34 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XI. 



Baldeus in greater detail on page 56). This was despatched 

 with Heer Westerwold, accompanied by two of His Majesty's 

 Ambassadors, to Batavia, to receive the ratification of their 

 Excellencies. 



His Majesty, in order to reduce the expenses already 

 incurred, delivered 400 bales of cinnamon, 87 quintails of 

 beeswax, and 3,059 lb. of pepper, promising to deliver more at 

 Sammature, a port, as soon as it could be collected. 



Heer Westerwold having taken his departure, the ordinary 

 Councillor of Netherlands India, Heer Anthony Caen, 

 captured the fortress of Trinconomale on May 1, 1639, and 

 Heer Philip Lucaszoon, Director-General, the fortress of 

 Nigombo, on February 9, 1640. 



Heer Jacobsz. Coster, the Vice-Commander, made his 

 appearance on March 8 following, before the town of Gale : 

 after casting anchor in the bay the same afternoon, and land- 

 ing with very little opposition on the north side, he 

 marshalled his whole force, dividing them into three bodies. 



Many of them were killed on the following day, and some 

 wounded, by 350 European soldiers from Colombo, sent as a 

 reinforcement to the Portuguese. But the Netherlander 

 were fortunately reinforced on the 11th by the arrival of 

 the vessels " Haarlem," " Middelburg," and " Breda," with 

 400 soldiers and sailors. Thus Heer Coster did not find 

 much difficulty in effecting a breach in the bastion St. Jago 

 on the 12th instant, and in capturing the town on the 13th ; 

 which he stormed after a valiant resistance of some one 

 and a half hours. 



After this victory, Heer Coster might have been 

 accepted as the chief personage in the town of Gale ; but as his 

 presence was required in Candia, he went there in order to 

 give the necessary orders about some matters which had been 

 neglected. Upon his arrival, seeing that his reasonable 

 demands met with no satisfaction, and being detained for no 

 purpose, he became so depressed and angry, that he not only 

 threatened the Courtiers, but addressed them in unseemly 

 language. The Singalese pride revolting against this, they 



