338 



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



[Vol. XX. 



of Antonio de Aguiar and the watch-tower of Manoel Borges 1 ; 

 and having been informed of this , desiring to frustrate the whole, 

 he ordered to make a ditch of seventeen spans from the bastion 

 of Sao Sebastiao to the watch-tower of Manoel Borges on the 

 inner side, and a tranqueira with filled barrels, so that if the 

 enemy should make a breach in the other , or should mine the 

 bastion, they should find another ditch, in order to impede the 

 elephants. Whilst proceeding with this work, there fled to 

 the fortress a lascarim of his, who brought the news that in 

 the fight in the mines many of his men were killed, both in them 

 and in the camp, and most of them by firelock shots in the 

 head ; and that Raju had determined to attack with all the rest 

 and to make two assaults upon the fortress, and to get troops 

 into the city by the mines, and that already they were coming 

 beneath Sao Sebastiao. On this assurance the captain gave 

 orders to remove the artillery at once from it, and to take out 

 the filling, and to make in it some countermines in order to 

 discover where the mine came, the which was effected with very 

 great trouble, in which there took part all the captains and 

 fidalgos and other people of the fortress, and all the monks. 

 By this time the enemy had already so become masters of our 

 ditch, that from its earth- eaps, whenever a man appeared on 

 the angles, platforms, and cavaliers on our side, he was straight- 

 way struck by the much harquebusery that they had, as they 

 did to a fidalgo called Dom Domingos, a natural son of Dom 

 Martinho de Castello-Branco, former captain of Ormus 2 , whom 

 he had in India by a widow woman 3 , and wounded others. 

 The captain kept a very strict watch in the countermines 

 because of the mines, and prepared for the assaults that Raju 

 intended to deliver. At this same time there arrived some of 

 our spies, who had gone out twenty-four days before to spy at 

 Ceitavaca 4 , to see if they could bring in a Portuguese who was 

 captive there, whom they brought : and this being a case of 

 much stratagem and invention, and one that Raju was much 

 annoyed at, we shall give an account of it. 



1 The " quarters of Antonio de Aguiar " were at a stretch of wall 

 abutting on the bastion of S. Sebastiao (see supra, p. 320) ; but of 

 the position of the " watch-tower of Manoel Borges " I am doubtful 

 (see supra, p. 319, and further on in this chapter). 



" When he held that post, I cannot find. He is mentioned in VIII. 

 iii. (p. 227) supra, as taking part in the defence of Cota in 1564-5. 



8 The printed edition omits this bit of information regarding the 

 mother of D. Domingos. 



4 Instead of " Ceitavaca " the printed edition has (apparently by a 

 misreading) " e estava " (and it was). 



