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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON), [VOL. XVI. 



The Kandyan forces encamped six leagues from Matara, 

 where the Portuguese camp was, the captain-major of the 

 latter being Dom Fernando Mudaliyar^and the field-captain 

 Salvador Pereira. The enemy chose an elevated site, which 

 they strongly fortified, hoping by this means to dominate the 

 whole of the surrounding territory. And now Simao Pinhao 

 enters on the scene. We read : — 



Of this expedition and design D..Jeronymo de Azevedo was quickly 

 advised, whereupon in great haste he dispatched Simao Pinhao with six 

 hundred native Lascarins and some Portuguese, with an order to take 

 another hundred soldiers from the Fortress of Galle, with which they 

 would make up one hundred and fifty Portuguese and two thousand 

 Lascarins, which was a force sufficient to attack that fort. D. Fernando 

 Modeliar, as soon as this force joined him, at once proceeded to at- 

 tack the enemy ; and when he got to the top, they were already on 

 their guard, and collected in the fort with a thousand firelock-men, 

 leaving ambushed in the forest two thousand Lascarins with the most 

 trustworthy Modeliars, with an order to fall on the rear of our troops 

 when they were most fully engaged in the assault. D. Fernando took 

 care not to delay the business, but at once with great determination 

 attacked the enemy, to which end he had already brought many pavises, 

 mantelets, and scaling-ladders; and in the assault on the stockades they 

 encountered stakes, in which they became entangled, and stopped, be- 

 coming exposed to the firelock fire of the enemy, who took a pretty fair 

 aim at them, several Lascarins falling and some Portuguese being 

 wounded, among whom were Simao Pinhao, f Pero de Abreu Modeliar, 

 and others. Nevertheless our men pushed forward and attacked the 

 fort with great courage, setting up the ladders, by which some began, to 

 mount. And while they were in this turmoil, those in ambush burst 

 upon them with great uproar and attacked our men in the rear, who on 

 feeling them relinquished the combat, and turned upon the enemy with 

 great fury, and attacked them in such a fashion that they made them 

 retire to the forests whence they came, leaving many dead. 



D. Fernando Modeliar seeing the result, and like a prudent man 

 recognizing that if they retired from there the territories would be lost, 

 fortified himself in the same place as well as he could, and sent to 

 advise the Captain-General of everything, and of the state in which the 

 enemy were. On receipt of this message he at once dispatched his 

 brother D. Manoel de Azevedo with several companies of soldiers, 

 whom he ordered to come from Seitavaca and from the garrisons 

 on the frontier of Dinavaca, of which the tyrant D. Joao soon had 



* See regarding this man, Monthly Lit. Meg., vol. IV., p. 165 n.— D. W. F. 

 f The original has " o Simao Pinhao," i.e., " the (well-known) S. P."— D.WX 



