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



offered, at the price of half the number caught, to lend their 

 tame ones. The Hollanders then marched out, and to pick 

 a quarrel they seized upon four of the best elephants of the 

 King of Candi. He, as a sensible man, sent word to the 

 Hollanders that he had no intention to do anything against 

 them, and he expected them, for their part, to act likewise ; 

 he had called them in as friends to be his allies against the 

 Portuguese, and he hoped therefore that they would not 

 settle in his territory. But the Hollanders from the begin- 

 ning were bent upon war. When the King saw that it could 

 not be avoided, he collected by one of his generals (&Saude,* 

 or what we should call a Count) about 60,000 men, chiefly 

 natives, besides a few Portuguese whom he had formerly 

 made captives, and who had entered his service. He 

 would no longer trust the Hollanders, having been deceived 

 once. They had promised at first to remove people from 

 his country, but, under pretext of fetching them and pro- 

 viding victuals for their return journey, they had brought, 

 under a guard of 36 men, powder and ammunition in small 

 casks, which they had put into bigger ones, and covered 

 with rice and meat. A deserter from our side told him 

 about it. 



In the following year (Anno Christi 1645|) in the month 

 of May, Mr. von der Stalt{ received fresh orders to march 

 with 150 men (picked soldiers), plenty of ammunition, 

 powder, lead, and other materials of war, and also two field 

 guns. He met with the heathen Saude in a small clearing, 

 but as the latter had no orders to fight, because the king was 

 still disinclined to go to war, he withdrew into the forest. 

 The Hollanders opened a heavy fire from their field-guns 

 and fire-arms, so that 400 were killed, and many were 



* In Schweitzer Saudi. Perhaps the same as Knox's Sihattu, which, 

 he says is a title meaning :i Honoar," applied to noblemen when not in the 

 King's presence. 



f Read 1646. 



j Van der Stelt (Dutch ed.). 



