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



197 



laden with rice, with which the armada was provided ; and after 

 that he set out with some vessels in order to take part in that 

 expedition, whom the viceroy receiv d very cordially, and 

 bestowed upon him honours and favours. 



At about the same time there arrived three of the most 

 respected and oldest inhabitants of the town of Sao Thome 

 with the reply to the letters that the viceroy had written to 

 them regarding the transference to the kingdom of Jafana- 

 patao, by whom they all sent him great excuses for not doing 

 •what he had sent to ask them to do : because when they 

 finally set about to embark, it was very hard for all to leave 

 their houses, oarts 1 , lands, and gardens, which had belonged 

 to their ancestors, and which they had cultivated for so many 

 years since ; and that moreover it was not proper that 

 that country should be depopulated where was the body of the 

 blessed apostle Saint Thomas, which every day resplended 

 with new miracles, with which they lived contented and 

 consoled 2 : begging his pardon humbly for this. And as the 

 viceroy had already been informed of everything by letters 

 from Fernao Gomez Cordovil, he would neither see nor speak 

 to these men, and at the end of many days he gave them an 

 ill dispatch. 3 



Dec. VII. , Bk. ix., Chap. iv. 



Of the rising that took place against our people in Jafanapatao : 

 and of the siege that they laid to the fortress : and of how the 

 viceroy escaped from the conspiracy, and retired by sea to 

 the armada : and of the succour that he sent to the fortress, 

 the captain of which was Dom Antonio de Noronha : and 

 of what happened to him on the expedition. 



Things being in this state, and the viceroy waiting for that 

 king to complete the delivery to him of the treasures of 

 Tribuli (because, from the information that he had, he hoped 

 to get more than three hundred thousand cruzados), the 

 natives of the whole of that kingdom hatched a general con- 

 spiracy against our people ; and neither the cause nor the 

 author of it was ever known, but it was on this wise. All 

 being quite unsuspicious, of a sudden on the same day and at 

 the same time they attacked the places where our people were, 

 and all those that they found were put to the sword, without 

 anyone's being spared. The bishop Dom Jorge Temudo, 



1 Coconut, gardens (see Hob. -Job. s.v.). 



2 The first reason was the real one ; the second a mere excuse to try 

 and pacify the viceroy, who saw through it. 



3 For their sad fate see next chapter. 



