NO. 40.— 1890.] EMBASSY TO KANDY, 1671. 371 



forces, had, without orders, written some letters to Jaffna 

 and Goetjaer, &c, which were seized between the Fourth 

 ,and Fifth Gravet, and at once placed in the hands of the 

 Emperor. Whereupon the accused, aforesaid, had to appear 

 before His Majesty ; but denied that he could read the letter, 

 nor did he acknowledge that he wrote it : yet Vandenbergh 

 as stated before was judicially punished. 



The same Anthonij and Paulus said that not long 

 ago there was a conspiracy to poison the Emperor, and 

 poison was put into his food by his own people. The 

 Emperor became aware of this, and caused his stewards 

 and cooks, from the highest to the very lowest, to be 

 publicly impaled, hanged, and thrown before the elephant ; 

 and that therefore he has no one of his own nation in 

 his Court, but foreign nations, such as Portuguese, Moors, 

 Caffres, Malabars, and other black races, such, as coast fishers 

 from the Continent, and fishers from Madura, whom the 

 Emperor always first ordered to taste his Imperial food and 

 drink ; that having eaten and drunk of the tested food, they 

 had to sleep for clear three hours ; and when they arose, 

 they were asked whether they had any pain in their bodies. 

 If there was no such complaint the Emperor also proceeded 

 to eat and drink of the tested food and drink. 



And the same Paulus and Anthonij said — and even other 

 chiefs of the Emperor's own race called Rana Mohotale and 

 Jadenoere Bale, &c. — that the Emperor suspecting that Draack 

 of blessed memory was poisoned, because he was so swollen, 

 caused some thirty to forty Cingalese to be put to death. 

 They said further that the Emperor was now and then drunk, 

 .and then many had the misfortune to lose their lives ; but 

 that murders were always of the great before I had come to 

 Candia ; that whilst I resided in Kandy not more than two 

 or three at the most were killed, as the Emperor had, in a 

 way, some pity for the poor and needy. They said further 

 that they were certain that the Emperor kept up his weak 

 and unstable government simply on account of the fear which 

 the traitors have for the arms of the Honourable Company. 



