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



133 



This having been settled, the governor chose for that ex- 

 pedition Dom Jorge de Crasto his uncle, his mother's brother, 

 and gave him six hundred men, among whom were many 

 fidalgos and knights ; and ordered the ships to be got ready- 

 that he was to take, for the expense of which the ambassador at 

 once gave the ten thousand cruzados that he had offered. The 

 governor ordered to make haste with the fleet and the ships, 

 all of which he determined to dispatch at the beginning of 

 January. 



Dec. VI., Be. viii., Chap. iv. 



Of another message that the governor Jorge Cabral received from 

 Geilad from the prince of Candea : and of how Dom Jorge 

 de Crasto left for Geilad. 



The ships [for Portugal] having been dispatched 1 , the 

 governor hurried on the preparations of the fleet of Dom 

 Jorge in order to dispatch it soon. And when it was just 

 ready, there came to him letters from the fathers of St. Fran- 

 cis who were in the kingdom of Candea, in which they begged 

 him to send a force in support of the prince of that kingdom, 

 as he wished to become a Christian. And since it is necessary 

 to give some account of this prince, we shall do so. This king 

 of Candea had a legitimate son, called Caralea Bandar 2 , 

 who was heir to the throne. This prince managed to get his 

 father to release the friars of St. Francis (whom he had im- 

 prisoned when Antonio Moniz Barreto went to that kingdom, 

 as we have related above, in the eighth chapter of the fourth 

 book), and who formed so great a friendship with Frey Pas- 

 coal, who was their commissary, that this father proposed to 

 him to become a Christian, preaching to him many times on 

 the matters of our faith, to which he became inclined and well 

 disposed, in such manner that all that he needed was to receive 

 the water of holy baptism 3 . Of this his father was informed, 

 and resolved to kill his son, and to give the kingdom to another 

 bastard son that he had, called Comarsinga Adasana 4 , for 



1 The last one left Goa on 10 January 1550. 



2 Karalliyedde Kumara Bandara {Rdjdv. 82). 



3 In VIII. iii. (pp. 233-4) we read of this prince, who had then (1565) 

 succeeded to the throne of Kandy, that he was a Christian, and was 

 named Dom Joao. 



4 Kumarasinha Adahasin. The Rdjdvaliya does not mention this 

 prince. 



