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



specially urged the desirability of releasing .the fighting men 

 from subjection to the lords of the villages, and he had 

 recommended, that they should be allotted an amunam of 

 field and a garden each, and settled where possible in the 

 villages of the Portuguese. 



The revenues from the temple villages were estimated at 

 the annual sum of seventy thousand cruzados — a sum 

 amply sufficient for the maintenance of the entire Christian 

 establishment in the Island. Several of these villages had been 

 allotted to various bodies by the general without authority, 

 and accordingly the cancellation of these grants was ordered, 

 the income of all such villages being in future credited to 

 the general revenue. A claim was advanced by the 

 members of the order of St. Francisco to numerous 

 villages which had been granted to them by Don Joao 

 Pereapandar for the maintenance of their colleges and 

 seminaries and the support of their catechumens ; in spite 

 of the unfavourable attitude of the_vedor the king con- 

 sidered himself bound, as Don Joao's heir, to abide by the 

 grant made by the latter. As regards the various religious 

 orders in the country, a general rule was laid down that no 

 allowance was to be made to them without the special sanction 

 of the king, and those which were authorized were to 

 be paid from the revenues of the temple villages as soon as 

 they were available. In 1613 the Dominicans were granted 

 for two years the same allowance as had been already given 

 to the Augustinians ; an appreciation was placed on record 

 of the services rendered by the Franciscans, whose work had 

 suffered considerably from the disasters of 1603, and they 

 were to be remembered in the distribution of the temple 

 villages. Sixteen villages in the Three Korales belonging to 

 the gahara* had been granted to the Society of Jesus without 

 permission, and in 1615 this grant was ordered to be cancelled, 

 and the society assigned the same allowance as the other 

 orders. It was, however, found that it was already amply 

 provided for in other ways : it held sixty-two villages of the 

 pagoda of Municerao,f yielding over five hundred parddos 



* Gabadawa. 



f Munnessarapi. 



