No. 60. -1908.] coitto : history of ceylon. 



341 



and passing through Raju's army they came to the gate of the 

 city ; and having told the tidings to the guards, in the morning 

 they were brought in and taken to the captain, amid great 

 rejoicing by the uncle and a crowd of people who hastened to 

 see them. The uncle spoke with him, and safeguarded him in 

 such fashion that he came to himself ; and like a man that 

 has awakened from a troubled dream, finding himself in a safe 

 place, he gave many thanks to God, and from him the captain 

 learnt many things ; but not that he revealed much, since he 

 had been away from Raju for some time back. 



And to continue once more with the siege, Raju, seeing that 

 they had destroyed that mine of his, commanded to continue 

 with two other mouths, which came to strike between the 

 quarters of Antonio de Aguiar and the watch-tower of Manoel 

 Borges, of which the captain also was advised, without knowing 

 at what part they were going to break in, on account of which 

 there was prevalent in the city a_general fear, and so public, 

 that the captain and fidalgos whom it did not infect had 

 more trouble in seeking to remove it than in defending the 

 fortress against Raju, showing themselves very cheerful and 

 light-hearted in this business : because the greater part seeing 

 the little store that they set on it thought that the danger was 

 not so great as they had conceived from the rumour that had 

 spread through the city. The captain made it all his care and 

 exerted all his abilities to discover the direction that those 

 mines must take, in order to see if he could remedy the evil 

 that was feared from them ; but he could arrive at nothing, 

 because on all sides they were entirely closed in, so that, not to 

 speak of going outside the gates, they could not aim from the 

 loopholes, but they were immediately struck by the enemy's 

 harquebusery, a thing that had put them in great anxiety. 

 Thome de Sousa de Arronches, upon whom during the whole 

 course of the time there devolved, as we have said, equal 

 obligations, as captain-major of the fleet under Z his charge, 

 was in no wise negligent, working, watching, counselling, 

 arranging many very important matters, going the round of 

 the posts and walls with much diligence. And going one day 

 along the wall that runs from the watch-tower of Manoel 

 Borges to the bastion of Sao Sebastiao, which was of mud, a 

 part that they feared for most , on arriving at a place in which 

 he descried an aperture 1 , he saw a hole, of those that remained 

 from the timbers of the mud- wall, which it would seem that 

 God had discovered to him for that purpose ; and putting his 



1 The word in the original is agulheiro, which means a peep-hole or 

 air-hole. It is difficult to follow Couto's meaning here; but 1 think 

 only one hole is meant, though two seem to be spoken of. 



