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JOURNAL, R.A.S. ( CEYLON). 



[Vol. XX. 



wounded, one of their comrades named Diogo de Mesquita being 

 killed ; the others were named Gaspar Fernandez de Aguiar. 

 Pedro de Sousa, Antonio Lourengo, Pedro Fernandez 1 7 Antonio 

 Bias, Pedro Pirez the Room 2 (he being of that nationality), 

 and Cosmo Goncalvez. Pedro de Atayde remained there until 

 Rajii should retire to his array al, which was at four in the 

 evening. 



This occurred two or three days before Christmas, at a time 

 when already in Cotta there were not even jungle herbs, which 

 they had not been able to go out and seek : wherefore the 

 captain dispatched two soldiers, Antonio da Silva and Joao 

 Fernandez the Beardless, with a message to Dom Diogo de 

 Atayde of the extreme misery they were in, who got through 

 the jungles to Columbo ; and Dom Diogo on learning the state 

 in which they were, dispatched a pacha with a message to 

 Pedro de Atayde that he would send along the sea -coast by the 

 outer side seme boats of rice as far as the king's palm- grove 3 , 

 which will be some three leagues from Columbo, whither he 

 was to take care to send and get it. And forthwith he 

 dispatched the same soldiers with a boat, and two tones with 

 ten candis of rice, and in the morning of Christmas eve the 

 captain received Dom Diogo's message, and the same day in 

 the morning watch he dispatched Francisco Gomez Leytao 

 with a hundred soldiers and some lascarins familiar with the 

 country to go and get that provision : which he did with 

 great risk and trouble, and at once returned with the rice, 

 arriving in the daybreak watch at half a league from Cotta, 

 where he found the captain with all the people of the city, who 

 were waiting for him, and with great joy they entered .the 

 city ; but the captain, who thought he had obtained a supply 

 of rice, found that he had got very little, since the soldiers had 

 left it hidden in the jungle, to go and seek it later, at which 

 the captain was so angry, that he drew his sword, and went 

 at Francisco Gomez Leytao to kill him ; and he would have 

 done it, if the father Frey Simao de Nasaret had not interposed 

 himself : and through that prompt action the soldiers delivered 

 up the rice that they had hidden. With this poor provision 

 they managed for some days with great frugality ; and when 



1 The printed version and Faria y Sousa have " Ribeiro." 



2 Turk (see supra, p. 28, note It is strange to find one of the 

 most hated of the enemies of the Portuguese fighting on their side. 



3 Bandarawatta on the road to Negombo is situated at about the 

 distance mentioned by Couto ; but it seems much more probable that 

 the " king's garden " lay to the south of Columbo, as that would be much 

 more accessible from Cota : it must, therefore, have been somewhere 

 near Ratmalana. 



