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



217 



of Ambola 1 , which goes towards Columbo, which our people 

 make use of, and from Cota to Columbo will be a league and a 

 half. There is another pass, which they call that of the 

 Mosquito 2 , and two others 3 , in which our people had made 

 their tranqueiras, and provided them with everything. The 

 manner in which Goncalo Guedez and the king provided this 

 and the captains whom they placed in these passes I do not 

 know, nor do I find any records 4 ; I only know that in Prea 

 Cota, which was the most dangerous pass, was a captain with 

 forty men, and in all the other passes each had its captain and 

 thirty men. And in Prea Cota were the father Frei Simao de 

 Nazare, Frei Lucas, and three other fathers of St. Francis 5 , 

 all monks of great and well-known goodness. The king 

 remained apart with the captain Baltesar Guedez de Sousa 

 to go and help whenever needed. 



As soon as Raju came in sight of Cota he surrounded it with 

 his whole army, which he had greatly increased, and attacked 

 it many times with great determination, chiefly at Prea Cota, 

 with the elephants, which at a place to which he came where 

 the river was shallower went to the attack boldly ; but our 

 people wounded them and burnt them with fire-lances, where- 

 by they. made them turn round ; the bulk of the enemy hasten- 

 ing hither, thinking that the elephants had made an entrance 

 for them , whereupon there ensued a very severe battle of great 

 risk and peril, in which many were killed on both sides, where 

 the king and the captain Baltesar Guedez de Sousa and other 

 knights that accompanied them did such marvels, that they 

 seemed like wild elephants. And the friars were those that did 

 most, because they fought spiritually with prayers, and by 

 persuading the men to defend themselves and to ask pardon of 

 God for their sins, they being ever the first in all the risks and 



1 In the next chapter this is called "the pass of the ambolad" which 

 seems to be the correct reading, for in VIII. iii. (p. 226) we are told 

 that the ambolao (ambalam) was midway between Columbo and 

 Cotta : it was, therefore, probably situated at the spot where the 

 present Kotte road meets the North and South Base Line and several 

 other roads. 



2 I cannot identify this pass. It is mentioned again in VIII. iii. (p- 

 224). 



3 The names of all the passes are given in VIII. iii. (p. 224). 



4 Apparently Couto obtained his information regarding this siege 

 from participants in it, as he did in the case of the next and final siege 

 of 1564-5 (see VIII. iii., p. 236). 



5 From a document printed in Arch. Port. -Or. iii. 734, it appears 

 that in this year (1563) Dharmapala dotated the Franciscans in Ceylon 

 with the rents of the pagodas within his dominions. 



