NO. 41.— 1890.] REBELION DE CEYLAN. 



535 



CHAPTER IX. 



The Acts of the Government op Constantino de 

 Sa. He strengthens the Fort of Galle : 

 erects another on the Island of Cardiva : 

 repairs the Fort of Columbo, and carries out 

 other important works. He reforms abuses, 

 puts down vice and corruption, and makes 

 new Laws for the administration of the 

 Royal Treasury. 



All events, be they fortunate or unfortunate, have their 

 beginnings from God, and there is no such thing as fortune 

 or destiny except by the will of Divine Providence. 

 This is what every Christian should believe (for even among 

 the Gentiles, that great and wise philosopher, our own 

 Spanish Seneca, taught it), that in the variety of events 

 which happen to a monarchy, all require a great deal of con- 

 sideration and forethought, and should the same methods even 

 be used and every care and precaution possible be taken, it 

 often appears in the inequality of the results which could not 

 have been prevented that there is nothing that happens to 

 mortals which is not for their welfare or misery — that the 

 times do not act upon it with greater force than this pre- 

 sumption. For it is human ignorance that ends in holding 

 the years and even the days responsible, calling them 

 critical or fatal as the case may be, and making them out to 

 be the actual cause of success or disaster — as if the years 

 and days worked out the results, and God, the Creator of 

 all things, gave time to be something more than a mere 

 measurement of human events. 



We begin the ninth chapter with the year 1625, one of the 

 most glorious years in the annals of the Spanish Monarchy 

 for prosperous and happy events, — a year which was made 

 out to be prophetic in our own succeeding times, without it 

 ever having been foreseen or thought about. 



