No. 39.— 1889.] account of ceylon. 



297 



the right arm, the other on the left side under the shoulder- 

 blade, so that I fell backwards into the ship. It was a hard 

 fight, inasmuch as only six of us came home again, and these 

 were wounded ; and altogether on that day we had eight 

 hundred men killed and five hundred wounded ; amongst 

 the latter our General. When he was taken into his quarters 

 he cried the whole time, " my fine soldiers ! my fine 

 soldiers ! Would I had my soldiers back ! " But it was too late. 



If the enemy had acted up to their intentions everything 

 would have been lost ; for, after the attack had been beaten 

 off, they wanted to make a sortie with thirteen hundred 

 men. God, however, struck the Governor in the fortress 

 with blindness ; he would not allow it, under pretext that 

 this assault had only been a ruse, and our principal force 

 was lying in the trenches and in the batteries ; therefore, if 

 they were to sally out, we in the trenches would cut off their 

 passage and drive them against the artillery, and it would 

 end in a great loss. * 



The loss, however, would have been entirely on our side, 

 as we had been in all three thousand men, and now, as 

 mentioned before, had eight hundred dead and five hundred 

 wounded.f However, we did not withdraw from the town, 

 for this is the habit of the Dutch, if once they put guns up 

 in front of a place they do not take them away unless they 

 are driven away. Our wounded were taken to a distance of 

 half a mile, to Mattawal,% and twelve surgeons were ordered 

 from the ships to dress the wounds ; three times a day fresh 

 meat was given, and three times wine, A ship was despatched 

 at once taking the news to Batavia, and to ask for six 

 hundred fresh men, wherewith, according to his letter, our 

 General undertook to conquer Columbo. When our great 

 loss became known to the King of Candia, to whom our 



* Ribeiro says that the Portuguese had not the forces needed for a sally, 

 f Ribeiro states the Dutch loss to have been " more than two thou- 

 sand." 



X Matta Wal (Dutch ed.). 



L 2 



