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



Game is plentiful, and of many kinds : for hunting there are 

 wild boar, deer, stags ; and for minor sport, hares, macareos 

 (which are like small goats), jungle-fowl, wild duck, pigeons, 

 and turtle doves of various colours, and a great number of 

 other birds, whose names are barely known. So vast are the 

 jungles and the flocks so great that seventy hens are bought 

 for a pardao. 



Such are the customs, such the blessings, the riches, and 

 fertility of the Island. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Who Constantino de Sa y Norona was. His election 

 as Governor and Captain-General of Ceylan. 



The Provinces and Kingdoms of the Island of Ceylan were 

 in the state we have mentioned when Constantino de Sa 

 came to govern it — the pious and holy King Don Philip II. 

 of Portugal and III. of Castile then reigning over the Spanish 

 monarchy. He was a native of Lisbon, a country as famous 

 as his lineage, of which the Romans made no little boast, as 

 if the qualities of the soul depended on the greatness and 

 goodness of the country ; but to be born in one country more 

 than in any other is a thing which neither adds to, nor 

 detracts from, the qualities of the person. He was descended 

 from the baronial family of the De Sas, whose ancient 

 nobility sprang from the noblest colonists of Rome, although 

 the true founder of the house is unknown. They came over 

 to Portugal in the time of King Don Pedro the Cruel ; and 

 afterwards, in the reign of Don John I., became lords 

 and inheritors of lands and feudal vassals. For we find Juan 

 Rodriguez de Sa already Lord of Sever and Grand Knight 

 in his own right, without favour or fortune, and without 

 any qualification or post, or any new name of lineage. He 

 married the hereditary daughter of Luis de Aferedo, Veedor 

 de la hazienda, who was married to Dona Aldonca de 

 Menezes, daughter of the great hero Don Pedro de Menezes, 



