No. 61. — 1908.] PORTUGUESE IN CEYLON. 



93 



Cochin was invited to visit Ceylon so as to encourage the 

 soldiers and to see that the natives were treated with justice 

 and clemency. 



But the Indian authorities were lukewarm ; the troops 

 despatched in six ships from Malabar by Martin Affonso 

 de Mello mutinied, and the expedition had to be aban- 

 doned ; and for many years nothing more appears to 

 have been done than to organize two raids every year within 

 the Sinhalese territory. They were not much more than 

 predatory incursions, maintained with the reckless courage 

 and ferocity which characterized the warfare of the Portuguese 

 in Ceylon, emphasized by the compelling force of sheer want. 

 Moreover, Don Hieronymo soon fell out with Samarakon 

 Rala, who was sent in chains to Goa. The aggrieved 

 nobleman petitioned the king for redress, and a secret 

 inquiry was immediatley ordered, and strict instructions 

 given that he and his family should be treated with every 

 consideration and all their wants amply provided for. The 

 distinguished prisoner was assured of the king's full recognition 

 of his great services, but it was not considered expedient to 

 send him back to Ceylon so long as the general was in power. 

 Samarakon was in a short time appointed captain of Goa, and 

 in 1613, as the result of the inquiry which had been ordered, 

 the king placed on record in eulogistic terms a further 

 expression of his appreciation, and in view of his services and 

 high birth granted him for life an annual allowance of three 

 thousand cruzados out of the revenues of Ceylon, with the 

 captaincy of Chaul ; one-half of this allowance was assured to 

 his widow and children, but all subject to the condition that 

 he would not return to the Island.* His brother, Don Diogo 

 Mudaliyar, however, was kept a state prisoner in Portugual; 

 in 1612 he applied for permission to return to his country to 

 rescue the treasure which he had inherited from his ancestors 

 and his deceased wife, and which he had left sunk in a river ; 

 he also promised to indicate the place where a large stock 

 of artillery and copper had been buried by him, offering a 

 share of them to the king. The application was sternly 



* There is reason to believe that Samarakon died shortly after, in a 

 sea fight in the southern seas. 



