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JOURNAL, H.A.S. (CEYLON) 



[Vol. XX. 



that building, which he incharged on Salvador Pereira da 

 Sylva, who set out with a large body of lascarins, and as many 

 Portuguese soldiers as could be mustered ; and one league 

 before reaching the fort of Manicravare, in September past 

 of 1598, he pitched his camp, in which he remained several 

 days, during which were collected the things necessary for the 

 work that he was going to do, so as to do everything on the 

 same day that he arrived : because he suspected that the 

 tyrant designed to surprise our men the night they arrived, 

 before they had made themselves secure , in order to impede that 

 work, which would remain a source of great injury and pre- 

 judice to him, through their closing by means of it the gates 

 of the kingdom of Candea, where he would be penned in. The 

 materials having been collected, our people set out for the spot 

 where the fortress was to be made ; and on reaching it they 

 at once fortified themselves ; and when the following night 

 came, in which the enemy had determined to assault them, 

 there was already made a defensible fortress of wood, and our 

 people within it very safe, and the enemy frustrated in their 

 design without daring to make a move. ~_ 



Our people at once took in hand the work of the fortress of 

 stone , on which they spent the space of four months with great 

 cost and labour ; and having this, they did not fail to make 

 some incursions into the tyrant's territories, from which they 

 always returned victorious. 



The tyrant seeing that he could not hinder that work deter- 

 mined to divert the general, to which end he proceeded with 

 his army to the frontiers of Dinavaca, where he began to 

 make war vigorously upon those territories that were ours ; 

 upon which the general hastened thither with another army 

 which he formed of soldiers whom he took from the posts that 

 they had in various parts, leaving them always with guards, 

 of which he sent as captain Salvador Pereira da Sylva, to 

 withstand the enemy, which he did, having with them several 

 encounters, in which he defeated them. 



The fortress of Manicravare was continued until it was 

 entirely finished, with its walls, bastions, and a tower in the 

 middle of two stories, a work so well finished and strong, that 

 it was held as inexpugnable throughout the whole island ; 

 and to it the general himself proceeded with the rest of the 

 army at the beginning of the past January of 1599, and there 

 made preparations for sending to invade the Corlas. 



The tyrant soon learnt of this : and seeing how important 

 it was for him to maintain those Corlas, both the Four and the 

 Seven, because if they were lost the kingdom of Candea 

 would become open, exposed, and diminished in its strength, 

 he proceeded to those parts with his whole force, and that of 



