400 Jouriial of the Embassy 
that the general was only admitted to three during his stay 
liere, which was from the tenth of April to the third of 
hlay. 
But previous to any interview, it w^as found no easy matter 
to adjust the ceremonies of introduction. It had been custo- 
mary for the kings of Candy to demand prostration, and several 
other degrading tokens of submission from the ambassadors in- 
troduced to them. The Dutch ambassadors had always submit- 
ted to be introduced into the capital blindfold, and to pro- 
strate themselves before the monarch. In a former war, wdien 
Trincomalee was taken by us from the Dutch, proposals were 
sent to the king to assist him in expelling his enemies out of 
the island, and to form a treaty of alliance with him. After 
the envoy entrusted with this business had arrived at Candy, 
the king would not receive him standing; and the envoy, not 
having instructions how to act in such a case, dechned the 
interview till he could hear from Madras ; by which means so 
much time elapsed, that the object of the embassy was by in- 
tervening circumstances entirely defeated, and the envoy returned 
wdthout being presented. Even after the British had shewn 
their power by the capture of Colombo and the expulsion of 
the Dutch, the Candian monarch would not recede from his 
lofty pretensions; and Mr. Andrews, the British East India 
Company’s chief civil servant, who was sent upon a mission to 
Candy shortly after we had taken possession of the island, 
was obliged to kneel on being admitted to the royal presence. 
Nay, to such an extravagant pitch do the natives carry .their 
ideas of the indispensable nature of this royal prerogative, that 
when Trincomalee was, in the last w^ar, taken by our troops 
under general Stewart, and when the king was in consequence 
3 
