No. 55.— 1904.] RAJA SINHA II. AND THE DUTCH. 175 
and presents to the Governor-General and Council of the 
Indies. Some cinnamon, wax, and pepper was also conveyed 
by the vessels to Batavia and Palikat.^^ 
On August 12 Coster, impatient at hearing nothing from 
Raja Sinha, who had returned to Kandy and was occupied 
in engagements with the Portuguese in the vicinity of 
Colombo, left Batticaloa and reached the royal court near 
Kandy on the 27th, obtaining from the King verbal and 
written permission for free trade between the natives and 
the Dutch and a promise of further supplies of cinnamon, 
wax, and pepper.^^ 
On August 11 the Council at Batavia wrote to Coster a 
long letter informing him of the departure for Goa of 
Antonio Caen with a fleet of twelve ships, and stating 
that they had appointed Jacob van Compostel to succeed 
Coster provisionally on the latter's departure from Ceylon, 
for which permission was granted. At the* same time that 
the above letter was dispatched the Sinhalese envoys left 
Batavia bearing a reply''^ from the Governor-General and 
Council to Raja Sinha's letter. This reply expressed satis- 
faction at the capture of Batticaloa, and announced the 
Council's confirmation of the treaty made by Admiral 
Westerwold with the King ; the writers also took care to 
impress on their royal ally that they wanted a good quantity 
of good cinnamon, wax, pepper, <fcc., and concluded with a 
request that the King would present the Governor of Palikat 
with "two beautiful tame elephants as a pledge of our 
acknowledged services and special friendship." The am- 
bassadors arrived at Batticaloa on October 29 by a chaloupe 
from Palikat, which also brought Jacob van Compostel to 
relieve Coster .^2 On April 18, 1639, a fleet of twelve Dutch 
ships, manned by 980 sailors and 335 soldiers and armed with 
364 cannon, under the command of Admiral Antonio Caen^ 
with Coster as Vice-A.dmiral, arrived from Goa in the bay of 
Kottiyar,^^ and measures were at once set afoot for the 
reduction of the Portuguese fort of Trincomalee, the small 
garrison of which, after a short but ineflEectual resistance, 
D 66-04 
