300 



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



On the 12th* of April our General wanted to reconnoitre 

 whether we could not construct a mine in a different locality. 

 But when he wanted to go into the last trench, a shot from 

 one of the bastions hit him, and killed him on the spot, 

 which caused a great panic amongst our soldiers. 



On the 2ndf of May his body was taken to Piinte de Galle r 

 and there carried into the church by sergeants and buried,- 

 whilst the cannons upon the wall and round the town fired 

 a salute, and two companies of soldiers gave three volleys. 



On the 6th of May, a Saturday, we were lying all through 

 the night in the trenches,f as the Emperor of Ceilon and our- 

 selves had decided to attempt again a general assault. Just 

 then a Portuguese, fully armed, ran over to our camp, and 

 then was conducted before our Governor, J who commanded 

 in place of the late General. In close examination he said 

 that those in the town wished for nothing better, but that 

 another storm should be attempted. He told us that in the 

 town passages had been made through all the houses, whilst 

 all streets were provided with double palisades of palm trees ; 

 that the cannons had been taken down from the walls and 

 had been posted in the streets, charged with shot ; that 

 below the walls which we should have to pass big boxes with 

 powder had been put, and so arranged that with a running 

 fire through all their houses they could be exploded, and, by 

 thus separating the bastions from each other, make it impos- 

 sible for us to carry our point, because we should all be killed 

 either by fire or by mines. On the other hand, he gave us 

 splendid advice. He said that as soon as daylight appeared, 

 being Sunday, the citizens who had been watching during 

 the night would go with the soldiers to hear mass, and there 



* Should be the 10th. 



f Should be the 12th of April. For an official record of Hulft's death 

 and burial, and the despatch of the Governor-G-eneral and Council of 

 India announcing the fact to the Directors of the Company, see C. B. 

 R. A. S. Journal, No. 38, vol. XL, 1889, p. 148. Baldseus gives a portrait 

 of Hulft, and Valentyn quotes some lines by the Dutch poet Vondel on 

 the death of Hulft. 



% Adriaan van der Meyden. 



