NO. 40. — 1890.] ACCOUNT OF CEYLON. 



fierce resistance they did at first. When the castle had 

 been besieged for three and a half months, the defenders 

 on the 21st of June determined to fly the flag of truce for a 

 surrender. The capitulation was soon concluded and signed 

 on the following terms : that the chiefs and the clergy were 

 not to be insulted but sent to Goa or other places under the 

 rule of Portugal ; that no one should take with him anything 

 of value. Those who were married people were permitted 

 to take up their residence within the towns of Batavia or 

 Malacca. During the next two days a considerable force of the 

 Portuguese soldiers marched out and Avere obliged to deposit 

 their colours, arms, &c, before the standard of the Honourable 

 Company. A great number of burghers with their wives 

 and children, Portuguese Mestices, and Toepasses, as well as 

 other classes who had hitherto lived in luxury on this 

 pleasant land, came out in sadness, with a body of about forty 

 priests and clergymen, who professed to be of the Order of 

 Jesuits and Franciscans. The number of persons killed 

 during the siege of Jaffanapatnam by shells, grenades, and 

 shot, as well as by sickness, was between 1,500 and 1,600. 



The country or kingdom of Jaffanapatnam is con- 

 nected by a small strip of land on the east to the Island 

 of Ceilon. It is divided into various Provinces, such as 

 Belligamme, Tenmarache, Waddemavache, and Patchiara- 

 palle. The country is nearly everywhere low, very fertile, 

 populous, and well planted with trees, which extend for about 

 twenty miles, studded with more than a hundred and fifty 

 villages. Along the north coast it is washed by the sea, to 

 the south by a large river, and to the west lies Punto Pedro 7 

 where also the Portuguese in former times attempted to 

 build a small fortress. But all in vain, for since the loss 

 of Jaffanapatnam, that nation has disappeared from Geilon, 



Since then Jaffanapatnam has been inhabited, fortified, 

 and much improved by us Netherlanders. Many churches 

 have been erected throughout the country, and those of the 

 Portuguese have been reformed. Many thousands have, 

 through the great mercy of God, and the zeal and diligence- 



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