No. 62.— 1909.] 



DUTCH EMBASSY. 



217 



On the following morning [23rd March], which was Sunday, 

 a letter was despatched to His Excellency, and leaving 

 Walgowwagoda at half -past eleven we reached Attapitiya at 

 five o'clock, which we left the following noon [24th], arriving 

 at Hettimulla in the evening. This we left the following 

 morning [25th] and reached Kebellaruppe in the afternoon, 

 and arrived at Ruwanella on the evening of the 26th. 



We left this town the following morning [27th] at seven 

 o'clock, and on the road met an Appuhami and two lascorins 

 who conveyed a letter to the Ambassador. After reading 

 this we reached Sitawaka at noon, where he informed 

 the chiefs that he had communicated to His Excellency the 

 result of his first audience with His Majesty. Whereupon 

 His Excellency had started the male and female elephants 

 belonging to the Company by the Puttalam road to Jaffna- 

 patam ; but on approaching Migamuwa they were stopped by 

 a message which was conveyed to the alpirsi* of Migamuwa 

 by Subasinha Arachchila, Mahalle Arachchila, and a lascorin 

 from a Korala and four Appuhamis who were guarding His 

 Majesty's frontier on the other bank of the river of Topputurai. j 

 They declared that as they had received no instructions 

 from the Maha Wasala they were unable to allow the animals 

 to cross the river. The Governor, therefore, requested the 

 Ambassador if he were still at the capital to strongly repre- 

 sent to the Maha Adigar the indignity which had been placed 

 by these men on the Great Company and to demand permission 

 for the immediate despatch of the elephants. This he said 

 was the purport of the letter he had received from His 

 Excellency. But should he have already taken his departure 

 His Excellency was sending a letter addressed to the Maha 

 Adigar to be forwarded to him with beat of drum, so that he 

 might submit to His Majesty this matter which was such an 

 unwonted breach of his honour ; for the action of these men 

 was directly in opposition to the permission which had been 



* Port. Alferes, an ensign. 



f Before 1766 Pitigal Korale was in the hands of the King and under 

 the Disava of the Seven Korales. After that date the portion which 

 remained to Kandy still had a separate Rate Lekam. — H. W. C. 



