220 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XX. 



object attacked it at all the passes with great fury, finding in 

 our people the usual resistance. Those of our people that 

 could fight would be about four hundred, who seemed to be 

 made not of flesh but of brass, because neither did the bombard 

 shots frighten or affect them, nor did the elephants make them 

 move from their posts. Thus Raj u continued, until one day 

 he put his whole strength into the combat, and placed the 

 largest body of it at Prea Cota, which was attacked by the 

 troops of the atapata 1 , who are those of the king's guard, 

 picked and brave soldiers (like the J anissaries) ; and before the 

 guard went the war elephants, who with their customary 

 trumpetings placed their foreheads against the tranqueiras, to 

 the help of which hastened the king, and the captain with the 

 messengers that accompanied him, and in front of all the 

 venerable father Frei Simao de Nazaret, with five or six friars, 

 who were always foremost in the greatest fury of battle , 

 encouraging the men, and holding aloft to them Christ crucified, 

 in whose name and faith they all fought, calling many times on 

 the name of Jesus, who always succoured them with his help, 

 increasing their courage and strength : for if this were not so, 

 all would be lost. At last, such force did they cause the 

 elephants to exert, that they burst through the first wall of 

 Prea Cota, where our people continued to fight with much 

 valour ; and so with that onrush Prea Cota was entered, and 

 three brothers of St. Francis and more than twenty Portuguese 

 were killed. The king and the captain, seeing this position 

 invaded and their cause apparently lost, hastened to the 

 rescue with all the rest of the troops that they had, sending in 

 advance some men with fire-lances and the musketry ; and 

 shouting " Sao Tiago ! " ; and the father Frei Simao de 

 Nazaret in front, calling on Christ to succour and aid them, 

 it pleased this Lord for his great mercy (as he is accustomed 

 to do in similar needs) to succour them in such fashion, that 

 they drove out the elephants much burnt, and did the like to 

 the enemy, more than four hundred of whom were killed and 

 scorched in that action. Finally the havoc was such, that 

 Raju on his side had to retire as good as routed, he having 

 thought that with that action he would finish the business. 

 The captain Baltesar Guedez de Sousa, who that day played 

 the part of the brave soldier, was wounded with two wounds, 



1 In X. ix. v. (p. 301) the word is more correctly spelt atapato, and is 

 explained as " captain of the guards " (of the king). Bocarro (cap. xci.) 

 has atapata (feminine collective noun), and explains it as Couto does 

 here ; while Ribeiro (II. i. ) has atapata as a masculine noun, and explains 

 it as " captain of the bodyguard " (of the king). The word atapattuwa 

 has now come to mean the staff of peons or messengers under a disava. 



