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



207 



so that as soon as the murder of the king was accomplished they would 

 storm that fort. To this end had the Portuguese above-named come 

 in order to help to murder the king at a good opportunity when he was 

 asleep. 



At night the king went in person with a large number of his best 

 soldiers and entered into the fort of Balana. When the five Portuguese 

 arrived there, they were joyously received by Dias, brought before the 

 king, taken prisoners, and bound. Then a musket shot was fired from 

 the fort as a signal, to those who lay in ambush, that the murder was 

 accomplished, and they went in haste towards the fort. (1) 



But a fugitive warned the Portuguese soldiers of what had occurred, 

 and in great confusion they retreated again to Colombo, having suffered 

 much hardship and lost all their baggage. The five Portuguese had 

 with them very sharp Japanese knives called trassadoes, with which 

 they intended to kill the king. They were sitting in Kandy in durance 

 vile, while the king was relating all this to our General Joris van 

 Spilbergen, to whom the king presented one of these Japanese 

 trass adoes. (1) 



[1603.] Wimala Dharma Suriya sought the aid of Sebald de Weerdt, 

 Vice-Admiral of the Dutch fleet of seven ships, which arrived at 

 Batticaloa against the Portuguese. The plan was that De Weerdt 

 should attack Galle by sea, and the king should besiege it by land. This 

 design was frustrated by the murder of De Weerdt at Batticaloa. (1) 



[1604.] Soon after Wimala Dharma Suriya died, in 1604, and was 

 succeeded by his stepbrother Seneviratna, who married Dona Catharina. 

 The Portuguese were very glad about the death of the Emperor Don 

 Jan, and sent several letters to Goa to inform the Yiceroy of it and 

 invade the whole Island. (2) 



[1607.] Affairs were in this state when the letter from Madrid, 

 dated January 27, 1607, was written to Don Jeronimo de Azevedo, 

 ordering the conquest of the Island. 



[1611.] Of the Portuguese General Don Jeronimo little more is 

 known. Tennent calls him " a soldier less distinguished for his 

 prowess than infamous for his cruelties." In the account of the war 

 of Constantine de Sa in Ceylon we learn that " after ruling Ceylon for 

 eighteen years with fitful fortune Don Jeronimo passed to the superior 

 grade of Yiceroy of India, where he served the State's interests better 

 than he did his own ; for having to compete against the general 

 opinion that he was rich, he gained when young the good fortune he 

 deserved when old, being at that time spoken of as avaricious. He 

 comported himself with great wisdom and circumspection, but in 

 reward for all his services he died a prisoner in Lisbon Castle, 

 apparently as an offender for the many misdeeds which his numerous 

 enemies had laid to his charge." Faria y Souza says his reverses were 

 a judgment from the Almighty for his barbarities in Ceylon. Francois 

 Pyrard, the French writer, calls him a very good Captain, but 



