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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XI. 



flourishing age of forty-four — a short life no doubt if 

 reckoned by the number of years, but a very long one if 

 we regard the number and glory of his deeds which 

 made him illustrious in India. There was not one in the 

 land who did not deplore this event ; for now more than 

 ever were the hopes of those belonging to his government 

 gone. They had lost a man whose loss alone was enough to 

 weaken the Portuguese prestige in these States ; for eighteen 

 years he had served them, occupying, as has been related, 

 the highest posts in war with valour and experience ; twice 

 Governor of Geylan — the highest and most important post in 

 India. 



To these considerations of the public welfare may be 

 added other particulars which were not the less felt. Those 

 were the noble qualities which were united in the person of 

 Constantino cle Sa as a knight, a soldier, and a statesman, 

 not because they were uncommon and were difficult to find 

 in any other subject, but because he was also a true Christian, 

 liberal-minded, courteous, easy, and affable in his manners. He 

 was at the same time cautious and prudent, upright without 

 egotism or avariciousness, ambitious only of his honour. He 

 was a good man, above all things zealous for the propagation 

 of religion and for the service of the king, in which he 

 performed acts of love and kindness not often practised 

 by other subjects, respected, obeyed, and looked up to for 

 his gifted mind. He had a gallant bearing added to a shapely 

 well-proportioned form and figure, tall and strong, with an 

 expression at once pleasing and manly ; his body was a 

 natural fortress of great strength and perfect health. 



Such were the parts and such the person of Constantino de 

 Sa y Norona, a man whose greatness may without a doubt be 

 compared to the greatest men celebrated in the histories of 

 our conquests in Asia. He was the equal of them all in 

 discipline and the art of war, and kept up the Portuguese 

 reputation when it had most fallen, when the glory of their 

 arms had faded, and their name was almost ignored, when their 

 declining power was contested by their greatest European 



