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



95 



pepper, and a considerable profit was obtained from the collec- 

 tion of precious stones, the work being confined to specially 

 authorized persons. Twelve tusked elephants, worth fifty 

 thousand parddos, were captured each year, while the customs 

 duties yielded a fair revenue. 



The last twenty years of warfare — sixteen of them under 

 Don Hieronymo and the rest under Pedro Homem Pereira, and 

 after him Pedro Lopes de Sousa — had cost the Portuguese 

 twelve thousand lives and half a million cruzados of treasure, 

 but the end appeared as far off as ever. One of the chief 

 reasons for this was the excessive harshness displayed towards 

 the natives, as the officials who governed them had almost abso- 

 lute power ; they were in addition ground down by oppressive 

 taxation and laws of terrible severity. The policy of 

 destroying their temples before the people were pacified and 

 rendered familiar with foreign rule was greatly to be depre- 

 cated. The Portuguese soldiers were few in number and the 

 scanty forts insufficiently garrisoned, while the continuance of 

 hostilities served the private interests of the commanders of 

 the native troops, whose authority and opportunities for 

 peculation would be terminated with the war. Natives who 

 had no right to do so were permitted to assume the titles of 

 king, prince, and mudaliyar, and thus obtained an undesir- 

 able influence over their countrymen, who were only too ready 

 to rise in revolt at the bidding of every renegade. The success 

 of any one officer in war only served to arouse intense jealousy 

 among his fellows ; that was what influenced the conduct of 

 Pedro Lopes de Sousa towards Pedro Homem Pereira, and 

 subsequently the latter would not assist the former, which 

 led to his annihilation with seven hundred of the finest Portu- 

 guese troops. Recently the viceroys had shown themselves 

 markedly indifferent to keeping the general properly supplied 

 with men and money ; and the condition of the soldiers, with- 

 out pay, and with clothes which were hardly superior to raw 

 hides, was pitiable in the extreme. In spite of the repeated 

 and urgent instructions of the king, the fortifications of Colombo 

 were entirely neglected : there were no bastions, and the few 

 ramparts of taipa and palm trees were in such a ruinous 

 condition that cattle could made their way over them. There 



