^274 Civil and Military Establishments 
culariy chosen, as this is the royal colour, and except on bu- 
siness belonging to the king, is never allowed to be em- 
ployed. 
These stated periods of contribution, however, are not the 
only extortions practised on the Candian subjects. The mo- 
ment in which the king’s officers understand that any one is 
possessed of valuables is the signal for demanding a share for 
the royal treasury ; and artists are frequently employed by the 
king to make him arms and dilferent works in silver and gold, 
all at their own expence . 
As the government of Candy is completely despotic, every 
subject is of course ready at the call of the sovereign ; and as 
fear of the Europeans keeps him continually on the alert, all 
the Candians are held obliged to take arms without distinc- 
tion at his command. His regular troops, as he calls them, 
may consist of about twenty thousand men. I was led to form 
this computation from the circumstance that an army, of 
nearly that number of his regular troops, met our embassy 
near Sittivacca, and continued within three miles of us during 
the whole time we remained in the country. So great was 
his jealousy of Europeans, that I am convinced his whole ef- 
ficient force was on this occasion assembled in our neighbour- 
hood ; and besides this regular army, large bodies of the mi- 
litia of the country lay around us in every direction. 
According to the universal usage of despots, who dare not 
venture to trust their own subjects, the king always keeps 
about his person a body of Malabars, Malays, and others who 
are not his own natural subjects, but many of them runaways 
from tire Dutch. As these troops are entirely unconnected 
with tlie natives, and depend solely on favour for protection 
b 
