No. 60. — 1908.] barros : history or ceylon. 



43 



fortification was no more than a ditch and a defence of wood, 

 in which he placed much artillery, in the part that lay over 

 against the land, by which the enemy might attack him. And 

 one of the things that perplexed him most after he saw himself 

 master of that spot was, not to find there stone or shells for 

 making lime : because before he left Cochij, in obtaining 

 information from some of our men who had already been there, 

 they led him to believe that there was stone from which it 

 would be possible to make lime, and if this did not serve there 

 was plenty of shell-fish, from the shells of which a large quantity 

 could be made. And seeing that there was not one of these 

 things for making lime 1 , only shells which it was necessary to 

 bring from a distance, which might detain him a longer time 

 than he had to spare, it being already in October, and it was 

 necessary for him to be in India, by reason of the loading of the 

 ships that were expected from the kingdom, by which, he 

 thought, might come the governor who was to succeed him, he 

 agreed, with the approval of all the captains, that as lime 

 could not be made quickly they should build the fortress of 

 stone and clay. Because as the land was separated from the 

 point from sea to sea, that sufficed for the time being as a 

 secure retreat for those who were to remain, until it should be 

 provided from India according as there was need. All having 

 concurred in this opinion, Lopo Soarez ordered in great haste 

 the foundations to be dug, and stone to be brought for com- 

 mencing the wall, dividing the responsibility of each task 

 among the captains. 



The king of Ceilam, when he saw many of his people killed 

 and wounded in that incursion of ours on land, and that with 

 little trouble they made themselves masters of the fortification 

 that the Moors had made , and besides this had begun the work of 

 the fortress contrary to his wish, having taken counsel with his 

 fellow-countrymen, without giving heed to the Moors, desired 

 the peace that he had agreed to with Lopo Soarez rather than 

 the breaking of it which they had advised. Regarding which 

 subject he sent to him his governor, giving various excuses for 

 what had occurred, attributing all to the bad counsels of men 

 who had got him to believe things contrary to what he (Lopo 

 Soarez) had promised of the peace and amity that by means of 

 the fortress he might have with the king of Portugal. And 

 since he by the death and injury of his people had been paid 

 for accepting counsel from evil men, who had caused that 

 rupture, he begged him that they might return once more 

 to the state of peace which at his coming he had at once 



1 When the fortress was rebuilt two years later, oyster-shells for 

 making lime were brought from Kilakarai (see infra, p. 49). 



