NO. 58. — 1907.] JOAN GIDEON LOTEN, F.R.S. 



259 



was a native of the Malay Islands. When, again, Loten de- 

 scribes the artist as " the untaught Christian Cingalese " he is 

 either positively wrong or he uses these words in a sense which 

 requires some explanation. It must be remembered that 

 Loten, though by this time sufficiently familiar with English 

 to use it with freedom, must still have been ignorant of some 

 of those nice distinctions which only a native or a lifelong 

 student could be expected to know. By " untaught " he 

 possibly meant " self-taught," and in calling Pieter de 

 Bevere a " Cingalese," he most likely meant a Ceylonese, in 

 the sense of one born in the Island. In the classification offi- 

 cially recognized in Ceylon during the Dutch rule he would, I 

 think, have been rightly described as a mixties. To return to 

 Captain Willem Hendrik de Bevere. The passage which Mr. 

 Ferguson quotes from the Beknopte Historic undoubtedly 

 refers to him. I find that on the 14th September 1708 he 

 took his seat for the first time at the Political Council as Chief 

 of the Military at Colombo, and occupied it till the 23rd Janu- 

 ary 1714. On the 9th September 1713 the Council unani- 

 mously elected him Ambassador to the Kandyan Court, and 

 the Embassy soon after set out with the usual pomp and cere- 

 mony. Nothing untoward appears to have occurred in the 

 journey upcountry. The conduct, both of the Ambassador 

 and of his retinue, was everything to be desired, and the re- 

 ception at Kandy was most gracious. But de Bevere is said 

 to have taken umbrage at the quality of the return gifts which 

 the King presented to the Embassy. He looked upon these 

 as of too little value and unworthy his position and dignity. 

 In the rancour created in his mind by this, which he looked 

 upon as an insult and indignity, he appears to have behaved 

 in a most rash, if not insane, manner. When, immediately 

 after the audience with the King, the royal repast was served 

 out according to the custom of the country, he would not so 

 much as touch or taste any of the dishes which were presented 

 to him, but, in the most offensive manner, ordered them to be 

 given to his slaves to eat. And the royal gifts, which he was 

 bound to convey with due ceremony, covering them with a 

 white cloth, he treated with great disrespect and contempt by 

 tying them up at the foot end of his palanquin. Nor did he 



