52 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XX, 



described 1 ), and the fortresses of India were left with only the 

 regulation number for their defence, and that of Cochij, which 

 was nearer to Ceilam, had less men than the others, on account 

 of being more secure, a greater succour could not be sent to 

 Lopo de Brito. And even this that went to him was more for 

 the safety of himself and of the persons that were there than 

 because of the possession of the same fortress : since it was 

 not considered as an important matter to the state of India 

 for us to have there taken that possession, because without 

 it we had all the cinnamon for the loading of our ships, and the 

 king of the country, without this yoke which intimidated him, 

 was willing to pay his tribute. And afterwards in the course 

 of time it was seen how needless it was, whereupon it was 

 ordered to be demolished 2 , only a factory house remaining, 

 whereby the king of the country was entirely disaffrighted ; 

 and yet to some of them it was serviceable, with the aid that 

 they had from us against their enemies with whom they were 

 at war, as we shall describe later on 3 . Lopo de Brito, seeing 

 what small succour had come to him, and learning the reasons 

 why, determined to drive away from there that body of neigh- 

 bours, from whom he had received so much harm, before they 

 should learn how few men had come to their help ; calculating 

 that even if he could do no more in that sally of his from the 

 fortress than capture the two bastions that had done them 

 so much harm, he might consider that as a great victory. 

 Having agreed in council on the manner in which they were 

 to carry out that sally, Lopo de Brito ordered Antonio de 

 Lemos to place himself with his galley in front of the bastions, 

 making as if from there he intended to batter them with the 

 great pieces that he carried in the galley : and he himself on 

 the following day during the siesta, which is the time of sleep 

 among the heathenry (as we have already said), on a given 

 signal, with some three hundred men attacked the enemies' 

 positions. And it pleased God that when they felt the sword 



1 The reference is to III. in. x. The governor left Goa for the Red 

 Sea on 13 February 1520, with a fleet of twenty -four sail carrying 

 some three thousand men of arms, of whom more than half were Portu- 

 guese. Regarding the expedition see White way 190 ff. 



2 See p. 55. 



3 As the fortress was demolished in 1524, and as Barros does not tell 

 us of any more fighting between now and then, he must mean that the 

 existence in Columbo of a Portuguese factory was of benefit to the king 

 of Kotte, and his reference is doubtless to IV. vm. xiv., where he de- 

 scribes how in 1538 the Portuguese factor and his companions helped 

 Bhuwaneka Bahu VII. to defend Kotte against the army of his brother 

 Mayadunne (see infra, p. 98). 



