No. 61,-1908.] 



PROCEEDINGS. 



115 



never came across any Portuguese document which referred to 

 the sale of titles. But here they had it from authentic documents 

 that the people were assuming the title "Dom " when they were 

 not entitled to it. It was the same with the terms " Appu " and 



Appuhamy ," used in the present day by people who were not en- 

 titled to use them. As for Samarakon, the Documentos Remittidos 

 state that at the fort of Matara the commander was known 

 among the Portuguese as Dom Fernando, and among the natives 

 as Samarakon. The Rdjdvaliya also makes reference to him. 



As to why the Portuguese language has survived so long in 

 Ceylon, that was to a very large extent due to the early policy of 

 the Portuguese. When they came out they meant to colonize, to 

 settle down, and found families. They had the Portuguese marry- 

 ing Sinhalese wives, and even princely and noble Sinhalese, like 

 the " Prince of Ceylon " and Dom Constantinu Mudaliyar, had 

 Portuguese wives. Intermarriage was much more frequent 

 among the lower classes, and Portuguese became the fashionable 

 language, even Raja Sinha II. employing it in his official corre- 

 spondence. With the Dutch it was different : intermarriage was 

 no part of their policy, and their language was never spoken in 

 Sinhalese homes. And when with the loss of their power Dutch 

 ceased to be the official language, their slaves remained, and 

 with them Portuguese language was employed, till it became 

 established as the household talk of the Dutch. 



With regard to Marallas as he understood it, it was only in case 

 of a man dying without male issue that all his property escheated 

 to the Crown. 



13. His Excellency the Governor : Ladies and gentle- 

 men, it is now my pleasing duty to ask you all to give a hearty vote 

 of thanks to the learned lecturer for the very interesting Paper 

 read to us this evening. The Paper, as several gentlemen have 

 remarked to-night, shows the deepest research, and it will be a 

 most valuable addition to the records of the Asiatic Society. The 

 evening is getting late, and I will not touch upon the many points 

 he referred to, even if I were in a position to do so. But I wish 

 to point out that it is very interesting to me as a Scotsman to learn 

 that the Sinhalese, equally with the Scots, have never been con- 

 quered. No doubt the Portuguese have been in the same position. 

 The second point of interest to me, and of interest to my friend 

 sitting on my right (the Hon. Mr. John Ferguson), is that the 

 Sinhalese were able to offer a long resistance to the Portuguese 

 owing to their obtaining the opium they got, referred to in the 

 Paper read. Three hundred years ago some individual made a 

 great point of this trade, but difficulties were put in the way, 

 probably, as I have found in Sumatra, where arms and ammu- 

 nition were being introduced for the benefit of these people to 

 enable a war to be prolonged, just as opium was introduced to 

 keep the Sinhalese fighting. 



Mr. Pieris is a gentleman who has taken the greatest interest 

 in this matter of the Portuguese in Ceylon, and I have enlisted 

 his sympathies for a small project I am starting, that of obtaining 



