No. 60.— 1908.] couTO : history of oeylon. 



207 



is nothing in it but powder and shot "K But with all this , this 

 fidalgo was one of the best captains and knights, and a servant 

 of the king, that went out to India. 



But to resume the thread of our history. Dom Jorge 

 Baroche, seeing that the soldiers were deserting him little by 

 little, left Jorge de Mello the Fist in his place, and went tG 

 Cota to make the men return ; and whilst he was detained 

 there Jorge de Mello thought he would make an assault on the 

 enemy ; and getting ready, he set out one morning in perfect 

 silence, and fell upon the entrenchments of Raju, the bastard 

 son of Madune, and by force of arms entered them and caused 

 great havoc among the enemy, killing the chief modiliares 

 that were there, and capturing many arms and other spoils, 

 with which he retired quite safely. This news reached Dom 

 Jorge Baroche ; and filled with envy at such a victory, he 

 mustered all the soldiers he could, and set out in great haste 

 for the camp ; and finding the soldiers in good spirits, and 

 flushed with their success , he at once crossed over to the other 

 side of the river in the foists , and at daybreak next day attacked 

 the tranqueiras, which Raju had already restored very well 2 ; 

 and with that frenzy and desire that possessed him to gain 

 some honour he speedily effected an entrance to them, and 

 with the sword caused such destruction among the enemy, 

 that in a brief space he killed more than two hundred of them, 

 among whom were the chief modiliares and ar 'aches, and laid 

 the whole of the tranqueira level with the ground, and destroyed 

 it. And with such a good success, which cost him no more 

 than a few wounded, Dom Jorge Baroche returned so elated 

 and vainglorious , that he forthwith determined to attack the 

 tranqueira of Mapitigao , in which was the whole force of Madune , 

 before the blood dried on the swords of his soldiers, because 

 he was informed that the enemy were much dispirited and 

 terrified by those two blows ; since it was recognized that if he 

 gained that tranqueira and fortified himself therein, he would 

 become master of the roads to Ceitavaca, in which Madune 

 resided, and by only being therein he would hold him besieged, 

 and would be able to wage against him all the war he chose 

 to. For this purpose he ordered to be made two wooden 

 castles on the top of some boats that ply those rivers, which 

 are called padas 3 , and in them placed some soldiers with many 



1 Whiteway (301 n.) tells this story, but puts rather more vigorous 

 language into Dom Jorge's mouth. 



2 One of the three destroyed by D. Jorge de Castro in 1550 (see 

 swpra, VI. vin. vii. , pp. 137-8) : which one this was, does not appear. 



3 Pada-boats (Sinh. pddawal) seem to be confused with lighters 

 (Sinh. padaw). We shall meet with them again in X. vni. xii. (p. 282). 



