NO. 41. — 1890.] RBBELION DE CEYLAN. 



539 



the public good of the kingdom, giving cause to the enemies 

 of the Portuguese nation, in a time full of religion and 

 virtue, for endeavouring to justifiy themselves in defaming it. 

 It is a theme worthy of tears which a serious author 

 refers to, who confesses that he never reads without shedding 

 many, of other Republics and States that in the beginning 

 were well and justly governed, acquired by valour, extended 

 by force of arms, and preserved with so much care and 

 prudence, but afterwards all lost, or in great danger of being 

 lost. To all this the Portuguese had arrived in the different 

 parts of India. For allowing themselves to be carried away by 

 those passions which sapped their courage, weakened their 

 valour, and confounded their reason, they forgot the respect 

 due to their honour, their nobility, and their laws : lost to all 

 beauty and truth, and to God himself, heaping disgrace on the 

 Portuguese reputation and on the government and princes 

 who governed them, insulting the faith and the very name of 

 Christ, when it should have been most reverenced. These 

 complaints and the carelessness of the ministers had been 

 almost irremediable, and perhaps God permitted them to be 

 instrumental to the decline of those States. 



They also afflicted the Island of Ceylan when Constantino 

 de Sa arrived to govern it ; so that all trade and commerce 

 was lawful as long as it was profitable to them. In proof of 

 this, it is a fact that the excesses of some bad Christians 

 had reached such a pitch, that they had imported ship-loads 

 of arms and material of war to sell them to the hostile princes 

 and rebels in the Island, and especially to the idolater of 

 Candia when he was waging a desperate war against us. 

 Thus bringing down upon their heads the censures and 

 punishments imposed in the Lord's Supper, which they had 

 abused and spurned, as well having tarnished their honour, — 

 passing with ease from contempt to neglect of conscience, 

 which told them that among the virtues which Christian piety 

 produces, is not only to be devout, but also to be honourable ; 

 that to be faithful to God and his commandments is also to be 

 true to the sovereign, and even more so to the country. 



97—93 I 



