No. 55.— 1904.] RAJA SINHA II. AND THE DUTCH. 167 
records'^' will be exercised henceforth. When the history of 
Ceylon during the Dutch period comes to be written these 
documents will yield an immense amount of valuable 
material. 
Some or all of the letters under notice were examined in 
the year 1838 by Mr. George Lee, CCS. ; t for on the back of 
the letter of August 10, 1651, is written Examined, G.L., 
February 23, 1838," and " Principally Raja Singha's corres- 
pondence." The letters are in several handwritings, and vary 
considerably as regards caligraphic ornamentation ; while 
the ink, which in the earliest letter is jet black, is in several 
of the later ones of a yellow tint. All of the letters are 
subscribed with the royal sign-manual (g, and it will be 
noticed that in the superscriptions the titles adopted by the 
king are on a crescendo scale.J 
As the earliest letter of this series is by no means the first 
written to the Dutch by Raja Sinha, I have thought it well to 
take the accession of this monarch to the throne as the initial 
point in my Paper, and to give from other sources details 
necessary to the proper comprehension of the correspondence. 
I have made my translation as literal as possible, preferring to 
sacrifice elegance to accuracy. The tone of the letters, it will 
be noticed, varies exceedingly, being at times polite to excess, 
and at others blazing out into fierce anger. One cannot help 
sympathizing to some extent with the writer, though the 
wrongs he complains of were largely the consequence of 
his own double dealing. § It was a case of " diamond cut 
* The Portuguese records in Ceylon had disappeared by the beginning of 
the eighteenth century, what the rats and white-ants had spared being 
burnt by a vandal in the guise of a Dutch Secretary at the order of a 
soulless Dutch Governor (see Valentyn, Ceylon, pp. 174, 307, 348). 
t Apparently in connection with his " Report on the Pearl Fisheries of 
Ceylon " (see Cey. Lit. Meg., II., p. 180). 
X None of them however approaches in bombast the introduction to Raja 
Si^ha's first letter to the Dutch (see m/m). 
§ Raja Siigha's duplicity in his dealings with the Dutch is forcibly set 
forth by Mr. W. van G-eer in his Be Opkomst mn liet Nederlandsch Gezag 
over Ceilon^ a work of the utmost value, which badly needs translating into 
English, 
