344 



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



[Vol. XX. 



torture to which they were put there occurred an astonish- 

 ing 1 incident which we shall relate, in order to show the 

 strength that the devil has put into words to deceive these 

 accursed ones ; and the affair was this. Whilst the officers 

 were putting one of them to the torture 2 there, in the 

 questionings one of them uttered certain words, which must 

 have been spoken by the mouth of the devil, because no person 

 understood them ; and upon his uttering them at once f our 

 of those that were near by 3 began suddenly to vomit with 

 retchings and 4 death-like symptoms, the which lasted twenty- 

 four hours ; and when these were past they recovered their 

 senses. 



Of this Raju was also informed, whereat he was extremely 

 annoyed, as he had been certain that the captain would not be 

 able to escape ; and these things were for him greater torments 

 and 5 tortures than those to which they put his people : and 

 in his rage he caused to be assembled in his ports all the 

 ships that he had, and commanded them to be armed and 

 furnished with the best artillery and men that he had, and 

 fitted out eighteen beaked ships, four calemutes Q , and 

 eighteen large tones, and incharged this expedition to the 

 modeliares in whom he had most confidence, ordering them to 

 go and fight with the armada of the fortress, and endeavour to 

 capture the galley. This armada appeared in sight of the 

 fortress on the 4th of the month of October, the day of the 

 seraphic father St. Francis, and came forth from the direction 

 of Matual divided into three squadrons : on the right 7 came 

 six ships and four calemutes, on the left the eighteen tones, and 

 in the middle 8 the captain-major with twelve ships, the best 

 and most fully fitted ; and all that was seen in this armada was 

 men with whom all the ships were packed, with arms that 

 glittered in every part, instruments that resounded, and 



1 The printed edition omits this word. 



2 Faria y Sousa (u.s.) has " garotte " (garrote). 



3 By these Faria y Sousa understands the executioners : the reference 

 may, however, be to some of the prisoners. 



4 The printed edition omits these two words. It is noteworthy that 

 Faria y Sousa (u.s.) has the identical word (vascas) omitted by the 

 printed edition. He says that the executioners were left " struggling 

 with rabious retchings [rabiosas vascas] for the space of 24 hours." 

 Stevens translates the expression " convulsions." 



5 The manuscript omits these two words. 



6 See supra, p 320, note 3 . 



7 The manuscript has erroneously " in front." 



p These three words are omitted in the printed edition. 



