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



which, forming a small bay, left open and exposed to the 

 north winds, made a very stormy roadstead. The naval 

 power so necessary for the guard and security of the coast 

 was little or nothing, for the royal revenues were small 

 owing to the many expenses continually incurred by the 

 ordinary allowances to the forces which were necessary to 

 keep up our prestige, which had waned as the revenues 

 became exhausted, and in order to prevent this a Veedor de la 

 hazienda* (what in Castile are called Accountant-Generals ) was 

 appointed over the Treasury who administered the accounts. 



In this way the Island of Ceylan was governed in military 

 and civil affairs, always keeping in view the increase of 

 Christianity, which was the main object of the Generals by 

 command of their sovereign. Many orations, which in the 

 Western Indies are called doctrines, were delivered by the 

 religious orders of the Franciscans and Jesuits, who, in the 

 name of the Apostles, never ceased a single moment by word 

 or deed for the conversion of souls; and although the harvest 

 was great, still the greater number of the Zing alas was 

 saturated with superstition by their contact and union with 

 the Moros (Moors), of whom there were a great number in 

 the Island, and when they were converted to our religion it 

 was often to suit their own convenience, remaining in it 

 as long as it served their interests, and apostatizing the 

 moment anything happened to thwart them ; so that they 

 never were greater heathens than when they appeared to be 

 Christians. They were naturally stiff-necked and deaf to 

 the voice of the gospel, like unto those idolaters of Malabar, 

 whose superstitions and customs they usually follow, being 

 more prone to the worship and veneration of idols than all 

 the nations of Asia, which many make of the most irrational 

 thing they meet with during the day. In many ways they 



° The Veedor de la hazienda, " the Upper Surveyor of the king's goods." — 

 It was the most important office in Ceylon as well as at G-oa, where he was 

 next to the Viceroy himself. As there was no efficient audit of his 

 accounts, and it was no crime for a Portuguese at this period to cheat the 

 King of Spain, his embezzlements were on a vast scale. 



