431 
An Account of the War in 1 803. 
on the following day, and that after he left the fort, all the English soldiers who 
accompanied him were treacherously murdered in cold blood, 
I cannot believe that Major Davie would have consented to evacuate, on any 
terms less favourable than those stated in the deposition, viz. of being allowed to 
proceed with arms and ammunition, and without molestation, to Trlncomalee, and 
that care should be taken of the sick whom he left behind ; for the fort was 
rendered, in the opinion of most military men, tenable against any force that was likely 
to be brought against it, and large supplies of provisions had been sent thither, in 
addition to those which Lieutenant Colonel Baibut declared to be sufficient for six 
months consumption, two months ago. 
Lieutenant Husskisson was also on the road from Trincomalee fas Major Davie 
must have known) with a hundred doolies, under an escort of one hundred and 
fifty Malays ; and when I heard of the breach of the truce, I ordered Lieutenant 
Colonel Hunter to proceed from Trincomalee with two hundred of his Majesty’s 
ipth regiment, and fifty Malays, to secure the evacuation which (had it been de- 
layed for a fortnight) would have been safely effected. 
But what I can still less- account for is, that Major Davie, having obtained 
such terms, should have consented to lay down his arms ; When he must have felt 
that the person who insisted on such infraction of agreement, could have no other 
design but that of murdering him and his men ; and when he must, in common 
with all the army, have known that a corps of forty Europeans in good health, 
and of two hundred Malays, might cut their way through any army of Candians to 
any part of the island. 
Indeed Captain Madge, late commandant of Fort Macdowal, brought off his 
men in circumstances of as great difficulty; and a small detachment of twenty-two 
invalid Malays, fourteen convalescents of the igth regiment from Candy, and sixty 
Seapoys under Lieut. Nixon, Ensign Grant, and Ensign Smellie, defended themselves 
in a miserable little fort of Fascines at Dambadinia, for more than a week, against 
an Immense multitude collected by the second Adigar, after they had expended their 
ammunition, till they were relieved by a detachment of fifty Europeans and as many 
Seapoys, whom 1 sent under the command of Captain Blackall of the 51 st to bring 
them down, in which he has succeeded without loss. 
Under the oppression of so dreadful a misfortune, it is satisfactory to me te- 
state, that an opinion formed of a spirit of defection, in- his AFajesty’s Adalay regi- 
ment is perfectly unfounded, some individuals of that corps had indeed deserted 
from Candy but the great majority, including all officers of influence and respecta- 
bility, were staunch to the end. Those who, alter the English were separated 
from them, were forced into the Candian service, are certainly not blamable ;■ and 
of those, five have already escaped and arrived here, who say that all the others 
are ready to follow their example. 
The princes of that nation, who are settled at Columbo, waited on me, as- soon, 
as the melancholy intelligence arrived, to assure me of their regret and indignation 
