No. 49. — 1898.] don jeronimo de azevedo. 



205 



time, is in your zeal, courage, and discernment, and you 

 shall advise me very particularly of what is done and what 

 may continue. 



Written at Madrid on the 27th January in the year 1607. 

 Signed below, " The King," still lower, " To the Captain- 

 General of the Conquest of Ceylon." " Anrique de Sousa" 

 stands at the end of the superscription by the King to Don 

 Jeronimus van Azevedo, Captain-General of the Conquest of 

 Ceylon. 



Life of Don Jeronimo de Azevedo. 



(1) Spilbergen's 't Historiael Journael van de Voyagie gedaen in de 

 Jaren, 1601-1604, p. 38. 



(2) Baldaeus' Naauwkeurige Beschryving van het machtige Eyland, 

 Ceylon. Published 1672, pp. 14, 16, 17, 21, 22. 



(3) Constantine de Sa's Account in Journal, C.B.R.A.S., vol. XI., 

 pp. 432, 466, 487, 493, 553. 



(4) Tennent, vol. II., p. 23. 



(5) Dutch Manuscripts, dated 1607. 



(6) The voyage of Francois Pyrard, Ceylon Literary Register, 

 vol. IV., 1, p. 5. 



(7) Faria y Souza, by Stevens, III., pp. 72, 95, 98, 108, 167, 277. 



(8) Monthly Literary Register, vol. IV., No. 9, September, 1896. 



Jeronimo de Azevedo, or d'Oviedo as he is called by Baldaeus, was 

 a native of Beyra in Portugal, of noble extraction, and of an accom- 

 plished family. When quite young he went to India, served first as a 

 private soldier with very little assistance from his parents, and by his 

 own merits gradually rose to be Admiral at Malacca in 1585, Governor 

 of the Island of Ceylon in 1594, and twentieth Viceroy of India in 

 1612. (3) 



[1590.] Four years prior to his arrival the Portuguese had sustained 

 a severe defeat at the battle of Balana, about four miles from Kandy. 

 Their General, Pedro Lopez de Souza, and several soldiers, had been 

 slain, and Dona Catharina, the captive princess of the Sinhalese 

 dynasty, taken prisoner by the warlike leader of the Sinhalese army, 

 Don Joan of Austria, who after this victory ascended the throne in 

 1592 as Wimala Dharma Suriya Adascyn. (2) 



[1592.] This king, referred to in the manuscripts and in Baldaeus 

 as Don Jan, married Dona Catharina, expelled the Portuguese from 



28—98 I 



