578 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XL 



of India will serve to pay my debts — if His Majesty has nothing 

 wherewithal to discharge them, since nearly all of them were contracted 

 in his service. 



If this is how so virtuous and good a Christian knight made 

 his last confession at the time he was on the point of death, and 

 there only remained to him a coffin to bury all his hopes, it 

 is most evident that he had nothing to gain by burdening his 

 conscience with falsehood when he was doing all he could 

 to relieve it. And if the sovereign at the beginning of the 

 government of new ministers only caused a list to be made 

 of his property, renewing it every year, so that he might know 

 what they had had and what they had expended, neither 

 malice nor adulation would have been able to have de- 

 ceived the royal ears by under-rating such generous works as 

 those of Constantino de Sa ; and by this means would be able 

 to award either punishment or reward, which are the poles 

 on which revolve the existence of the kingdom. It is certain 

 that his debts and obligations were contracted in the posts he 

 occupied for His Majesty's service, having always lived in 

 the most economical and modest way, without any pomp 

 or extra expense, even if they blame his liberality in 

 allowing some latitude to the soldiery. He knew very 

 well how wise it was, so as to endear them to him, and 

 thus make them ready to help him in any sudden emer- 

 gency ; for it was the most forcible way to bring them 

 over to his cause. It would have been a great fault in a 

 Captain to have been avaricious in this : it would have cast 

 a slur on his best actions to have acted niggardly by his 

 soldiers for the help they gave him; because gratitude is 

 stronger than courage. 



In the midst of all his sufferings and pain Constantino de 

 Sa did not lose sight of the conquest of Candia, and mixed 

 up its affairs with his own spiritual concerns. He says, 

 speaking about it : — 



The peace with Candia must be made in the manner I have 

 already stated, charging the blame to me — for it is easy to condemn 

 the dead ; but that is not to say that it is confirmed ; for this Island 

 is for His Majesty alone, whose chief end is to make it Christian. 



