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



which he was not the first, and of many he was the author, 

 all with good success, it being he who led the attack £jby 

 the three hundred who gained an entrance by the lake in 

 the first assault,] and he who destroyed the battery 38 £at 

 the Porta da Rainha : with confidence I say that the company 

 may be proud of such a soldier, and the soldiers of such a 

 captain. By 9 o'clock at night we no longer had sufficient 

 troops to drive them back, and if they had returned to attack 

 us in the street without doubt they would with little trouble 

 have killed the few that remained. 



That night they brought a large quantity of fascines and 

 earth, with which they formed breastworks before the city, 

 and by morning they already had their artillery in position, 

 which being seen by us, a council was called in order to 

 determine thereat what was to be done in the state and 

 circumstances in which we found ourselves : at this there 

 were some votes, that the few women and children that 

 there were should betake themselves into a church, and that 

 fire should be put to it, and in like manner to the whole city, 

 and that the few who remained should die sword in hand in 

 the midst of the enemy, in order that there should be no 

 trace left of the people of that city, and that they should not 

 be able to boast as conquerors. The Superiors of the Religious 

 Bodies took part in that assembly, and put a stop to such a 

 proposition, saying that it would be a heathenish and 

 entirely barbarous act, condemned by divine and human 

 laws ; that we had to reconcile ourselves to what God dis- 

 posed, without seeking to oppose his divine decrees ; that 

 supposing His Majesty had strongly recommended the defence 

 of that Island, he would have to call his Ministers to account 

 for not having during all that time sent any succour. On 

 these arguments, and with some tears, all agreed, that seeing 

 that we had no other remedy, a parley should be held with 

 the enemy, and that we should send and treat for honourable 

 terms : on the 9th of the same month this was carried out, 

 and until commissaries were appointed we continued 

 fighting. They permitted that all the men of war should 



