NO. 60. — 1908.] PORTUGUESE HISTORY OF CEYLON. 



407 



laid siege to the fort recently erected there by D. Jeronimo 

 de Azevedo. The latter appears to have been at the time in 

 the fortress ; and so close was the siege, that, threatened 

 with starvation, the captain-general and his troops were 

 , obliged to vacate the fortress and fight their way through the 

 enemy, who followed hard after them, harassing them and 

 killing and wounding many of their number, until at length, 

 having been succoured by land and sea by Thome de Sousa de 

 Arronches, the exhausted and greatly reduced Portuguese 

 force reached Columbo and gained safety within its hospitable 

 walls 1 . But shortly afterwards the redoubtable rebel leader 

 was captured at Uduvara by Dom Fernando Mudaliyar and 

 brought into Columbo, where, by order of the captain- 

 general, he was put to death and quartered 2 . The result of 

 this was the "pacification" (for a time) of the lowcountry 



1 Baldrcus (Ceylon vi.) is the only writer that mentions this 

 siege of Galle ; but it seems to be referred to in the royal letter of 13 

 January 1598 cited above (p. 406, note 3 ), which quotes from a letter of 

 Thome de Sousa's the details I have here given. It is strange that the 

 Rdjdvaliya is silent on the subject. Faria y Sousa, speaking presumably 

 of this affair, says (Asia Port. III. I. ix.) that Dom Jeronimo had but 

 four hundred men to resist the attack of twelve thousand Sinhalese. 

 He also records the horrible fate of a Franciscan father who was 

 wounded in the engagement. 



2 Faria y Sousa, u.s. (See also infra, p. 418.) Baldseus (u.s.) 

 says that Domingos Correa was put to death by the Portuguese " in 

 spite of promises and that so enraged was Vimaladaham at this act 

 of perfidy, that he caused a number of Portuguese prisoners to be 

 thrown before elephants, sending others horribly mutilated to Columbo 

 with the message that if the remaining Sinhalese prisoners were not set 

 at liberty he would accord a similar treatment to the rest of the Portu- 

 guese in his hands. The Dutch writer adds, that so infuriated were 

 the soldiers in Columbo at the sight of their mutilated comrades that 

 they attempted to kill Dom Jeronimo, who only escaped by taking 

 refuge in a monastery until the populace had calmed down. All this 

 may be true ; but I can find no confirmation of it. A royal letter of 

 15 January 1598, printed in Arch. Port.-Or. iii. (819), refers to the fact 

 of Domingos Correa's being " dead," but throws no light on the incidents 

 mentioned above. According to the Rdjdvaliya (99), " Dharmapala 



seized the famuy of Edirillerala [Domingos Correa], and having 



put the males to death took the 7omen and Edirillerala' s younger 

 brother and sent them to Goa." Regarding this last statement see 

 infra, p. 417, note *.) 



