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



[Vol. XX. 



and withdrew leaving many dead and burnt at the foot of the 

 bastions and posts. Rajii was greatly exasperated at this, 

 and determined to batter the fortress, and to knock down 

 all the walls, for which purpose he commanded to be brought 

 many pieces of bronze artillery and some that threw balls of cast 

 iron of forty-four pounds weight ; and levelling them against 

 the bastions of Sao Goncalo and Sao Miguel, he commenced 

 to batter them for three days continuously, without doing 

 more than knocking to pieces the roof of the bastion of Sao 

 Goncalo. This uproar created fear in the miserable folk, who 

 had never seen another such earthquake. 



This last day of the battering was on the 15th of January, and 

 until the 27th he made preparations for delivering another 

 general assault, into which he determined to put all his 

 strength : and so on that day in the daylight watch he com- 

 manded to attempt 1 the bastions of Sao Gonsalo and Sao 

 Miguel from the direction of Mapano, and the rest from other 

 directions. This onset was one of great determination, and 

 accompanied by such great reverberations, shouts, and, 

 screams of the elephants, that it seemed as if the world were 

 being dissolved. The captains of the posts on hearing the 

 noise at once took their arms in their hands and prepared to 

 receive the enemy. The elephants came to the walls of the 

 bastion of Sao Gonsalo, which were of mud, and threw their 

 trunks upon them to pull them down ; but our people cast 

 upon them so much fire that they made them withdraw. On 

 the bastion of Sao Sebastiao the attack was greater, because 

 it was taken in hand by the captain of the atapata or king's 

 guard, with all the troops under his command, who were 

 picked men, and with Raju's banners. Here the trouble was 

 great, because our lascarins on seeing near the bastion those 

 banners and devices immediately lost heart and began to 

 retire. At that moment there arrived there Nuno Alvres 

 Datouguia with his soldiers ; and seeing the strait in which 

 that bastion was, he threw himself into it and secured it, 

 fighting with great valour and encouraging all to do the same. 

 The captain of the fortress had the captains of the rounds 

 distributed throughout all parts in order to advise him of 

 what happened ; and for everything of which he was advised 

 he at once provided with much care. Bernardim de Carvalho 

 and Joao Caiado de Gamboa with all the fidalgos and captains 

 that were with them assisted in their positions those that held 

 them, and the others wherever they thought there was the 

 greatest need. In the bastion of Sao Gonsalo fighting went on 

 very vigorously, because upon it fell the weight of the enemy 



1 The manuscript, by the copyist's carelessness, omits a line here. 



