506 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XI. 



threatening that fortress, and that they expected many more 

 and a powerful Dutch fleet to come and besiege it. They 

 had been invited by the tyrant Chang ali, an ally of the 

 King of Jafanapatan, offering them right of way, and of 

 fortifying themselves in his lands : for it was by his command 

 and treachery that all this had been done. 



The Island of Manar* is situated on the north-western 

 coast of Ceylan, from which it is separated by a channelf or 

 strait of sufficient depth to allow small vessels to pass through 

 from the north. For a distance of seven leagues from it were 

 sandbanks, which ultimately joined those of Chilao or 

 Remanancor. 



At one time it belonged to the kingdom of Jafana- 

 patan, but it was now under the Portuguese Government 

 of Ceylan, with a Fort under a Captain of noble rank, 

 erected in memory of the Viceroy Don Constantino de 

 Barganca in the year 1560. For he changed for that site 

 the fortress of Puticale with its inhabitants ; a place on 

 the Fishery Coast, inhabited by the Paravas,% who, tired 

 of the continual attacks of the Bodaguas, their neigh- 

 bours, lived more the life of fronteros than of fishermen, 

 which trade they plied for subsistence, but were continually 

 robbed and cut off by their neighbours. By this change 

 the island of Manar became rich and prosperous as long 

 as they kept the pearl fisheries going, which were carried 

 on along that coast and gave to it its name, but which for 

 many years had become extinct, because of the great poverty 



* Mannar appears to be the island of Epiodorus, which, according' to the 

 Periplus, was the seat of the pearl fishery. At the present day its im- 

 portance has greatly declined. The Portuguese, who wrested it from the 

 Jlija of Jaffna in 1560, fortified the town for the protection of their own 

 trade, and the Dutch, who seized it in 1658, were so conscious of its value, 

 strategical as well as commercial, that they designated it "the key of 

 Jaffnapatam," and maintained at all times an effective garrison, under 

 the apprehension that the Portuguese, if they ever attempted a re-conquest 

 of Ceylon, would direct their first efforts to the recovery of Manaar. — 

 (Tennent, Ceylon, Vol. II., 55-56.) 



j Paumbam passage. 



% The Parawas, a section of the Fisher caste, of Tamil origin, from 

 Tuticorin and the adjacent coast. 



