108 



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



[I have thus to leave partly unsolved the mystery connected 

 with the inscribed mural stone of the Maha Saman Devale 

 at Ratnapura, hoping, however, that the information I have 

 brought together may help some one else to fully unravel 

 tangled threads, and make clear what is now obscure.] 



5. Dr. Vandort remarked that the Society was under great 

 obligation to Mr. D. W. Ferguson for the many contributions he had 

 sent to the Society, especially in connection with personages and 

 events connected with an important, and yet at the same time 

 obscure, period in the history of Ceylon, namely, the period when the 

 Island was occupied by the Portuguese. He could not sufficiently 

 admire the scholarly researctrand the patient industry, as well as the 

 linguistic attainments, that had been able — from sometimes very fern- 

 notes connected with personages who figured in Ceylon history— to 

 throw such a flood of light on some of the periods where there was so 

 little information to be got from the ordinary histories available. 

 From that little stone which the builders rejected, and the inscription 

 on which had been so effaced that they could make very little out of 

 what had been engraved, Mr. Ferguson had been able to write a most 

 elaborate historical essay, and had made this character (Simao Pinhao), 

 about whom very little was known before, to appear conspicuously 

 before them as one of the bravest Portuguese soldiers of that time. 



Dr. Vandort proceeded to deal with the inscription, suggesting that 

 the part which the author of the Paper had left blank should read : 

 " To him the kings generally rendered fealty (or submitted them- 

 selves)," being followed by the words "and the King at Jafanaptao 

 (Jaffnapatam), I, Simao Pinhao, conquered him." It was with great 

 diffidence he put forward this suggestion, especially when he remem- 

 bered that Mr. Ferguson had so intimate a knowledge of the Portu- 

 guese language. 



The Chairman said they were greatly indebted to Dr. Vandort for 

 his observations, and the possibility of a different reading. The 

 subject was one of interest. 



Mr. J. Ferguson said that the interesting part to him of the Paper 

 was the vivid picture it afforded of the desultory warfare carried on 

 between the Portuguese and Kandyans (as afterwards between the 

 Dutch and Kandyans), and the very great difficulties attending such 

 warfare from the absence of communications — so that every hill had 

 to be turned into a fortress, and campaigns were a continual series of 

 surprises. The Kandyans to cover an attack on Sitawaka or Kotte 

 would make a dash towards Chilaw or Matara, while the Portuguese paid 

 them back by descending upon Kurunegala, taking and burning it before 

 relief could arrive. The wisdom of the British authorities in begin- 

 ning their occupation of Ceylon by making roads through the mountain 



