NO. 39.— 1889.] ACCOUNT OF CEYLON. 



bear good fortune and mishaps, they called me " Light-heart." 

 It is the custom amongst the lower classes and soldiers in 

 India to call hardly anybody by his right name, and if any- 

 body had asked for Hans Jacob Saar he would have had 

 more difficulty to find me out than if he had asked for Hans 

 Jacob Light-heart. I myself have been days and years in a 

 fortress, and yet could not tell what the real name of each 

 one of the others was. 



In the meantime I had written several letters home in 

 1647, 1649, 1652, and 1653, of which none but the last reached 

 its address. This one I entrusted to a Frenchman of the 

 name of Carol Rubert, of Rochelle, and even this one only 

 reached my dear father in 1655 by way of Augsburg. As I 

 could get no news I gave up writing ; until in 1655, through 

 a countryman, Martin Sothauer, a dispenser, and the son of 

 an Inspector of Hospitals, I received news that my father 

 was still alive, and that he had spoken to him himself at 

 Wurzburg. All the circumstances made me believe that 

 this was correct. In the following year, 1657, when I was in 

 Ceylon, a former servant of my dear father's, Michael Brauti- 

 gam, from Sula in Thuringia, confirmed it in writing, and 

 stated that my brother had died, anc^that my half-sister was 

 married. As soon as troops were sent from Batavia to Ceylon 

 he would try to be sent with them, and then to speak to me 

 personally. He was, however, ordered to Amboina, and 

 died there in 1658. 



On the 3rd of July, 1655, we all went quietly on board 

 during the night. On the following day we set sail towards 

 Berbeti* We were landed soon, as the Portuguese did not 

 oppose us, and we sang and shouted " God with us, God 

 with us." On the 10th of the same month we marched in 

 good order towards the fortress. We had two mortars and 

 nine cannon, some of which, of iron, shot 18 lb. We put 

 them in position on a hill close by, and sent many a ball 

 into the fortress, but without much success ; and if it had 



* Herbert (Dutch ed.). 



