430 



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



himself in memory of his father, and the others by friends of 

 the author, in praise of his filial piety and his father's 

 courage.* After these are the licenses, eight in number, in 

 Portuguese, bearing various dates, from 28th July, 1678, to 

 6th May, 1681. 



Coming now to the body of the work, we have a proem, 

 in which the author states the object of the book, viz.: — 



To describe the rebellion of the Zingalas of Ceylan, of the year 

 [1]6 30, and the progress of its conquest in the days when Constantino 

 de Saa y Norofia, with the title of Governor and Captain-General, 

 commanded in the war, and administrated in peace that Island until 

 his death (happier in the cause than in the manner thereof), put a 

 glorious end to all the actions of his life, which he had always 

 governed with valour and prudence, and finally ended by being cut to 

 pieces for God's service and his king's by the hands of the greatest 

 enemy their Divine and Catholic Majesties ever had. 



This war, he says — 



lasted one hundred and twenty-seven years with equal obstinacy on 

 the side of both the Zingalas and the Portuguese, the latter fighting 

 for empire and the elevation of our Holy Catholic faith, and the 

 former for the liberty of their bodies, leaving their souls in the 

 wretched slavery of idolatry into which the devil had drawn them by 

 blindness and error. 



He also says, referring to his father : — 



If fortune had not got tired of favouring him, and heaven, by its 

 hidden and secret judgments to mortals, had not permitted his 

 destruction by means so contrary to human prudence and more con- 

 siderate foresight, I am certain that the Portuguese monarchy would 

 have added this time to its glorious titles the absolute empire of the 

 Island of Ceylon, and the Portuguese arms would have triumphed 

 over that barbarism when most aided and assisted by foreign support 

 with the power and reputation of the most valiant nation in the East, 

 and at a time when the Portuguese had fallen into disrepute and were 

 on the downward slope of their decline. 



He then speaks of the glory accruing by the General's death 

 to his descendants and the Portuguese nation, and draws an 

 unfavourable comparison between the Portuguese warriors of 

 former times who fought for glory and those of his own day 

 who fought for gain. He commends the policy of Philip 

 the Second, who had counsellors scattered all over his king- 

 dom instead of trusting in a few ; and concludes the proem 

 by deprecating any accusation of partiality owing to his 

 relationship to the subject of his work, whose fair fame was 

 so dear to him. 



Chapter I. contains a " Description of the Island of Geylan 

 in ancient and modern times," which is a compilation from 

 the works of Barros, Couto, and other antecedent writers. 



* These Lieut.-Colonel St. George has not translated- 



