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



As Simao Pinhao must by this time have been over sixty 

 years of age, we need not be surprised at his no longer taking 

 a prominent part in the " conquest" of Ceylon. But another 

 fact may have influenced him, namely, that he had a wife to 

 think of. This we learn from a royal letter of February 21, 

 1615, printed in Documentos Remettidos da India, tome III,, 

 p. 263, which runs as follows : — 



Dom Hieronymo de Azevedo, friend, viceroy : I the King send you all 

 greeting. I have seen what you wrote in reply to my letters,* in 

 which I ordered you to exercise diligence to find out the heirs that 

 there were at present, in that State, of Raju;f and having considered 

 what you represent to me, it is my pleasure that in case Simao Pinhao, 

 who was married to Dona Maria Pereira, heiress of the said Raju, 

 owes my revenue what you declare, and that judgment is given in its 

 favour as regards the houses of which you make mention, which the 

 said Dona Maria possesses, they be restored to her again, because I 

 hereby make her a gift of them ; and I command that in this matter 

 execution go no further ; and when the pretensions of the said Dona 

 Maria have been seen, I shall order that in the rescript regarding them 

 she shall be granted whatever favour there shall be occasion for. 

 Written in Lisbon, the 21st of February, 1615. — King — The 

 Duque de Villahermosa Conde de Ficalho. 



Superscribed. — For the King — To Dom Jeronymo de Azevedo of his 

 council, Viceroy and Captain-General of the State of India. 



translation of Faria y Sousa's summarized account, in Monthly Lit, JReg. f 

 IV., pp. 23, 55, 56. — D. W. F. 



* I can find only one letter referring to this subject in Doc. Bern. (II., 

 p. 239) : this is dated March 22, 1612, and the last paragraph runs : — 

 " Dom Filippe, grandson of Rajii, who came to this kingdom, is dead ; and 

 as it is necessary to know who is his direct heir, I charge you to advise me 

 of this by the first ships, and in what degree he is related." In a letter of 

 January 18, 1607, to the viceroy Dom Martin Affonso de Castro, the king 

 says that " Dom Filippe of Ceitavaca and D. Joao of Candia " had written 

 to him asking permission to come to Portugal : this he grants, if the Arch- 

 bishop of Groaandthe viceroy approve. In a letter of February 26, 1605, 

 to the same viceroy, the king mentions " the youth D. Joao, grandson] of 

 Raju, who is being educated in the said College of the Kings [Magi], to 

 whom the kingdom [of Ceylon] belongs," and recommends his*being sent 

 to Ceylon to weaken the influence of the rebel Dom Joao (Kunnappu 

 Bandara). I am doubtful as to the relationship of these youths to Raja 

 Sinha I.— D. W. F. 



f Here, as everywhere else in Portuguese writers, " Rajri." -D. W. F. 



