422 



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



Dec. XII., Bk. i., Chap. xiv. 

 Of another great victory that our people gained in Ceildo. 



These victories having been gained over this tyrant, Bom 

 Jeronimo d'Azevedo ordered the arrayal to withdraw to the 

 fort of Batugedere 1 , on the frontiers of pinavaca, of which 

 there went as head Salvador Pereira, and with him Simao 

 Pinhao, in order to carry on in those parts all the war they 

 could against the tyrant, both in the Seven and in the Four 

 Corlas, where the enemy likewise sought to make war so 

 as to divert the captain-general from that which our people 

 were waging in the parts of Mature, where there remained 

 sufficient troops for that purpose, considering that the parts 

 in which the general had ordered this war to be waged were 



Furtado five hundred Portuguese soldiers in addition to those that were 

 there, and of men of the Christian topazes of the country [orig. has 

 serra, " mountain region," probably an error for turret] as many as could 

 be got, and all the money possible, although all was less than what 

 Andre Furtado asked for, but much more than what Dom Jeronimo 

 proposed for continuing the conquest ; and that all the persons of 

 importance and expsrience of that island told you that it was not 

 expedient to make great assaults and with many men by land because 

 of its being mountainous and unsuitable to a regular army, but rather 

 that it was better counsel to prosecute the conquest with continual 

 and prolonged warfare, seizing on opportunities as they came of their 

 own accord, and thus wearying and breaking the spirits of the Chingalas, 

 and that by this means with little risk and with ease that island could 

 be subjected : and," continues the king, " I thank you much for what 

 you have done in this matter, and for the considerations and discussions 

 of this procedure of yours therein, which once more I strongly commend 

 to you, referring to all that I have expressly commanded you in regard 

 to this as I have reminded you above ; and because of the good successes 

 that Dom Jeronimo d'Azevedo has had in this conquest, the experience 

 that he has of it, and the good manner in which he has served therein, 

 and in the other things with which he was incharged, I consider it to 

 my service that he go on continuing in the same enterprise, and that if 

 Andre Furtado have not gone thither you let Dom Jeronimo remain 

 th re, and that you send him the necessary men and provisions con- 

 formably to what he asked you for, and if Andre Furtado have departed 

 you do the same with him, and that ycu x old Dom Jeronimo in the 

 esteem that by his services he merits." Why Andre Furtado was not 

 sent to Ceylon does not appear : Couto does not mention him in this 

 Decade until September 1599, when he records his election as captain- 

 major of the Malabar armada. As regards the supply sent to Ceylon 

 at this time see supra, XII. i. vii. (p. 416), and infra, XII. n'. i. (p. 428). 



1 Gf. p. 413 supra. The " fort " here spoken of is evidently the 

 ' ' tranqueira " mentioned there. 



