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



321 



Of this succour, and of the departure of Bertolameu Rodri- 

 gues, Raju was soon informed ; and as our people in the 

 meantime were negligent, he determined to keep them in play 

 with figments, and to make a show of not continuing the siege : 

 so he commanded to shout to those on the bastion of Sao 

 Sebastia5 to tell the captain on behalf of Raju to send him 

 there Jeronymo 1 Bayao, or some other person of respectability, 

 because he wished to discuss with him matters of importance to 

 him the captain. The latter having received the message, and 

 at once understanding his designs , ordered those on the bastion 

 to tell him to do that for which he came, and to go forward with 

 his works, and that if he wanted any help in them he would give 

 it to him ; and that it would be good to -fortify himself well, as 

 he would be with him there very speedily : and so the matter 

 stood, without anymore being said. This was the same day 

 on which Aguiar arrived, and on the next Raju ordered his 

 troops out upon the field, and from our fortress there sallied 

 forth against them some who engaged them ; and although they 

 had a skirmish that lasted a good while , yet it was not sangui- 

 nary: and after this manner there were others almost every day. 



Raju went carrying on his tranqueiras until he had placed 

 himself thirty paces from the bastion of Sao Sebastiao, com- 

 manding the works to be carried still further forward ; 

 against which the captain ordered to go out the modeliar of 

 Candea Dom Joao de Austria, captain of the native troops 2 , 

 and the arache Pedro 3 Afonso with his lascarins, and some 

 Portuguese with them, in order to go and dismantle that work, 

 so that it might not be carried forward. This company 

 sallied forth from the fortress in the daylight watch, and fell 

 upon the work in dead silence, the Portuguese going in front, 

 who attacked the tranqueiras ; and throwing into it many pots 

 of powder, they entered after them, and had with those that 

 guarded it, who were many picked men, a great battle ; and 

 whilst it lasted the lascarins occupied themselves in demolish- 

 ing the tranqueira by force, as they had been ordered, and 

 others in carrying the wood to the fortress, the Portuguese 

 maintaining the battle inside the bastion ; and they fought so 

 stubbornly that with the death of many they drove them all 

 out ; and having demolished the tranqueira entirely, our 

 people retired in perfect safety, having lost only one, although 

 some returned wounded, but all the rest laden with arms and 

 spoils of the enemy, of whom thirty were killed. 



1 The manuscript has in error " Joao." Gf. pp. 358, 363 infra. 



2 In the previous passage where he is mentioned (p. 294) we are not 

 told of his holding this command. 



3 The manuscript has " Dom " for " Pedro." 



Y 36-08 



