No. 59. — 1907.] PROCEEDINGS. 



393 



particular countries, "lying in the track of all the ships of Malaca 

 and Bymgalla, and none being able to pass without being seen 

 and known of in that part ; and being near to the archipelago 

 of the xij islands." He knew how far the fortress to be built 

 would be from India, and that that fortress would be a 

 convenient centre for the king's representative in the East ; 

 " since it appears that from here you can better provide for and 

 assist in all things than from any other part, on account of your 

 being in the centre of all the fortresses and things that we have 

 there." Surely the man who wrote that had ample knowledge 

 of Ceylon and was in no need of any further discovery ! Clearly 

 that information had been conveyed by the messenger sent 

 with de Abreu; and when the viceroy's letter of December 27, 

 1506, reached Portugal, the king's letter (A 21) must have been 

 in the Indian Ocean. This letter and that to the pope appear 

 to me to have completely destroyed Mr. Ferguson's theory, and 

 vindicated the accuracy of Castanheda and Correa, sufficiently 

 so, at any rate, to make them preferable guides to the " dis- 

 reputable " and vainglorious Gaspar da India. 



The writer frankly admits that according to his theory he 

 cannot account for the manner in which Dom Lourenco de Almeida 

 was engaged from the beginning of November, 1505, until his 

 appointment in January or February, 1506, as captain-major. But 

 the greatest Portuguese historian of Ceylon, de Queiroz, says he 

 can. He relates that de Almeida landed first at Galle, and thence 

 made his way to Colombo, where he arrived on November 15, 

 1505. The speaker could see no reason to doubt the correctness 

 of de Queiroz's statement. 



Mr. E. W. Perera said : It would be an interesting point to fix 

 the Sovereign in whose reign the Portuguese first landed in Ceylon 

 (see note on page 309 of the Paper). The current Sinhalese 

 tradition is that it was Dharma Parakrama Bahu IX. It is 

 significant that in a sannasa of that king the commencement of 

 his reign is dated 1501.* The memory of the march of the 

 Portuguese envoys by a long and circuitous route is preserved 

 among the people, not only in the proverb noted by Mr. Ferguson 

 on page 310, but by a fairly circumstantial account of the journey 

 itself. The object of the Sinhalese was to conceal from the 

 stranger the proximity of the capital to the bay of Colombo, and 

 for ' * three months and three weeks " {tun mas tun poya) the envoys 

 with their Sinhalese guides tramped by way of Negombo and 

 across the country through Hanwella to Kotte, till the report of 

 the guns in the harbour announced to the Portuguese in the city 

 their nearness to the sea. 



G. Legend tells that Dharma Parakrama Bahu IX. was warned 

 in a dream of the advent of the Portuguese. The mystic jingle 



* The translation of the Munessaram sannasa filed in P. C. case, 

 Chilaw, No. 15,482 (decided in appeal on January 25, 1900), gives two 

 dates of this king's accession, 1501 and 1505, the former corresponding 

 to the Saka era and the latter to the Buddhist era date in the grant. — 

 E. W. P. [See footnote on page 399. — B., Hon. Sec] 



