honourable Lord Hobart, Governor, and Council at 

 Fort St. George. 



My Lord and Sirs, — We have had the honour to receive from 

 Major Agnew your letter of September 22 last, and reply to it a3 

 follows : — 



Our answer to Lord Hobart's letter of July 7, which agreeably to 

 his Lordship's desire was despatched to the Commanding Officers of 

 the British Naval and Land Forces before Trincomalee, contained all 

 that his Serene Highness the Hereditary Stadtholder demanded from us, 

 and the strongest reasons why we could not agree to the remaining 

 demands of his Lordship which went much further. 



Our Governor alone signed that letter because Major Agnew insisted 

 so much on having his despatch immediately on account of the danger 

 to which the frigate was exposed in the bad monsoon, and as part of 

 the Members of Council lived without the fort, hours would have been 

 spent in getting it signed by them. Our Governor signed it without 

 hesitation, as the draft had been approved by every one of us, and 

 as the Governors of Ceylon have always in matters of the greatest 

 importance given orders to the subordinate officers by letters signed 

 alone by them. 



Major Fornbauer should then without hesitation have complied with 

 its contents, and we have therefore left the consequences of his refusal 

 to his account. 



We nevertheless expected with much reason that the Commanding 

 Officers would have contented themselves with the aforesaid Major's 

 offer, to ask additional orders, and then to comply, in -which case this 

 unfortunate misunderstanding could have been adjusted within a few 

 days. 



But as they commenced public hostilities by invading our territory 

 and summoning both our Forts, we were obliged by our letter of 

 August 15 to repeal our peaceable offer. 



We will suppose for an instant that the misdemeanour of Major 

 Fornbauer had given the Commanding Officers a right to commence 

 hostilities. But with what reason can the conquest of Batticaloa, 

 Jaffnapatnam, and Tuticorin be justified ? The chiefs of those places 



