No. 59. — 1907.] PROCEEDINGS. 



387 



many a conflict with the Arab traders. Was it beyond doubt 

 that in these conflicts no Portuguese captives were taken by the 

 Arabs and brought over to Ceylon ? Another, in the person of 

 Joao da Nova, left Portugal with a fleet in April, 1501, and in the 

 same year he was in Cochin, and he returned to Portugal on Sep- 

 tember 1 1 , 1502. He also had conflicts with the Arabs. It is not 

 stated that any Portuguese captives were taken, but he thought 

 there were possibilities that ought to bear some weight with them. 

 In a recess under that monument some human bones had been 

 found. He did not want to open up any romantic story about 

 these ; they may, however, take this for what it was worth. Was 

 it altogether impossible that either one or more of the Portuguese 

 captives had come out here ? And might not one of these, in 

 fulfilment of their Sovereign's order, have endeavoured, in the 

 absence of a padrdo, to cut on that boulder figures which the 

 padrdo was meant to represent ? To say that the cross and figures 

 were more rudely cut than the coat-of-arms ought, he thought, 

 to carry no weight whatever. It is well known that after the care 

 and labour taken in executing the chief part of a work of this kind, 

 the easier portions are often hurried over with less care. Then 

 about these bones. The man who cut that inscription may have 

 been the man whose bones were discovered. He might have made 

 friends with the people of the country and have begged of them to 

 bury him under that stone in the expectation that some day his 

 countrymen would come there to see the inscription and find the 

 bones. He thought that a monument of that kind was very often 

 of greater weight than history written by writers who have been 

 found to contradict each other and to contradict themselves. It 

 was not to be understood that what he said was meant to take 

 away from the valuable Paper that had been read. It did not 

 affect the Paper really, because it was a matter that was outside 

 the Paper. 



Mr. P. E. Pieris, C.C.S., congratulated the Society on the 

 Paper which had been read. It was rarely that a Paper prepared 

 with such laborious research and such conscientious care was 

 placed before a Meeting. They were to be congratulated that 

 one' with such abilities and such opportunities as Mr. Donald 

 Ferguson was prepared to spend his time in the investigation 

 of the more obscure points connected with the modern history 

 of Ceylon. 



Four points had been touched upon in the Paper. No one 

 present would contest the position claimed for Ceylon in the 

 matter of the supply of cinnamon ; that was a claim gladly 

 conceded by all. 



The Portuguese historians give ample proof of the continuance 

 of the intercourse between the native Sinhalese and the European 

 foreigners up to 1518. Few will venture to deny that the com- 

 memorative padrdo was erected in Colombo ; for otherwise it is 

 impossible to explain the very explicit assertion of de Barros that 

 Nuno Vaz Pereira saw it there in 1508. In all probability that 

 padrdo is the one on the rock at the foot of the Breakwater ; that 



