No. 55. — 1904.] RAJA SINK A II. AND THE DUTCH. 231 
On April 1 the disavas of Uva and the Four Korales 
with a body of one hundred lascarins brought a letter^^^ to 
Hulft from the King, acknowledging one from the General 
of March 24, and inviting him to come to his camp as 
soon as possible. Accordingly, on April 5 Hulft set out 
with an imposing retinue, and was received with every 
honour by some of the King's chiefs, and lodged in a house 
prepared for his reception on the south bank of the Kelani.^^^ 
Owing, however, to a sudden illness Raja Sinha had to defer 
his reception ; and on the 7th Hulft wrote to the King that 
if he could not see His Majesty he must beg leave to return 
to the camp before Colombo. Next day a reply came from 
the King (written in the night of the 7th), regretting the 
delay that the General had had to suflEer, and telling him to 
prepare for a reception on that day (the 8th) .^^^ 
A full description of the reception will be found in 
Baldaeus.^^^ On the 9th Hulft returned to Colombo, and on 
the 10th in the evening the General was mortally wounded 
by a stray Portuguese bullet while he was examining the 
siege works.^^^ A letter was sent the same night to Raja 
Si^ha to apprise him of the death of the General ; and the 
King sent hisadigar the Disava of Matale to view the corpse. 
On the 15th Adriaan van der Meyden, who had succeeded 
Hulft in the supreme command, received aletter^^^ from the 
King, dated the same day, in which His Majesty expressed his 
sorrow at the death of Hulft, and requested Van der Meyden, 
as his successor, to appear before him in order to receive 
tokens of the royal favour. 
On April 19 Governor van der Meyden received from 
the King a letter,^^^ dated the 18th, in which inter alia His 
Majesty referred with satisfaction to the dispersal by the 
Dutch oflE Quilon of the Portuguese fleet sent by the Viceroy 
from Goa for the relief of Colombo,^^^ and ventured the 
opinion that Manoel Mascarenhas Homem, who was then 
acting at the helm of State in India, had, out of revenge for 
the treatment he had received in Colombo when Governor, 
