96 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [YOL. £VL 



supplied, and with great mettle proceeded to attack the stockade on 

 the side of Seven Corlas, upon which they fell in the morning watch 

 so unexpectedly, that they took them before they had yet finished the 

 fort that they were making there, which was in the spurs of a 

 mountain range, the forests of which they had cut down round about, 

 leaving no more entrance to the fort than by two gorges, which also 

 they had fortified with strong stockades, and in them had placed two 

 thousand men ; and the rest of the army was on the summit of the 

 range, with the order that, on being attacked by our troops, they were 

 to issue forth by a side way and fall on them in the rear. 



As soon as our men reached the gorges they at once attacked the 

 enemy with great determination ; but the latter discharged their 

 ammunition, whereby they brought down several of our Lascarins, and 

 the rest began to retire, upon which the Portuguese hastened up and 

 passed to the front, and engaged the enemy with such spirit that, in spite 

 of the stubborn resistance that they met with from them, they forced 

 their way in with the death of one of the Captains or Modeliars and 

 many of his men ; and whilst they were occupied with this victory the 

 rebel Simao Correa, who was the one that was stationed on the summit 

 of the range, came upon them and attacked our forces in the rear ; 

 but as they were all flushed with pride they turned upon them with 

 an astonishing fury, and after the battle had lasted a long time they 

 put the enemy to the rout and flight, and in the pursuit they killed 

 many, and by the great mercy of God returned laden with arms, without 

 its costing them more than two Portuguese and some native Lascarins, 



Having won this victory, Salvador Pereira, who was the Captain- 

 Major of this expedition, dispatched a thousand native firelock men 

 with some Portuguese to attack the camp at Putalao, before they 

 should have news of the defeat of this other one ; and on reaching 

 the fort which they had made there they attacked it with the greatest 

 determination ; for besides the state of enthusiasm in which they 

 were they carried additional arms, since they had doubled their 

 firelocks with those that they had taken in the late victory, and with 

 the same facility they entered the fort with the death of many of the 

 enemy, among whom were five hundred Bagadas,* people of the other 

 coast, men of mettle, who had come to the help of the tyrant. The 

 which caused such fear among the rest who had come over to that 



* An error for Badagas. Further on (in liv. V., cap. I.) Couto speaks 

 of Dora Joao's "hoping for a succour of Badagas from the other coast." 

 Bocarro (cap. CXV.) mentions a reported confederacy in 1616 of Sangili, 

 the King of Jaffna, " with the Nai^ue and Badagas of the other coast." 

 (The index to Bocarro has " Badagos, potentate of Ceylon"!) That this 

 confederacy actually took place, we learn from Sa e Menezes (see C. R. S. 

 Journal, X., 516), who records the defeat of the " Badaguas," and depicts 

 their character in the darkest colours. On the Baagas, see Yule's Hobson- 

 Johson. s. v. " Baega." — IX W. F. 



