NO. 41. — 1890.] REBELION DE CEYLAN. 



447 



BOOK I. — Proem. 

 Y intention is to describe the rebellion of the 

 Zingalas (Sinhalese) of Ceylan of the year 1630, 

 and the progress of its conquest in the days when 

 Constantino de Sa y Nororia, with the title of 

 Governor and Captain-General, commanded in 

 the wars and administered 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 — (a life) finally 

 ended by his 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. 



Although a small work, it is full of wars, bloody battles, 

 atrocious murders, rebellions chastised, provinces and entire 

 regions devastated, princes captured, tyrants overcome, 

 condign punishments, changes of dominions, justice rigo- 

 rously enforced at a time when they lived most without 

 it, forgotten by the honest and the just. Various and 

 strange were the events which happened in a war of 

 conquest which to the States of India was like what 

 Carthage proved to Rome in the long horrid war which, 

 without question, may be compared to the formidable 

 wars of Europe ; considering it lasted one hundred and 

 twenty-seven years* with equal obstinacy on the side of both 

 the Zingalas and 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. For they, fighting like 

 men without fear, lived like untamed wild beasts in supersti- 

 tion and depravity, whose malice facilitated treason, cruelty f 



* This war, says De Couto (Dec, Y., part L, chapter V.), was a source of 

 unceasing and anxious expenditure to the Portuguese States of India, 

 gradually consuming their revenues, wasting their forces and artillery, 

 and causing a greater outlay for the government of that single Island than 

 for all their conquests in the East. 



