NO. 50.— 1899.] SAMAN DEVALE MURAL STONE. 



815 



Owing to the irreparable loss of Couto's eleventh Decade 

 I am unable to furnish any details in connection with the 

 facts referred to in the above passage ; and I am even 

 doubtful as to the identity of the culprit named with our 

 Simao Pinhao ; for in Couto's twelfth Decade we find him 

 referred to, even in 1597, as if he had been for some time in 

 Ceylon. If the two are identical, I can only suppose that, 

 for his offences of looting and prison-breaking, our hero was 

 sentenced to the then very common punishment of banish- 

 ment for a term of years to Ceylon. How he conducted 

 himself in this Island we shall now see. 



In chapter VI. of Book I. of his twelfth Decade* Couto 

 describes how Dom Joao (Vimala Dharma Suryaya I.), with 

 the allied forces of the King of Uva and the princes of Dina- 

 vaca (Denavaka), planned an attack upon the lately erected fort 

 of Corvite (Kuruvita) ; and how the commander of the fort, 

 Salvador Pereira da Silva, learning of this intention, marched 

 against the Kandyan camp with a small but picked body of 

 men, and attacking the enemy unawares caused them to 

 retreat in confusion with great loss. Couto adds that " this 

 victory was so famous, and created such amazement among 

 the Chingalas, that they henceforth bestowed upon Salvador 

 Pereira the sobriquet of Corvite Capitao." 



In chapter XIII. of the same bookj we are told how D. Joao 

 dispatched against the Portuguese forces in the territories of 

 Galle and Matara " a Prince called Madune Pandar,J and the 

 rebel Simao Correa, brother of Domingos Correa Bicanar- 

 singa, of whom I have spoken many times, whom D. Jeronymo 



de Azevedo had ordered to be executed.! This 



SimSo Correa had taken the title of King of Seitavaca," &c. 



* See also Faria y Sousa, Eng. translation, as printed in Monthly Lit. Beg., 

 vol. III., p. 282. — D. W. F. ; 



f See also F. y S., loc. cit.—D. W. F. 



% See JReb. de Ceylan as translated in C. A. S. Journal, vol. XI. ; Bocarro 

 and Ove G-jedde's diary. — D. W. F. 



|| See Baldseus, Ceylon, chapter VI., regarding the treacherous murder of 

 Domingos Correa by Don Jeronimo's orders. Simao Correa returned to the 

 Portuguese side later on, but was always a suspect.-r-D. W. F. 



