NO. 42.— 1891.] SIEGE OP COLOMBO. 



75 



Dutch, as he says, "word for word." In the German edition 

 of Baldaeus this narrative is inserted after chapter XXXIX., 

 and in the English translation (which was made from the 

 German version) the same order is followed. This account, 

 which is, perhaps, the most graphic of all the four, was, as 

 stated at the end, compiled from the official diary and from 

 other reliable written and verbal sources for presentation to 

 the King of Portugal. Baldseus has added to the value and 

 interest of the narrative by inserting a plan of Colombo show- 

 ing the positions occupied by the besieging force. The fourth 

 account of the siege of Colombo is by Captain Joao Ribeiro, 

 and is contained in chapters XXIII. -XXV. of Book II. of 

 his Fatalidade Historica da Ilha de Ceilao. This interesting 

 narration has never been translated, for the version by Le 

 Grand, which Lee translated into English, is simply a 

 travesty of Ribeiro's account. As I have shown in my 

 Paper on Ribeiro and Le Grand, printed in this Society's 

 Journal (No. 36, vol. X., 1888), the copyist from whose 

 manuscript Le Grand translated compressed the three chapters 

 into one, and thereby made utter nonsense of a large part of 

 the narrative.* I have therefore translated Ribeiro's account 

 of the siege and the subsequent rendition of Colombo by 

 the Portuguese, as given in the printed edition of 1836, 

 published by the Lisbon Academia Real das Sciencias. The 

 style is not polished ; but then it must be remembered that 

 the writer was a soldier, who, as he reminds the king in his 

 dedicatory epistle, was more accustomed to the sword than 

 to the pen. I have therefore made the translation as literal 

 as possible. In order that the condition of Colombo at the 

 time of its siege may be better understood, I here translate 

 Ribeiro's description of the city, as given in chapter XII. 

 of Book I. of his work : — 



"Columbo, from being a small stockade (tranqueira) 

 formed of wood, came to be a fine city, fortified with twelve 



* This can be seen by omitting the portions of the following trans- 

 lation which are enclosed within thick brackets, and reading what remains 

 as a connected narrative. 



