\ 
^78 CEYLON. 
them as usurpers. The latter nation at length succeeded in theif 
attempts to obtain a monopoly of the commerce of the island ; but, 
in a war with the King of Candy in 1765, although they gained 
possession of his capital, they were obliged to make a treaty, by 
which they left him upon his throne, though reduced almost to a 
state of vassalage. Previously to this termination, in 1763, the 
English Government of Madras had sent Mr. Pybus on an embassy 
to the Candian King, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty of 
alliance, offensive and defensive; but as the English and Dutch 
were then at peace, nothing could be effected, and the only result 
was a degree of discredit to the English Government, for raising 
expectations which it had no means of fulfilling. 
In the year 178?, a British force having gained possession of the 
fort and harbour of Trincomalee, the government of Madras 
deputed Mr. Hugh Boyd to a second embassy to the court of 
Candy. Its reception was, upon the whole, favourable ; but the 
failure of the former negotiation was assigned by the King as a 
reason for refusing to enter into any treaty, the proposal for which 
did not come directly from his Britannic Majesty. The re-capture 
of the place by the French soon after, put an end to farther commu- 
nications on the subject. 
When the EngUsh in 1796 had made themselves masters of the 
whole sea-coast of Ceylon, embassadors were mutually sent between 
the King of Candy, and the Government of Madras ; and a treaty 
was drawn up, and signed by the latter, which, however, the former 
refused to ratify. The King dying in 1798, the chief Adigaar, or 
prime minister, Pelame Telawve, the representative of one of the 
noblest Cingalese families, and a man of equal ambition and artifice, 
