CEYLON. 
^81 
conference ended. Very handsome presents were made him on 
taking leave. 
The purpose of the Adigaar at this interview was evidently to 
sound the Governor, and prepare the way for a personal corres- 
pondence, in which he might gradually bring him to concur in the 
dark and ambitious projects that were ripening in his mind. There 
might be truth in the suspicions he entertained of the influence of 
the Malabars over the mind of the young King, whose weakness 
would naturally incline him to favouritism, and who must have 
felt that he was a mere pageant of power, under the prime minister 
who had seated him on the throne. 
The next conference between the Governor and the chief Adi- 
gaar was held in January 1800, at Sittavacca, on the border of the 
two territories. The Adigaar opened it by complaining, that he 
was sick in body and mind, and that the King was beginning to 
give his confidence to the Malabars ; on which Mr. North remarked, 
that the power which placed him on the throne might prevent such 
a change in his counsels. The Adigaar persisted in representing 
the King as ill-disposed; and then explicitly expressed his wish, 
that the English would take possession of the Candian territory 
and place him, the Adigaar, at the head of it. The Governor re- 
plied, that he could not think of taking possession of a country to 
which the English had no claim, or of dethroning a prince, against 
whom he had no complaint ; but that he would willingly under- 
take the protection of the King and country of Candy, in the name 
of his Britannic Majesty, and would immediately send troops for 
that purpose. In this event he would take care to preserve the 
Adigaar in the full and permanent enjoyment of his; authority, 
