300 



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



[Vol. XX. 



the marshes 1 : and this went on to such an extent that soon 

 the foists felt it, because the usual water began to fail them, 

 wherefore they retired to the shelter of the bastions of Sao 

 Gonsalo and Sao Miguel, where there was more water 2 . And 

 such dispatch did the enemy give to this work that sufficient 

 depth to float the galliot was entirely wanting : wherefore 

 the captain ordered her to be stranded in the shelter of 

 those bastions, and her captain with his soldiers took up his 

 position at the conduits 3 to guard that passage, which was 

 a very important one 4 , the foist and the baloon remaining on 

 the lake, there being still enough water for them to proceed 

 below 5 the island, and so they continued until the water was 

 all drained off. 



During the whole of this time, which would be a month, 

 there did not fail to be great and wonderful plays of bombard- 

 shots and many assaults, in which the enemy were always 

 wounded, principally one night when Diogo da Silva modeliar 

 with his lascarins made an attack upon a tranqueira that 

 was over against the lake, the which he entered valorously, 

 and killed the greater part of the enemy, putting the rest 

 to flight, whereby he had time to set fire to it, so that 

 the whole was consumed. Raju was already affrighted 

 at these assaults : because when and where he least 

 expected he found our people with an astonishing deter- 

 mination in his entrenchments and tranqueiras, cutting, 

 throwing down, burning, and laying low everything ; and 

 what was worse, making the oracles of his idols lying ones, 

 since never did the bombards from the fortress take fire 

 better or do so much harm to the army as now. With 

 the loss of this tranqueira that Diogo da Silva burnt Raju 

 was disgusted ; but presently he commanded to set to 

 work with another very strong one in front of all those 

 that he had made, which he carried as far as the edge of the 



1 So I translate varzeas (see supra, p. 292, note 6 ), the meadows in 

 this case being doubtless the swampy lands (Dutch polders) on the 

 eastern outskirts of Columbo. The " ditch" may possibly have been 

 the precursor of the canal that runs from St. Sebastian to Urugoda- 

 watta. 



2 See supra, p. 295, note 7 . 



3 See supra, p. 296, note \ 



4 The manuscript omits this clause. 



5 The manuscript reads " pass over the bank " (passarem o banco), 

 which may possibly be the right reading, as we read towards the end 

 of the chapter of the foists' being dragged by the enemy over a " ridge of 

 sand " into deep water. 



