11® Capture of Columho 
may be of use to our own nation, and the commanders of 
our garrisons abroad. 
Previous to. the British troops appearing before Columbo, 
its garrison had been in some measure weakened by the loss, 
of the Swiss regiment de Meuron, which for a long time had 
composed part of it. This regiment, upon the term of its. 
agreement with the Dutch having expired a few months before 
general Stewart was sent against Ceylon, had transferred its 
services to our government; and otlier troops had not 
hitherto been procured trom Holland or Batavia to replace it 
at Columbo, The strength of the garrison was by this, 
means impaired ; but the want of numbers was not its prin- 
cipal defect, as upon marching out after the surrender, it 
was found to consist of two battalions of Dutch troops, the 
French regiment of Wirtemberg, besides native troops ; forming 
in all a number fully equal to, the force sent against it. 
The dissensions among both the civil and military officers 
of the garrison were a cause which more powerfully hastened 
its surrender. Those principles, which have produced so 
many convulsions and atrocities in Europe, had also pene- 
trated into, this colony. The governor, M. Van Anglebeck, 
was a very respectable old officer, of moderate principles and 
a mild disposition. Many of those under him were, however, 
violent republicans of the Jacobin party; they declaimed against 
the governor as a man of a weak mind, and wished to place 
in the government his son, whom they had gained over to their 
own principles. The violence of tliis party had gone to an - 
alarming height; they had already begun to denounce their 
opponents ; and several respectable gentlemen would in all pro- 
bability have fallen, victims to., their fury, had not the sudden 
V. 
