374 



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



[Vol. XX. 



the pagode. On account of the sumptuousness of the work, 

 and according to what passes from mouth to mouth among the 

 old people, they affirm it to have been made by the Chins 1 , 

 and that in that city there dwelt a Chim, who was lord of all 

 that coast on the further side, and thus the pagode is of the 

 fashion of the varellas of China, and because of it this city is 

 largely populated and frequented by strangers, wherefore our 

 people surmised it to be very rich. 



The captain-major embarked on the armada, and went 

 along the coast in order to go and attack it : and the same day 

 that he embarked there worked up a thunderstorm, which 

 broke accompanied by a cross wind, so furious that the ships 

 were well-nigh lost, and if it had lasted long (for it did not 

 exceed two hours) without doubt they could not have escaped. 

 The heathen lascarins who were embarked with the captain- 

 major in his ship, and some that served as spies, whilst the 

 tempest lasted set themselves to talk one with another, and 

 in such manner, that the captain-major observed them, and 

 asked what they were talking about, upon which a Christian 

 told him that those heathens were glad, because their pagode 

 had hastened to maintain his honour ; and that knowing that 

 the Portuguese were going to insult him, he had sent that 

 storm to chastise them. This superstition was a very ancient 

 one amongst them : for as that coast lies facing the cross wind 2 , 

 and the sea there is continually high, and some thunderstorms 

 work up, it happened sometimes when armadas of Portuguese 

 were going by there, that it was in conjunction with the 

 raging of these storms, upon which they withdrew from the 

 land and retired, wherefore that illusion remained of their 

 holding among themselves that the pagode arranged that, so 

 that the Portuguese armadas might not reach land : and this 

 was the cause of that city's being so populated, they thinking 

 that there they were secure from the assaults of our fleets. 

 Thome de Sousa, as soon as the Christian lascarins related 

 this to him, swore to destroy that pagode, in order to rid the 

 imagination of the heathens of that superstition 3 , so that they 

 might see how deceived they had been, and the little that their 

 idol could do : and so when the tempest was past, on the next 

 day in the morning he put in to land, and went ashore, giving 



1 The printed edition has k ' Cherins." Barros also (p. 33) gives 

 credence to this fable of a Chinese origin for Dondra. 



2 In place of " facing the cross wind " the manuscript has " to the 

 cross wind of the west." „ 



8 The manuscript here reads ; " por tirar aquella abusao da jura 

 grauissima dos gentios e imagina9ao "; but, as this does not seem to 

 make sense, I have followed the printed version. 



