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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON), [VOL. XX. 



of saltpetre and cables and cordage, to all of which they set 

 fire in order that they might not benefit the enemy. 



Here they remained several days, during which they deli- 

 vered some assaults on the neighbouring villages, to which 

 they did great damage : and having done this, they proceeded 

 to the river of Melipu 1 , which was further on, in which they 

 disembarked, and captured a tranqueira 2 , and set fire to the 

 villag) 3 , which was entirely abandoned to them, And as the 

 city of Mature, which was half a league up the river, was very 

 prosperous in merchants and goods 4 , he thought to give the 



1 The manuscript has "Miliseu," and the printed edition "Meliseu," 

 which I have altered to " Melipu," the name by which, in Portuguese 

 and Dutch times, the Nilwala-gaiiga seems to have been known (see 

 Val. Ceylon 33, 36 ; C. Lit. Reg. v. 116). The origin of this name I do 

 not know : perhaps it is Sinh, mili (black, dark, or dark blue) + upul 

 (lotus), or nilipul (blue lotus). 



2 Tennent, in his well-known work on Ceylon, has, when dealing 

 with the Portuguese period, committed many gross errors, owing to 

 his ignorance of the Portuguese language. One of the worst of these 

 occurs in his remarks on this passage in Couto. He says {Ceylon ii. 434) : 

 — " They [the ''Malabar " invaders] do not appear to have molested or 

 wantonly destroyed the village tanks ; (in fact, the only recorded in- 

 stance of the deliberate destruction of works for irrigation was by the 

 Portuguese in the sixteenth century) ; " to substantiate which asser- 

 tion he appends the following footnote : — " This event took place dur- 

 ing the siege of Colombo by Raja Singha II. [sic], a.d. 1587 [sic], when 

 Thome de Sousa d'Arronches was dispatched to make a diversion by 

 ravaging the southern coast of Ceylon. De Couto recounts, amongst 

 other atrocities then perpetrated, that after sacking the town of Belle- 

 gam, a party was sent [sic] to a river which he calls the Meliseu, where 

 they halted [sic] and destroyed the water-courses for irrigating the rice- 

 lands [! ! !], ' no qual desembarcaram e tomaram huma tranqueira.' 

 Asia, dec. x., ch. xv., vol. vi., pt. 2, p. 652 ; Faria y Souza [sic], Portu- 

 guese [sic] Asia, vol. iii., p. 53." The statement in italics, I may say, is 

 so printed in the fifth edition of Tennent' s book, the earlier editions 

 having " and destroyed the tank ;" and the quotation of Couto's ipsis- 

 sima verba only makes Tennent's statement more ridiculous. The cita- 

 tion in evidence of Faria y Sousa (the reference is in reality to Stevens's 

 translation) is a piece of carelessness or of dishonesty, since that writer 

 says absolutely nothing of the incident. 



3 This village I cannot identify. 



4 Matara does not seem to be mentioned in the Mahavansa. The 

 earliest reference in the Rdjdvaliya is apparently that on p. 83 detailing 

 events of the year 1555 ; and on p. 86 of the same history we read of 

 " strong fortresses " being built (circa 1558) by the Portuguese and 

 Dharmapala's forces in the " Matara district." These must have been 

 abandoned soon afterwards. 



