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



[Vol. XL 



the Moor's creed, and had been baptized according to custom 

 after the expulsion of his friends and kindred (as we have 

 already related). He had ever since then remained a mortal 

 enemy of the Portuguese. This man they elected Chief of 

 the Moors (Rey de los Moros), to bring him more into their 

 evil snares ; and they recommended him to join arms so 

 that he might better conceal the perpetration of the plot 

 under the shadow of office. 



In this business Don Cosmo showed himself the most 

 active of them all. He acted with the greatest caution and 

 dissimulation ; and having much influence amongst his own 

 people he got a large concourse of them together at the 

 house of Don Manuel, to whose daughter he had married 

 his eldest son, Don Antonio by name. Here all his pent-up 

 passions burst forth against us, and he commenced to 

 harangue them in these words, or in terms of similar 

 import : — 



How long, O countrymen, will ye be slaves to these vile Portuguese, 

 under whose cruel yoke you have suffered so many years, with only 

 such liberty as they chose to give you ? Is it possible you can continue 

 to live like this, contrary to all reason ? Is li berty — the most precious 

 gift to mortal man — is it of so little value in your eyes, that when you 

 can be free and your own masters, you will exchange it for slavery ? 

 You think not of what our ancestors held in this Island, or else the 

 memory of it would kindle some noble thoughts ! If you have 

 forgotten it through ignominy and weakness, think of your children ; 

 if to-day the Christians permit you to enjoy what is your own, 

 to-morrow they will take it away, with your lives, and those of your 

 children : you will believe in your folly when you see yourselves sold 

 as slaves in the market place, banished from your country, and torn 

 from wives and families. You have forsaken your religion, trampled 

 on your nobility, exhausted your wealth. What means all this, country- 

 men — such neglect, such supineness, such cowardice in things which so 

 much concern us? Already your race has lost its empire, its name, 

 and its honour, its courage and its industry ; all that remains for you 

 is to leave your land and seek another, where you may exist vile and 

 dishonoured, miserable and nameless. Tell me what other nations of 

 the East can give when you disregard by your actions what your ancestors 

 did? Think ye not it an insult to see yourselves slaves and at the 

 mercy of enemies, who hamper your lives with laws, but do not save 

 you from death ? Are you not ashamed to see how few they are, 

 and the arrogance with which they presume to make themselves lords 



