No. 39.— 1889.] account of ceylon. 



299 



our corporals, who had gambled away the pay which he had 

 received from his Company, and who had no further means 

 to pay them, deserted, because he did not believe that we 

 should conquer the town. He told the besieged that it was 

 our intention to try one more general assault, and if that did 

 not succeed to leave the place, as there was very little 

 courage amongst us to attack another time after having been 

 driven back with such great loss. 



When, however, on the 2nd of April three ships with fresh 

 soldiers arrived from Batavia, our spirits rose considerably, 

 and we wanted to have our revenge, the more so as on the 

 following 3rd April we got hold of the Portuguese provision 

 ship, which had sailed from Goa under a Dutch flag in hopes 

 to pass through our fleet into the harbour of Colombo. 



When the besieged learnt these two facts they, on the other 

 hand, became despondent, especially as they saw that every 

 day we got nearer to the town. Daily many deserters came 

 to us, and all reported that there was great want of provisions, 

 and that many had died of hunger. This was confirmed by 

 their daily driving out black people whom we could not 

 allow to come into our camp, and therefore had to shoot 

 between the trenches and the town. At last the famine 

 assumed such proportions that one native woman ate her own 

 child, while others took grass from the ground and tried to 

 eat it. As we had no means of driving them away from our 

 camp we had to strike still greater terror into them ; and 

 when a woman came and brought small children we forced 

 her to put her child into a wooden mortar and pound it to 

 death with the pounder, and then again to go away with the 

 dead child. 



On the 9th of April we began to dig a mine, and managed 

 to make a gallery from our side across the ditch. When, 

 however, on this side we had dug for two days, they noticed 

 it, made a counter-mine in the direction of ours, so that 

 when we became aware of it, and heard it, we had to give 

 up our work. 



