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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [V'OL. XVI. 



in India you obtain by the most trustworthy means available to you 

 exact information regarding what has been referred to ; and if you 

 find that ths possessors of villages hinder the conversion of the Chin- 

 galas you shall order that those who have offended in this matter, or 

 shall do so in future, shall at once be deprived of the rentals of the 

 villages that they hold, and shall be punished as they deserve in the 

 most fitting manner, proceeding in the execution of this order with 

 the necessary care, and always giving me a circumstantial account of 

 what is done in the matter.- — Written in Lisbon, the 25th of January, 

 1629. — The King. — To the Conde de Linhares, Viceroy of India. — 

 3rd copy. — The Duque de Villa Hermosa, Conde de Ficalho. 



Agrees with the original, of which His Excellency ordered me to 

 remit this copy to the vedor da fazenda in order to obtain information 

 and furnish a report with his opinion, which he would send in quadru- 

 plicate, and in fulfilment thereof I made it in Goa the 8th of 

 November, 1629.— Francisco de Sousa Falcao. 



The subject of which this letter of His Majesty treats is of great 

 importance, as it relates wholly to the service of our Lord God and 

 the conservation of this conquest, and as such must be treated with the 

 best remedy that can be found, taking evidence from those who are of a 

 good conscience and dispassionate, and who have sufficient experi- 

 ence of the affairs of this Island ; and with what I possess from the six 

 years that I have resided in it, I shall say what I think without worldly 

 consideration, in great fear of the chastisement that God may give me 

 if I should treat it in any other sentiment ; and so I say that there is 

 no cause to believe that any baptized Christian opposes in his heart 

 the propagation* of this heathenry, but the devil who generally plans 

 and tries to hinder it by a thousand methods. Two suggest them- 

 selves to me, which in my opinion weaken and retard it completely : 

 the first is that many of the tenants of villages are not pleased to 

 have Fathers in their village, lest they come and bear witness of their 

 frailties and sensual appetites, and be a hindrance to them, and at 

 the same time put a stop to the tyrannies which many of them are 

 accustomed to exercise towards the natives of the said villages, and 

 the great yoke that they put upon them in the matter of service, 

 taking from them areca, pepper, and butter, fowls, and other similar 

 things for the price they choose. The second, and of not less impor- 

 tance, is through the Rectors desiring to give fulfilment to the 

 Constitutionsf without exception from rich to poor, whereby is created 

 in them a great dislike to baptism, because, as the Chingalas by nature 

 set such value on a larin, so it does not do to discontent them by the 

 Rectors compelling them to the extent of ordering them to have 



* Sic ! Either an error for " conversion," or some words omitted, such 

 as, "of the faith." — D. F. 

 t Ecclesiastical laws. — D. F. 



