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



[Vol. XX. 



Portuguese army climbed the pass and assailed Balane, where 

 Vimaladaham Surya had once more fortified himself. After 

 several unsuccessful attempts the invaders managed to cap- 

 ture the position, Vimaladaham retiring on Kandy. The 

 Portuguese do not seem to have pushed on thither 1 , but en- 

 camped at Danture 2 , some miles distant therefrom, probably 

 in order to rest and prepare for an assault on the royal city. 

 Taking advantage of this delay, Vimaladaham resolved to 

 carry into execution a scheme, which, if successful, would 

 rid him of a formidable enemy and render easy the defeat of 

 the Portuguese forces. To this end he allowed to fall into 

 the hands of the Portuguese a letter purporting to be from 

 Jayavira Bandara to him, in which the writer offered to 

 betray his allies to the Kandyan king. This plot succeeded 

 only too well : Jayavira was put to death by the infuriated 

 Portuguese 3 ; and, as a natural result, his soldiers deserted 

 in a body to Vimaladaham Surya. With this augmented 

 force the wily king fell upon the diminished army of Pero 

 Lopes, who when he attempted to retreat found the road 

 blocked in the usual Kandyan fashion by felled trees. He 

 and the rest of the Portuguese sold their lives dearly, and 

 not one seems to have escaped 4 , the few that survived 



1 Although most of the writers say that the Portuguese entered 

 Kandy, and made some stay there, I can find no confirmation of the 

 statement. The Rajdvaliya (98) says nothing of it. The curious 

 account given in Col. de Trat. i. 221-3, and with much greater detail 

 by Bald. (Ceylon iv.), seems to be fiction. 



2 Rajdvaliya 98. In the description of Danture in the C. P. Qaz. 

 (132-3) its connection with this event in Ceylon history is not men- 

 tioned. 



3 There is a consensus of testimony among the various writers as to 

 this incident, but they are divided as to the innocence or guilt of 

 Jayavira Bandara. That he had appropriated much of Raja Sinha's 



reasure is probable (see Arch. Port.-Or. iii. 617), as also that he aimed 

 at making himself an independent sovereign in the lowcountry ; but 

 hat he wished to marry Dona Catharina is at least doubtful. 



4 The writer of the document translated in M. Lit. Reg. iv. 210-4 

 says that with Pero Lopes perished " seven hundred Portuguese, 

 the best that were then in India." (This was written only fifteen 

 years after the disaster.) Strangely enough the Vida de M. de Alb. 

 gives no details of the reverse, simply saying that Pero Lopes " being 

 taken in an ambush was killed and defeated." 



