288 



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



[Vol. XX 



spirit and courage, he was afraid of nothing, the rather 

 with great rapidity in the whirl of the pressure in which 

 he was with the affairs of Malaca 1 he negotiated a ship, 

 which he ordered to be loaded with what food, munitions, and 

 money could be spared, and wrote to the captain that he must 

 make the best of it, because at present he could do no more, 

 but that when he had dispatched the fleet for Malaca he 

 would provide him better ; 



$ * * * * # * 



Dec. X., Bk. ix., Chap iv. 



Of the great preparations that Raju made for attacking Columbo : 

 and how the captain J oad Gorrea fortified himself. 



Raju having declared himself for war, and having now 

 collected all the necessary materials, summoned all his troops, 

 and placed the whole mass of his army in the city of Biagao 2 

 in order at once to set out on the march. Of this Joao Correa 

 received information ; and because the reply from Goa tarried, 

 and he feared to find himself in a great strait, he dispatched 3 

 two men with letters of credit, one to go to Manar and bring 

 all the rice he could, and the other, who was the modeliar 

 Diogo da Silva, to Negapatao. These men made such haste, 

 that when the little ship of Domingos de Aguiar, which the 

 viceroy sent with provisions (as has been related above 4 ), 

 arrived 5 , there was already in the fortress so much rice 6 , that 

 the whole winter it sold at seven xarafins the candil, the price 

 in Cochim being twelve, and in Coulao fourteen ; and with the 



1 See supra, p. 281, note 3 . 



2 See supra, p. 271, note 4 . The manuscript has " Biajan." 



3 In April 1587 ? 



4 See supra, p. 274. 



6 Couto does not tell us when this ship did arrive at Columbo, un- 

 less it were in May 1586 (see p. 277 supra) : but, if that be the case, the 

 statement that follows is unintelligible, since the two men here spoken 

 of seem to have gone for rice a year later. There seems to be great 

 confusion in the order of events recorded by Couto in these chapters 

 relating to the siege of Columbo, which I am unable to rectify, 



6 The printed edition omits this word. 



