3< 



No. 60. — 1908.] couto : history of ceylon. 135 



men if they should attempt to get to Ceitavaca. Dom Jorge 

 reached Cota, and was heartily welcomed by that king ; and 

 they at once resolved to go together against Madune, and not 

 to withdraw from that business until they had utterly de- 

 stroyed him, in order to give no further trouble to the state 

 with succours and fleets in aid of his brother, who was a vassal 

 of the king of Portugal's. For the expedition the king began 

 to collect his forces and arrange for the things necessary in the 

 way of provisions and servants for the whole army. The 

 report of the fleet of Dom Jorge de Crasto and of his arrival 

 at Columbo soon spread over the whole island. 



The king of Candea, as he was guilty in the matter of 

 Antonio Moniz Barreto, began to tremble, and to fear that they 

 wished to chastise him for the faults that he had committed ; 

 and as he was a man of great cunning and malice he determined 

 to temporize with Dom Jorge de Crasto and deceive him, until 

 he should see how matters tended between Madune and his 

 brother, and to this end he at once dispatched ambassadors 

 to visit him. These ambassadors found Dom Jorge de Crasto 

 still in Cota, getting ready for the expedition to Ceitavaca. 

 Dom Jorge de Crasto ordered them to be taken before the 

 king, where he heard them, and they told him that the king 

 of Candea had sent them to visit him and to offer himself for 

 everything that might be of service to the king of Portugal. 

 That he would have him know that in the affair of Antonio 

 Moniz Barreto, in which he did not deny being guilty, there 

 were nevertheless sufficient matters of satisfaction for it to be 

 forgiven. That his cousin Madune had disturbed his mind 

 and drawn hinT away from the desire that he had had of be- 

 coming a Christian, putting before his eyes fears and the loss of 

 his kingdom, and the rebellion of his subjects owing to a change 

 of law ; and that he had repented of his past conduct, since 

 he had always been inclined to the law of the Christians, as 

 the friars always knew of him ; that he was firmly resolved to 

 become a Christian ; that he earnestly begged him to send him 

 some friars to settle this with him ; and that he also wished 

 to be reconciled to his son ; and that thus he hoped little by 

 little to move his vassals to become Christians. Dom Jorge de 

 Crasto was much pleased with that embassy, and at once set 

 about to satisfy that king, sending with the ambassadors 

 two friars of St. Francis, and with them the French captain 1 



1 In VI. ix. xiv. Couto, describing the siege of the fortress of Catifa 

 by the Portuguese in 1551, says that all the ditches and entrenchments 

 were made by order and according to the plan of this officer, "whom 

 the king Dom Joao had sent to India on account of his being a man who 

 had much knowledge and practice of warfare." 



