No. 60. — 1908.] oouto : history of ceylon. 



63 



woman or a maiden whom he desired that was not at once 

 brought to him, insulting and dishonouring them, and killing 

 and impaling all that sought to defend them, and towards 

 others using brutal inhumanities : whereby he so harassed 

 everyone, that the people, being unable to endure him any 

 longer, assembled and went to complain to his father, and to 

 beg him for justice for such insults and cruelties. And as he 

 was vexed with his son on account of seeing in him no amend- 

 ment, nor perceiving any inclination towards good, having 

 already many times admonished him, he commanded secretly 

 to equip many vessels, and in them to place provisions and 

 necessary things ; and when all was ready he took his son 

 unawares, and embarked him with seven hundred youths of 

 his own age and of his retinue, who in his turpitudes had all 

 been ever his companions : because it was a custom in that 

 kingdom, on the day that the son and heir was born, for the 

 king to command all the male children that were born on the 

 same day, throughout all the realms that he possessed, to be 

 written down and enrolled, who were brought to the court 

 from seven years upward in order to be trained together with 

 the prince ; and on the day that this one was born there was 

 found a great number of them, of whom seven hundred were 

 still living 1 . 



After the king had embarked his son he told him that he 

 was to go through the world and seek countries that he might 

 populate, but that he was not to return to his kingdom, 

 because he would kill him and all the rest. This prince having 

 departed set sail and went along at the mercy of the winds 

 without knowing whither he went, and in a few days he came 

 in sight of a desert island 2 , which is this of Ceilao, at which 

 he came to land on the inner side 3 , in a port that is called 

 Preature, which lies between Triquillimale and the point of 

 Jafanapatao 4 ; and disembarking on land, they were much 



1 Cf. Rdjdv. 15-6. 



2 Couto, it will be noticed, says nothing of the yakkha population 

 of Ceylon. 



3 By the " inner side " of Ceylon Portuguese writers meant the 

 eastern side. 



4 Rijklof van Goens the elder, in his version of the Rdjdvaliya narra- 

 tive (Val. Ceylon 210), says that Vijaya made landfall near the hill of 

 Trincomalee. Couto, it will be seen, puts the landing-place between 

 this and the point of Jaffna. The only port on that stretch of coast 

 with a name like " Preature " is Point Pedro (Tam. Paruttitturai == 

 " cotton roadstead "). But, from what follows, it looks as if Couto had 

 got on the wrong side of the island, and that Preature — Periyaturai = 

 Mahatittha = Mantota. 



