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



ditch 1 forms as it were an island, having no other entrance but 

 by the ditch. When Lopo Soarez saw the shape of the port, and 

 how suitable the narrow end of that point was for building the 

 fortress 2 , he at once agreed with the captains that it should be 

 on that spot 3 . However, before he went on shore he sent a 

 message to the king by Joam Flores 4 , notifying him of the 

 cause of his coming to that port, giving several reasons why 

 his lord the king desired to have a fortress there, ascribing the 

 whole of this step to the faithlessness of the Moors who resorted 

 thither, and to the ancient hatred that they bore towards the 

 Portuguese, but chiefly to the great gain that it would bring 

 to the king to have that fortress made there : both by reason 

 of his lord the king Dom Manuel's becoming thereby commit- 

 ted to the defence of him (the king) against his enemies, as well 

 as because by having commerce with the Portuguese his whole 

 kingdom would become very wealthy and fully supplied with 

 the productions of the West 5 . The king, as he had some time 

 ago been occupied in treating of this matter with Afonso 

 Dalboquerque 6 , and was very desirous of this commerce, 

 seeing how rich the king of Cochij had become by it, and that 

 since we had entered India he (the king) himself had begun to 

 experience in his revenue the profit that was to be paid, as 

 soon as he saw the message of Lopo Soarez conceded him the 

 fortress, sending to interview him with words that showed 

 his satisfaction. 



As the Moors of Calecut and of all that coast of Malabar 

 since our entry into India had been scared away by us from 

 all those parts, and had some refuge in this island of Ceilam, 

 because of our armadas' not going to it, some who were there 

 on the arrival of Lopo Soarez, although they were terrified 

 at seeing him in the port, when they learnt that the king 

 had conceded him a fortress became altogether as dead men. 

 Finally by force of bribes, which everywhere are able to 

 effect more than solid reasons, they so changed the mind of the 



1 The ditch was cut by the Portuguese (see below). 



2 D. Lourenco de Almeida had noticed this twelve years before (see 

 D. Francisco de Almeida's letter of 27 December 1506, in my "Dis- 

 covery of Ceylon," p. 338). 



3 Lopo Soares, in his haste to get the fortress erected before the 

 arrival of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira should prevent him, had to decide 

 without waiting for the advice of D. Joao da Silveira, whom he had sent 

 in advance to spy out the land (see III. n. iii., p. 46). 



4 Correa describes him as " a trustworthy man." Later on we shall 

 read of his death at the hands of the Moors when occupying the post of 

 captain of the guard of the Kilakarai pearl fishery (see p. 58). 



5 Gf. the reasons given by Castanheda and Correa. 



6 This may be true, but I cannot confirm it. Cf. extract C 15 at 

 p„ 373 of my " Discovery of Ceylon." 



