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



appointment of a special officer to inspect the fortifications 

 was authorized, and with a view to prevent the wanton 

 destruction of valuable timber, and especially of jak,* the 

 construction of vessels exceeding two hundred candies burthen 

 was prohibited, and the captains and vidanes were forbidden 

 to engage in any such work while holding office ; at the 

 same time a rule was passed that no forest timber was to be 

 felled without a license from the general. 



The hospital was supported by the alfandega revenue, 

 which was found to be insufficient. Considerable suffering was 

 entailed on the patients owing to over-crowding ; provision 

 was accordingly ordered to be made for its maintenance 

 from the general revenue till sufficient funds were available 

 for its support from the temple villages ; at the same time 

 the viceroy undertook to provide necessaries, such as 

 medicines, wheat, mattrasses, &c, from India. 



It frequently happened that criminals to avoid arrest 

 escaped into the country of the infidels, where they led 

 depraved lives, to the great danger of their souls. To amend 

 this scandal Galle was in 1610 declared a sanctuary ,f where 

 no offender could be arrested save for lese majeste, false 

 coining, and the murder of a sheriff or judge ; Colombo, which 

 had originally been so proclaimed in the time of Andre 

 Furtado de Mendonca, now ceased to be such, but the refugees 

 there were given a period within which to withdraw to Galle. 



The system in vogue in regard to the appointment of 

 vidanes did not meet with the approval of the king. These 

 officers had a considerable share in the administration 

 of justice ; in cases of breaches of the peace they were 

 in the habit of imposing a fine varying according to the 

 position of the offender and the gravity of the offence ; when 

 any one committed suicide through inability to avenge an 

 affront offered to him by another, the offending party was 

 liable to a fine at the discretion of the Mutiares and in 



* A matter which had given trouble since the earliest times ; vide 

 Proclamation of March 13, 1543 ; Ribeiro, p. 349. 



f I understand that the king's granary at Madampe near Pelmadulla 

 was such a sanctuary. 



