348 



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



[Vol. XX. 



people dared to console him in any way : of nothing else did 

 he think but of how he would avenge himself of such an 

 affront ; and the devil, who in these matters is always ready, 

 and is never wanting in new wiles for evils, suggested to him 

 one that, if it had taken effect, would have placed that for- 

 tress in the last extremity ; and it was this. 



Raju knowing that the captain had sent to the coast of 

 Negapatao to seek provisions, and that thence Manar and 

 Columbo were provided whenever it was necessary, and that 

 at all seasons provisions could come to them thence, dispatched 

 men on an errand with money and letters to the naiques and 

 lords of that coast, in which he persuaded them that since they 

 were heathens like himself 1 they should wish to aid him in 

 that war against the Portuguese , and should come to his help 

 for the honour of their idols ; and that at present he did not 

 desire of them more than that they should not consent to any 

 provisions' leaving their ports, and that all that there was 

 they should sell to him at a higher price than that for which 

 the Portuguese bought them, and that for that purpose he 

 sent them much monej^ : and some of them agreed to these 

 conditions and bound themselves to sell him all the rice from 

 their ports at a certain price , and others dissembled. Of this 

 the captain Joao Correa was soon advised : and this was a 

 matter that caused him more anxiety than all others, because in 

 that way they could reduce him to desperation, since no human 

 power could endure a war against famine ; but nevertheless he 

 kept it secret, and so both in order not to cause fear to his men, 

 and that those who had rice should not keep it locked up in 

 such fashion that the poor wretches would come to perish, 

 he ordered to buy all that could be had by other hands, and 

 buried it in the storehouses in order to provide the people 

 therewith until the provision ship should arrive from India, 

 for which they looked hourly, as they knew that it had to 

 leave by the end of September at the latest 2 . 



Raju did not quiet down from the hate and rage in which 

 he was, which was such, that although seeing the great 

 caution that was observed in the fortress with regard to fugi- 

 tives , and that all that he had sent with wiles were captured and 

 tortured, not even on that account did he forbear to send a 

 famous sorcerer who offered himself to him to bewitch the 

 artillery and the captains of the posts. This man also went 

 to attempt this business in the guise of a fugitive lascarim : 

 but as the devil is by nature the revealer of the evils that he 

 plans, this man on reaching the fortress immediately at the 



1 Raja Siiiha was a pervert to Hinduism (see Mahav. xciii.). 



2 See supra , p. 334, note 3 , and p. 343. 



