NO. 42.— 1891.] SIEGE OF COLOMBO. 



77 



said lake every day two quintals were manufactured.* 

 Thence runs a brook, which traverses the city in the midst, 

 with two bridges for its traffic ; thus the wall runs down 

 skirting the lake, until it ends at the bastion of S. Hieronimo, 

 where it terminates, in the middle of this portion being the 

 bastion of Madre de Deos.f Beyond is the gate,which is called 

 da Bainha [the Queen's], and the bastion of S. Sebastiao, 

 at the root of which commences the ditch, which extends 

 along the foot of the bastion of Santo Estevao, and ends at 

 the gate and bastion of S. Joao,J with another drawbridge, 

 which is where the city ends to the north, and from it a 

 strong stockade of sharp stakes along the shore to the sea. 

 From here the bay runs to where stands a handsome breast- 

 work (couraga) in front of the College of the Company [of 

 Jesuits]. Further on the bastion of the custom-house ; thus 

 the wall runsalong until it ends with the Santa Cruz breast- 

 work § {couraga). The portion of the city which is divided 

 from the part on the south by the brook that comes from the 

 powder-mill is the strongest thereof, by reason of a hill 

 that is in the midst, || where stood the convent of St. Augustine, 

 in the garden of which we had a large vaulted house built, 

 in which were stored one hundred and twenty large jars 

 of powder, in which it kept wonderfully, without need of 

 renewal. We had two other houses besides, not of so great 

 a size, but also vaulted : one in the house of St. Francis, the 

 other in that of the Capuchins, likewise filled with jars of 

 powder. There were in this city nine hundred families of 

 noble citizens, and more than one thousand five hundred 



* This powder-mill was erected by Constantino de Sa in 1625. The Dutch 

 continued the manufacture of gunpowder, but worked the mill by wind. 

 Saar in his narrative relates how he and a number of other Dutch pri- 

 soners were forced by the Portuguese to work in this mill. 



f This would seem to mean that the bastion of Madre de Deos was on 

 the lake-wall ; but as a fact this bastion was on the eastern wall, between 

 the bastions of S. Hieronimo and S. Sebastiao. Le Grand puts the bastion 

 of S. Hieronimo after Madre de Deos, the Porta da Rainha, and S. Sebastiao. 



J Lee turns these into the gate and bastion of St. Thomas. 



§ Le Grand translates couraga by " esplanade." 



|| Le Grand renders this : " and this place is not the least strong of the 

 southern part of the town," which entirely reverses Ribeiro's statement. 



