462 JOURNAL OF THE EMBASSY 
proposals were sent to the King to assist him in expelling 
his enemies out of the island, and to form a treaty of al- 
liance with him. After the envoy entrusted with this bu- 
siness had arrived at Candy, the King would not receive him 
standing ; and the envoy, not having instructions how to act 
in such a case, declined the interview till he could hear from 
Madras ; by which means so much time elapsed, that the 
object of the embassy was by intervening circumstances en- 
tirely defeated, and the envoy returned without being pre- 
sented. Even after the British had shewn their power by the 
capture of Columbo and the expulsion of the Dutch, the 
Candian Monarch would not recede from his lofty preten- 
sions ; 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 war taken by our 
troops under General Stewart, and when the King was in 
consequence prevailed upon to send ambassadors to Madias, 
these persons very modestly desired Lord Hobart to prostrate 
himself before them, and to receive the King’s letter on his 
knees. This request, however, his Lordship declined to 
comply with ; but returned for answer, that as they were 
so much in the habit of kneeling, and so fond of prostration, 
a custom which his countrymen never adopted, their best 
