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



221 



but they did not cause him to leave the conflict, rather he 

 showed therein all the more the purity of his blood ; and 

 likewise did the fidalgos and distinguished knights, whose 

 names I have not discovered to glorify them as they deserve. 



The king and the captain without taking any rest rebuilt and 

 fortified Prea Cota on the inner side very strongly, and wished 

 to send a message to India, to let the viceroy know the state 

 in which that fortress was, that he might succour it, which 

 he 1 considered doubtful because all the roads were occupied, 

 and it. was not possible to go by them. But a friar of St. 

 Francis, who saw that need and the risk and peril in which 

 all were, talking to a pacha 2 , who knew those jungles very well, 

 gave him an account of his determination, which was to get 

 to Columbo through the jungles, and said that with all the risk 

 to his person he would have him very well paid : the pacha 

 offered his services to bring him to Columbo in perfect safety. 

 And the father giving the captain and the king an account 

 of the plan, they thanked him much for that service that he 

 wished to render to God and also to that people ; and 

 intrusting him to the pacha, whom they paid well, in the third 

 watch of the night they went out by the pass of the ambolao, 

 and hid themselves in some new and different jungles, through 

 which they journeyed with much trouble and danger. And it 

 pleased our Lord, who always favours such deeds, that in two 

 hours they reached Columbo, which the father entered, and 

 gave an account of the past trouble and of the peril in which 

 all were, giving the letters to the alcaide mor, in which he ordered 

 him immediately to give a vessel to go over to Tutocori, 

 which they soon got for him, it being a small tone, in which he 

 embarked, and went across to Tutocori ; and reaching land, he 

 saw the armada of Diogo de Mello Coutinho , which had arrived 

 the day before, and there was now with him Antonio da Costa 

 Travassos, who had come from Cochim as captain-major of 

 six rowing vessels with many and good troops, and there they 

 added also some seven or eight vessels of provisions. And 

 learning the great need in which Cota was, they at once set 

 sail for Columbo as the weather was good ; and next day they 

 entered that bay with that great succour , of which the news 

 quickly reached Raju. As soon as our people landed, they 

 arranged to go to the relief of Cota, and mustered more than 

 four hundred men, whom they put in order to set out. But 

 as soon as Raju heard of it he broke up his army, and retired 

 to Ceitavaca, taking back more than two thousand men less 



1 The captain, apparently. 



2 See supra, p. 106, note 2 . 



