Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of the Discoveries [1 ed.] 0754601862, 9780754601869

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Maps and Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka
2 Sri Lanka and its Peoples
3 King Bhuvanekabahu and the Portuguese
4 Kandy: Religion and Politics
5 Jaffna: Conquest, Resistance and Governance
6 The Peace Treaty of 1617
7 The Portuguese and the Maldives
Glossary and Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

PORTUGUESE ENCOUNTERS WITH SRI LANKA AND THE MALDIVES

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives Translated Texts from the Age of the Discoveries

Edited by CHANDRA R. de SILVA

First published 2009 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Chandra R. de Silva 2009 Chandra R. de Silva has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices.. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of the Discoveries 1. Portuguese – Sri Lanka – History – 16th century – Sources. 2. Sri Lanka – Relations – Portugal. 3. Portugal – Relations – Sri Lanka. 4. Sri Lanka – History – 1505–1948 – Sources. 5. Sri Lanka – Description and travel—Sources. I. Series II. De Silva, Chandra Richard, 1940– . 954.9'301–dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of Discoveries / edited by Chandra R. de Silva. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Sri Lanka – History – 16th century – Sources. 2. Sri Lanka – History – 17th century – Sources. 3. Maldives – History – 16th century – Sources. 4. Portuguese – Sri Lanka – History – 16th century – Sources. 5. Portuguese – Sri Lanka – History – 17th century – Sources. 6. Portuguese – Maldives – History – 16th century – Sources. I. De Silva, Chandra Richard, 1940– . DS489.7.P66 2006 327.549305495’09’031–dc22 2005018458

ISBN 978-0-7546-0186-9 (hbk)

Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction

ix xi xiii

1

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka (a) King Manuel’s Letter, 1507 (b) João de Barros’s Account, 1552 (c) Gaspar Correia’s Account, 1550s (d) Fernão de Queirós’s Version, 1680s (e) The Rajavaliya Story, mid-sixteenth century (f) The Sitawaka Hatana Account, c.1585 (g) The Maha Hatana Account, late seventeenth century

1 2 4 7 12 18 20 21

2

Sri Lanka and its Peoples (a) Francisco de Albuquerque’s Report, 1518 (b) Duarte Barbosa’s Description, c. 1518 (c) Tomé Pires’s Description, c. 1518 (d) António Pessoa’s Report, (1548?) (e) Fr Morais’s Letter,1552 (f) Jorge Florim de Almeida’s Revenue Register, 1599 (g) Description by Fernão de Queirós’s, seventeenth century

23 23 25 29 31 34 40 44

3

King Bhuvanekabahu and the Portuguese (a) Bhuvanekabahu’s Memorial of 1541 (b) Bhuvanekabahu’s Letter of 1545 (c) A Franciscan Perspective, 1545 (d) Bhuvanekabahu’s Letter of 1546 (e) The Viceroy’s Advice, 1546 (f) Views of Portuguese Settlers, 1547 (g) Bhuvanekabahu’s Protest, 1548 (h) The Murder of Tennakoon Mudaliyar, 1548 (i) Bhuvanekabahu’s Grievances, 1551 (j) Gift of Temple Lands, 1557 (k) A Sinhala-Buddhist Viewpoint

51 53 57 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 73 75

vi

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

4

Kandy: Religion and Politics (a) António Ferreira’s Letter, 1545 (b) An Appeal for Aid for Kandy, 1545 (c) Alvares Pereira’s Letter, 1546 (d) António Padrão’s Letter, June 1546 (e) André de Sousa’s Account, 1546 (f) Miguel Fernandes’ Letter, 1546 (g) António Padrão’s Letter, November 1546 (h) The Viceroy’s Counsel, 1546 (i) Simão de Coimbra’s Report, 1546

77 79 81 82 88 92 93 96 97 98

5

Jaffna: Conquest, Resistance and Governance (a) Diogo do Couto’s Account of the 1560 Invasion of Jaffna, early seventeenth century (b) A Jesuit View of the 1560 Invasion of Jaffna, 1561 (c) A Tamil Account of Conflicts with the Portuguese, late eighteenthcentury (d) Paulo da Trindade on the 1619 Portuguese Conquest of Jaffna, 1630s (e) A Jesuit Account of the Kandyan Invasion, 1628 (f) Revenue Collection in Portuguese Jaffna, 1639 (g) Jesuit Annual Letter on Conversions to Christianity, 1644 (h) An Inquiry into Abuses, 1645

136 139 141 145 147

6

The Peace Treaty of 1617 (a) Initial Overtures for Peace (b) Peace Negotiations, July 1617 (c) Portuguese Conditions for Peace, June 1617 (d) The Kandyan Counter-Proposals and Portuguese Reactions (e) Portuguese Discussions, July 1617 (f) The Question of Batticaloa, July 1617 (g) Support for the Peace Treaty, August 1617 (h) The Peace Agreement, August 1617

153 157 159 161 163 165 166 168 169

7

The Portuguese and the Maldives (a) Description of the Maldives, c. 1500 (b) Description of the Maldives by Duarte Barbosa, 1518 (c) Report on the Maldive Islands by João de Barros, mid-sixteenth century (d) Letter of Afonso de Albuquerque on the Maldives, April 1512 (e) Letter of Afonso de Albuquerque on the Maldives, October 1512 (f) Baba ’Abdullah’s Appeal to King Manuel, c. 1519

173 180 185

109 112 125 127

187 191 192 193

Contents

(g) (h) (i)

Letter of Hasan IX, King of the Maldive Islands, 1556 Excerpts from an Islamic History of the Maldives, early eighteenth century Memorandum on the Maldive Islands, 1645

Glossary and Abbreviations Bibliography Index

vii

197 199 217 223 229 235

List of Maps and Illustrations

Maps 1 2 3

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka and the Maldives The Indian Ocean

xxiv xxv xxvi

Illustrations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Sinhalas (Chingalas). Biblioteca Casanatense, cod.1889, LIX p. 107 Sinhala Women (Molheres chingalas). Biblioteca Casanatense, cod.1889, LXX, p. 109 People of the Maldive Islands (Gente das ilhas de Maldivas). Biblioteca Casanatense, cod.1889, LXV. (Gentios) p. 119 City of Colombo (Cidade de Columbo) folio 3r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza Settlement of Jaffna (Povoacao de Iafanapatao) f. 9r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza Location of the settlement of Galle (Scitio da povoassao de Gale) f. 24r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza The Residence of the King of Kandy (Forma dos passos d’el Rei de Candea) f. 40r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza Map of Sri Lanka, f. 42r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza

xxvii xxviii xxix xxx xxxi xxxii xxxiii xxxiv

Acknowledgements

This book could not have been completed without the labours of generations of historians who preceded me. The historians of today build on the work of scholars such as Donald Ferguson, Simon Gregory Perera, Paul E. Pieris, António da Silva Rego, Georg Schurhammer, Josef Wicki, and more recently, Tikiri Abeyasinghe and Vito Perniola. I am grateful to John Villiers for the time he took to work with me on this volume. A number of my colleagues and friends were extremely helpful. Maura Hametz translated the Italian document in this volume. Manuela Mourão helped in the translation of many of the Portuguese documents. Ravindran Sriramachandran reviewed and revised Brito’s translation of the Tamil work, Yalpana-vaipavamalai. Abdelmalik Badruddin Eagle was responsible for the translation of excerpts from the Tarikh from Arabic. He also suggested many of the notes to that translation. The Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza and Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome kindly gave permission to publish illustrations from their archives. The Hakluyt Society permitted us to reprint a few extracts from its works. Fr. Vito Perniola was generous in giving us permission to use his excellent translations of documents and this volume contains one translation based on the work of Edmund Pieris and Achilles Meersman. Jorge Flores, as always, was happy to send me copies of manuscripts and photocopies of rare works from Portugal. Alan Strathern gave me some useful suggestions for revision. Nasreema Mohamed gave me invaluable help and guidance when I visited the Maldives. Don Emminger drew the maps. My wife, Daya, proofread several versions of the manuscript and offered me support and encouragement. I am grateful to them all. The College of Arts and Letters of Old Dominion University facilitated the production of this book by granting me a summer research grant in 1999 and by granting a subsidy towards the cost of illustrations. The American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies provided me with a base in Colombo during summer visits to Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2003. Chandra R. de Silva Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA

Introduction

The period from the early sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century was one of extensive interactions between the people of Sri Lanka (Ceylon)1 and the Maldive Islands on the one hand, and the Portuguese on the other. The story of these interactions has been told and retold from many perspectives2 and most of the contemporary and near contemporary documents that recount them have been published in Portuguese, Sinhala, Tamil, Arabic and several other languages.3 Recent research has enabled us to understand that this was not merely an encounter between East and West; it was much more complex in terms of the initiation of contacts, the nature and extent of the interaction and the consequences of encounters. The documents in this volume contribute to the growing understanding that groups of European colonizers had their own conflicting motivations and objectives. Historians have long realized the dangers of conflating policymakers in Europe with colonizers on the ground. They have pointed out that the objectives of missionaries, traders and soldiers in the colonies, while they often coincided, were sometimes in conflict.4 Moreover, scholars have begun to emphasize that the colonized were not mere victims but had their own agendas and occasionally successfully manipulated the colonial powers.5 The documents in this volume help substantiate these assertions. However, these documents also illustrate the changing nature of the interactions and contribute to the conversation on agency of change. We see that, while the more aggressive Portuguese often set the tone, the peoples of 1 While the modern term Sri Lanka has been used in the title, introduction and notes, I have retained Ceylon (Ceilão) in the documents translated from European languages because that was the name used by Europeans at that time. However, Lanka was used in contemporary Sinhala documents and as such is retained for Sinhala documents. 2 See for instance, Tikiri Abeyasinghe, Portuguese Rule in Ceylon, 1594–1612 (Colombo, 1966), C. R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon, 1618–1638 (Colombo, 1972) and Jorge Flores, Os Portugueses e o Mar de Ceilão (Lisbon, 1998). 3 For some most recent examples see V. Perniola (ed. and trans.), The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka: The Portuguese Period, 3 vols (Dehiwala, 1989–91) and R. Paranavithana (ed.), Sitawaka Hatana (Colombo, 1999). 4 See, for instance, E. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa (London, 1975). 5 See M. Pearson, Merchants and Rulers in Gujerat (University of California Press, 1976).

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Sri Lanka and the Maldives were sometimes able to influence the framework within which the interactions occurred. As Ann Stoler perceptively pointed out twenty years ago, we should pay more attention to the cultural politics of the colonizing groups and should analyse the colonizer and the colonized, not as fixed entities, but as a historically shifting pair of social categories.6 Indeed, the documents in this collection show how perceptions and attitudes changed with increasing knowledge and experience of the ‘other’. More significantly, interactions were not simply two-way but were multifaceted. Divisions within both the Portuguese and South Asians led to some fascinating alliances and realignments. Asian Christians became Portuguese allies and Portuguese ‘renegades’ served Asian rulers. Finally, the results of the encounters were complex too. Each group had fissures and subdivisions, and the encounters sometimes widened these gaps and created new ones. At other times interactions led to the consolidation of identities and a greater self-awareness. This volume is a collection of documents that depicts some aspects of these complicated encounters. Since its major objective is to provide illustrations of the multiple motivations and perspectives that governed all sides, the choice of themes and episodes that it covers has been determined largely by the availability of documents that enable us to view that piece of the past from different perspectives. This is why, for instance, the first Portuguese visit to Sri Lanka occupies a whole chapter, while the first visit to the Maldives is virtually ignored. In the case of Sri Lanka, we have an interesting collection of Portuguese and Sinhala documents that not only give initial reactions but also chart the evolution of the story in Sinhala and Portuguese historical traditions. In the case of the Maldives, the documentary evidence on the first encounter is not as rich. However, some effort has been made to ensure that different periods as well as different aspects of history – political, economic and social – are represented. This collection also attempts to illustrate some parallels between the experiences of Sri Lanka and the Maldives in relation to their contacts with the Portuguese, parallels that, although they have largely escaped the attention of historians,7 are very striking. In both cases, Portuguese interest was fuelled by a major indigenous product, coir in the case of the Maldives and cinnamon in Sri Lanka. Internal disputes about succession drew Portuguese attention to opportunities in these lands in the first decade of the sixteenth century, and in both areas the authority of the main ruler was constantly under challenge from rivals, though this was perhaps more pronounced in the case of the Maldives. In both cases, the indigenous challengers aimed at seizure of the symbolic capital (Malé and Kotte respectively) as a means of legitimizing their claims. The first Portuguese visit to Sri Lanka was by a 6 Ann L. Stoler, ‘Rethinking Colonial Categories: European Communities and the Boundaries of Rule’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31 (1989), pp. 135–7. 7 For an exception see Flores, Os Portugueses e o Mar de Ceilão.

Introduction

xv

fleet sent to the Maldives. The year 1518 was when the first Portuguese fort was set up both at Malé and in Colombo. In the mid-sixteenth century, resistance in both countries to Portuguese dominance and occupation led to a rise of religious identity (Islamic in the Maldives and Buddhist/S´aivite in Sri Lanka) and to the militarization of both societies. The Portuguese were more successful in establishing political power over parts of Sri Lanka, but in both areas the coming of the Dutch was a lever that the indigenous peoples could use to contest Portuguese power. Finally, in both Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Portuguese political and economic power was eliminated by the mid-seventeenth century. Of course, there were important differences. In the case of the Maldives the claim of Cannanore to suzerainty and tribute complicated matters, while in Sri Lanka the existence of several virtually independent kingdoms gave rise to complex diplomatic manoeuvres. The sultan of the Maldives was head of a state that seems to have depended more on trade for its revenues than the kingdoms of Kotte and Jaffna in Sri Lanka.8 Sri Lanka was much more diverse culturally and ethnically than the Maldives. Conversion to Christianity and the penetration of Portuguese cultural influence was much greater in Sri Lanka. Hopefully, placing this selection of documents on both countries in one volume will help in further explorations of comparative history.

Historical Background: The Portuguese The Portuguese enterprise in Asia, beginning in 1498, was complex and evolved with time. It is worth recalling that at this time Portugal was a small, relatively poor state located on the periphery of Europe. In the early years of the sixteenth century the Portuguese crown sent expeditions to the Indian Ocean in cooperation with private merchant groups, the primary objective of which was to secure a reliable supply of spices (mainly pepper) and to deny it to their rivals, the Asian merchants who supplied it to ports on the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Very early on, however, it was clear that the Portuguese had very little in terms of commercial advantages and that their success depended to a large extent on using their naval superiority (cannon on ships) to destroy their rivals. The system of safe-conducts (cartazes) that they established was thus also one that justified piracy against all vessels that did not accept their right to control trade.

8

We do not have statistical data for the Maldives, but for the dependence of the Kotte rulers on land revenues see C. R. de Silva (ed. and trans.), ‘The First Portuguese Revenue Register of Kotte, 1599 by Jorge Florim de Almeida’, Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, (Peradeniya) new series, V (1&2), 1975, pp. 71–153. For the argument that all Asian states had some interest in trade and that the difference was one of opportunity and degree see Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia 1500–1700: A Political and Economic History (London and New York, 1993), pp. 9–29.

xvi

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

There were limits to the ability of the Portuguese state to enforce its claims. Despite their seizure of Melaka in 1511, limitations in terms of ships and men forced them to restrict enforcement of their claims to the Arabian Sea and the East African coast. Even in this region enforcement was sporadic and, if the spice trade across the Arabian Sea declined drastically in the first few decades, there is abundant evidence that trade in gold and ivory on the East African coast continued apace. Moreover, individual Portuguese entrepreneurs seeking to make their fortunes were less than scrupulous about respecting Portuguese safe conducts. Thus, for example, in 1517 Jerónimo de Sousa went without permission with his ship to the Maldives, presumably to prey on Muslim shipping. The two vessels that followed seeking to bring him back failed in that particular task, but they too seized two ships from Gujarat that were in the Maldives.9 Such infractions of orders or privateering went unpunished partly because official and unofficial support of such activity was one of the ways in which the state allowed Portuguese entrepreneurs to make their fortunes.10 This brings us to the complex nature of the Portuguese Estado da Índia. The Portuguese king and his viceroys or governors developed policies that were designed both to increase crown revenues and to give some substance to the king’s claims to be ‘Lord of the Conquest, Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India’. Nevertheless, the execution of many of these policies was in the hands of officials and individuals whose primary motivation was their own advancement. Not only were Portuguese policies in the field fashioned by such individuals but, since every individual in the empire, however low his ranking, could write independently to Lisbon, even policies formulated at the centre could be influenced by petitions and memoranda designed primarily to further individual agendas.11 Asians quickly realized that the Portuguese empire was no monolith. As rival princes and kings in Sri Lanka found out, there was always the possibility of gaining the support of individual Portuguese entrepreneurs to support their cause. Apart from shifts of support to individuals, Portuguese overall policy also changed from time to time according to perceptions of need and changing circumstances. Thus, for example, the Portuguese policy of hostility towards the Muslim traders of the Red Sea region briefly changed in the mid-sixteenth century when the Portuguese state cooperated with them to undermine the indigenous Muslim traders of western India, who were competing with private Portuguese traders.12

9

Gaspar Corrêa (Correia), Lendas da India, Rodrigo José de Lima Felner (ed.), 4 vols (Lisbon, 1858), II (2), p. 508; Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, Historia do Descobrimento e Conquista da India pelos Portugueses, Manuel Lopes de Almeida (ed.), 9 vols (Porto, 1979), IV, p. 10; João de Barros, Asia, Dos Feitos que os Portugueses Fizeram no Descobrimentos e Conquista do Mares do Oriente (Lisbon, 1973), Déc. III, pp. 1–7. 10 Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire, pp. 61–2, 69. 11 Ibid, pp. 67–9. 12 Ibid.

Introduction

xvii

There was also the religious aspect of the Portuguese presence. Although early Portuguese expansion was accompanied by hostility towards Muslim traders, there were only limited efforts at conversion of Asians to Christianity. This seems to have changed by the end of the 1530s, and conversion became an important index for the provision of Portuguese military assistance. We see this in the documents on Kotte, Kandy and the Maldives in Chapters 4, 5 and 8 in this volume. The Portuguese Crown exercised its powers in the East under a governor (given the title of viceroy if he came from the higher nobility). Governors usually served short terms.13 Although they often arrived with extensive instructions, they had a great deal of discretion, because round-trip communications with Lisbon could take eighteen months or more. On the other hand, they had to learn about the Asian scene quickly and deal with factional rivalry in Goa. Moreover, appointments to a number of major positions such as captains of forts and of the fleets came from Lisbon. The governors, needing local input, developed an advisory council from early times, but this was not formalized until 1563 when the Council of State was set up. By the seventeenth century the Council of State, consisting of the archbishop of Goa, the secretary and other officials and prominent Portuguese, had great influence in decision-making. There were also efforts to establish countervailing powers directly responsible to the king of Portugal. Thus for example, from 1549 finances were under the control of an independently appointed vedor da fazenda or controller of revenue who supervised the resident factors who collected the revenue in the various ports under Portuguese control. The vedor also supervised the customs house of Goa. Similarly, in the early 1540s many judicial functions that had been handled by the governor and his councils and judges were given over to a court, the Mesa da Relação.14

Historical Background: Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, 25,000 square miles in area, was home to perhaps three-quarters of a million people during the sixteenth century.15 In the early sixteenth century, the island was politically fractured. The largest kingdom, the kingdom of Kotte,16 based in the fertile southwest of the island, still claimed sovereignty over the whole

13

There were 34 of them in the sixteenth century. Bailie W. Diffie and George D. Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire 1415– 1580 (Minneapolis, 1977), pp. 322–7. 15 ‘The First Portuguese Revenue Register of Kotte’, p. 84. This was about half the population of contemporary Portugal. 16 The rulers based in Kotte considered themselves emperors or chief kings of Lanka, and technically this was their title, but historians, for the purpose of clarity, tend to identify kingdoms in Sri Lanka by the name of the capital city. 14

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

country, but from about the 1460s the kings of the north had refused to accept this claim. The autonomous ruler of the highlands (a region later to be known as the kingdom of Kandy) and numerous petty chieftains on the east coast still accepted the suzerainty of Kotte, and the kingdom was still the richest and most powerful in Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the practice of appointing royal princes as provincial rulers had led to a tendency towards the development of autonomous regions even within the core area of the kingdom. In the sixteenth century, some of these princes used their political bases to make a bid for the succession or to seek external assistance to gain their political objectives. Portuguese interest in Kotte, on the other hand, was originally stimulated by economic motives. Southwest Sri Lanka was known as the major source of cinnamon, and early Portuguese efforts concentrated on obtaining a supply of this spice at low prices. The northern kingdom of Jaffna had become independent of Kotte by the 1460s but probably paid tribute to the Vijayanagar empire in India from the 1470s until the mid-sixteenth century. Its people were mostly Tamil-speaking S´aivite Hindus, while those of the rest of the country spoke Sinhala and were mostly Buddhists. Jaffna was of interest to the Portuguese largely because of its strategic position near the pearl fishery in the Gulf of Mannar and its proximity to the coastal trade through the Palk Straits. Interest heightened after the Parava fishermen who had converted to Christianity in the 1530s began to experience difficulties with the nayak of Madura in midcentury and thereafter. The rulers of Jaffna for their part saw Portuguese activity, including conversion, as a threat to their hard-won autonomy.17 In each of these kingdoms there was a well-developed administrative system. For example, in Kotte there was a chief minister who was also either the commanderin-chief or the head of the civil establishment. Other ministers were in charge of storehouses, the treasury, the judiciary and so on. Some central departments controlled the production of commodities such as cinnamon, gems and elephants, and the collection of dues from caste groups. All this was supplemented by a territorial administration that was responsible for the collection of land revenue and the dispensing of justice. There was no standing army, though the ruler had the right to call up landholders for service in war.18 The ruler of Kotte had extensive revenues from land. A Portuguese revenue register of the late sixteenth century estimates that such revenues were at least 175,000 xerafins a year. In contrast, the revenue from customs dues and royal trade was probably around some 50,000 xerafins. Thus, Kotte was a land-based kingdom with considerable interest in trade. Fragmentary evidence from Jaffna indicates that trade accounted for a much greater proportion of the royal income there. Land 17

C. R. de Silva, ‘Sri Lanka in the Early Sixteenth Century: Political Conditions’, in K. M. de Silva (ed.), University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka (Peradeniya, 1995), pp. 11–15. 18 Ibid., pp. 24–31.

Introduction

xix

revenue was crucial in the inland kingdom of Kandy, which was least dependent on income from commerce.19

Early Encounters in Sri Lanka One of the fascinating questions that surround the first contact is what the Portuguese and the peoples of Sri Lanka knew about each other before the ‘first encounter’. The background to the first encounter in Sri Lanka in 150620 is not as clear as we might have wished. The Muslim traders in Colombo must have heard of Portuguese activities well before 1506, but no Arabic account of the first encounter has survived. The only Sinhala account that deals with the story, the Rajavaliya, attempts to depict a sense of surprise and wonder at the appearance of the Portuguese, but it is likely that this is a literary device aimed at enhancing the story.21 We have much more evidence on the extent of Portuguese knowledge of Sri Lanka. Soon after the return of Vasco da Gama, King Manuel of Portugal referred to Sri Lanka in a letter to D. Jorge da Costa. This letter not only identified Sri Lanka with Taprobane but also spoke of its rich products and mentioned that the sea between Sri Lanka and India was shallow.22 Much of this information is also found in the letters written by Girolamo Sernigi in Lisbon between July and September 1498. They reveal that the Portuguese knew Lanka as a source of cinnamon and indeed estimated that its price on the island was half that at Calicut. One of Sernigi’s letters also mentions the precious stones found in Sri Lanka.23 In a

19

Ibid., p. 60. The conventional date for the ‘first encounter’ in Sri Lanka is 1505. Geneviève Bouchon, ‘A propos de l’Inscription de Colombo (1501). Quelques observations sur le premier voyage de João de Nova dans l’Océan Indien,’ in Revista da Universidade de Coimbra, 28 (1980), pp. 235–70 has argued that it might have been as early as 1501, but the balance of evidence indicates that the date was 1506. See C. R. de Silva, ‘The First Visit of the Portuguese to Ceylon, 1505 or 1506?’ in L. Prematilleke, K. Indrapala and J. E. Lohuizen-De van Leeuw (eds), Senerath Paranavithana Commemoration Volume (Leiden, 1978), pp. 218–20. 21 See, C. R. de Silva, ‘Beyond the Cape: The Portuguese Encounter with the Peoples of South Asia’, in Implicit Understandings: Observing, Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era, Stuart B. Schwartz (ed.), (Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 309–14. 22 Abel Fontoura da Costa (ed.), Roteiros Portugueses ineditos da carreira da India do século XVI (Lisbon, 1940) pp. 197–9. 23 Flores, Os Portugueses e o Mar de Ceilão, p. 102. For the documents, see Carmen Radulet (ed.), Vasco da Gama. La Prima Circumnavigazione dell’Africa, 1497–1499 (Reggio Emilia, 1994) pp. 171–7, 182–90 and Donald W. Ferguson, ‘The Discovery of Ceylon by the Portuguese in 1506’, in Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XIX (1907), p. 324. 20

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letter of 28 August 1499 King Manuel also refers to the exports of Sri Lanka.24 Much of this information came from Gaspar da Gama, a Jew who had lived for long in India and had converted to Christianity and collaborated with the Portuguese. Gaspar da Gama was probably the source of the information on the cinnamon, pearls, elephants and spices of Sri Lanka that was sent by Amerigo Vespucci to Lorenzo de’ Medici in June of 1501.25 By the early years of the sixteenth century, Sri Lanka was also known as a source of elephants and pearls.26 In his account of the second voyage of Vasco da Gama, which ended in 1503, Tomé Lopes reported that ‘Those in Cochin also recounted that a hundred and fifty leagues from there is Ceilão, which is a rich island and of three hundred leagues in size, which has large mountains and produces cinnamon in greater abundance and of better quality than any other place and also many gems, which are abundant in the mountains; it has many very large wild elephants.’27 While the Portuguese were thus aware of the commercial potential of Sri Lanka and were desirous of directly trading with that island, they knew less about social and religious conditions there. Valentim Fernandes wrote in 1502 on Sri Lanka, ‘The king and his people worship idols’ and identified them as Brahmins. It seems clear that the Portuguese were less interested in the manners and customs of the peoples they met, than in the products they could supply.28 This relative imbalance in Portuguese knowledge of Asians persisted well beyond the first encounter.29 The main elements of the first encounter as reported in the documents in Chapter 2 of this book seem clear enough. King Dharma Parakramabahu IX, having gathered intelligence on the visitors, decided to reach an accord with the Portuguese, and D. Lourenço de Almeida, glad to have discovered the famous source of cinnamon, was conciliatory. What is in dispute is the nature of the accord. The Sinhala sources see it as a visit of a Portuguese envoy bearing gifts to the king, an envoy who is amply rewarded with gifts and a promise of friendship in return. The 24

Fountoura da Costa, Roteiros Portugueses, p. 199. Flores, Os Portugueses e O Mar de Ceilão, pp. 102–4. 26 Ibid. See also the French version of Calcoen, originally published around 1504 in Le Second Voyage de Vasco da Gama a Calicut. Relation Flamande éditée vers MDIV, J. Berjeau (ed.), (Paris, 1881) which refers to pearl-diving in the Gulf of Mannar. 27 Sebastião Mendo Trigoso (ed.), ‘Navegação as Indias Orientais’, in Collecção de Notiçias para a Historia e Geografia das Nações Ultramarinas que virem nos Domínios Portugueses, II (2), (Lisbon, 1867), p. 199. A Latin version of a letter from the Portuguese King Manuel to Cardinal Dom Jorge da Costa in 1506 published in Geste Proxime indicates that he had information on the general geographical location of Sri Lanka. See Jorge Flores, Hum Curto Historia de Ceylan (Lisbon, 2001) pp. 48–9 28 For comments on similar Spanish attitudes see Michael T. Ryan, ‘Assimilating New Worlds in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 23 (1981), pp. 519–20. 29 See below, Ch. 2, commentary to document (a). 25

Introduction

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Portuguese sources see it as a pledge to a tributary relationship. It is possible that this misunderstanding came early, but it was certainly further elaborated by subsequent chroniclers on both sides, who increasingly developed negative images of the other.

Later Interactions in Sri Lanka Chapters 4 and 5 contain documents that deal largely with Portuguese relations with Kotte and Kandy in the 1540s. This was a crucial period in Portuguese relations with both kingdoms. The documents, all derived from Portuguese archives, can nevertheless be used to analyse the objectives of local rulers, because letters written in Portuguese on their behalf have survived. They illustrate that the ruler of Kotte was willing to patronize Christianity while supporting other religions, but was unwilling to convert for personal and/or political reasons. The ruler of Kandy and his son were both willing to convert on condition that the Portuguese provided them with military assistance. The reactions of the various Portuguese officials and clergy to these situations provide further illustrations of the fractured nature of the Portuguese enterprise. In the case of Jaffna, we have an eighteenth-century chronicle that gives the story of Portuguese interaction with its rulers. While this chronicle is less than reliable on chronology, it nevertheless gives us a Tamil perspective of the interaction that is a useful counterpoise to the Portuguese chronicles. Seventeenth-century Portuguese documents published in Chapter 6 also include extracts of an inquiry in 1645 which sought evidence from local inhabitants. Once again, while the data in the document are useful, they also provide clues on how certain elements within the Portuguese colonial empire used ‘investigations’ to push their own agendas.

The Maldives The Maldive Islands are a coral archipelago of nineteen atolls running north to south, traditionally divided into thirteen administrative divisions.30 The line of atolls is about 350 miles long, with single atolls at the ends, and double in the centre, with a narrow strip of sea 15 to 25 miles wide between two atolls (Felidi, Mulaku) on the east and two (Ari, Nilade) on the west.31 In all, in the atolls there are several thousand sandy islands, of which some go under water, though King Manuel’s 30

François Pyrard, Voyage to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil, Albert Gray and H. C. P. Bell (trans. and eds), (London, 1887) 1, p. 200 31 H. C. P. Bell, The Maldive Islands. Monograph on the History, Archeology and Epigraphy (Colombo, 1940) p. 10.

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description of the Maldives as an archipelago consisting of 12,000 islands,32 is clearly an exaggeration. By the early sixteenth century the chief settlement was Malé, located some 400 miles from Sri Lanka. The northernmost atoll, however, is only 350 miles from India. The indigenous people called the islands ‘Divi’.33 The early Portuguese descriptions use the same name, and it was only later that the name of the chief atoll, Malé was combined with Divi to form the present name. The chapter on the Maldives is built around two fairly long documents, neither of which has ever been published before in its entirety in English translation. The first is an early description of the islands by Valentim Fernandes, which gives the first detailed description of the land and its peoples and also some indications of what aspects of the Maldives were of interest to the Portuguese. The second is a long extract from the Tarikh, a Maldivian Arabic chronicle that enables us, with the aid of references in Portuguese documents, to chart the interactions between the two groups over one and a half centuries and also to get a glimpse of the role played in the Maldives by the Indian state of Cannanore.

Limitations Clearly, the Portuguese encounter with Sri Lanka and the Maldives did not terminate with the end of Portuguese colonial rule. The Portuguese language remained the language of commerce for some time and a Portuguese creole survived in Sri Lanka into the twentieth century.34 While evidence of Portuguese architecture is scarce in both countries,35 contemporary Portuguese maps provide evidence of Portuguese perceptions36 and the objects of art produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly in Sri Lanka, give us an inking of elements of cultural fusion.37 These elements deserve an examination that is beyond the scope 32 Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, Seguidas de Documentos que se Elucidam, R. A. de Bulhão Pato and H. Lopes de Mendonça (eds), 7 vols (Lisbon, 1884–1935), III, p. 276, Instructions to D. Francisco de Almeida, 1506. 33 See below, Ch. 7, document (a). 34 Kenneth David Jackson, Sing without Shame: Oral Traditions in Indo-Portuguese Creole Verse (Philadelphia, 1989), Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, From Tagus to Taprobane: Portuguese Impact on the Socio-culture of Sri Lanka (Dehiwala, 2001). 35 But see Helder Carita, ‘Portuguese influenced religious architecture in Ceylon: Creation, types and continuity’, in Jorge Flores, ed., Exploring the Links: History and Constructed Identities between Portugal and Sri Lanka (Weisbaden, 2007), pp. 261–278. 36 Zoltán Biedermann, ‘Perceptions and representations of Sri Lankan space in sixteenthcentury Portuguese texts and maps’, Ibid. pp. 235–260. 37 Nuno Vasallo e Silva, ‘An art for export: Sinhalese ivory and crystal in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’, Ibid. pp. 279–295.

Introduction

xxiii

of this volume, which is primarily intended to illustrate how encounters between different groups can be perceived in multiple ways.

xxiv

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives 80°

81°

10°

10°

JAFFNA Pooneryn

BAY OF BENGAL

VA N

Mannar

N I A IY

AL

AW

GULF OF MANNAR AK

WA R

Koddiyar

Anuradhapura

NU

Kalpitiya

Trincomalee

Tampalakamam

8°

8°

SRI LANKA Batticaloa

Chilaw Matale

SEVEN KORALES

Balana

Kotte Colombo

M A

AR

UVA

Wellawaya

Idalgashinna PANAMA

DENAWAKA

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6°

A Galle Weligama Devinuwara Matara

80°

Map 1

WELLASSA

Adam's Peak

AG

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6°

Sammanturai

Sitawaka

Rayigama Beruwala

KANDY

Kandy

Malvana A R AM BA TG SA LA BU A AK AW SIT

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Kammala Negombo

Sri Lanka

81°

Introduction

xxv 80° C o ro m a n d e l C o a s t

75° LACCADIVE ISLANDS

INDIA Calicut

JAFFNA

its oa

Fi sh

er y

t

Cape Comorin

10°

st

Str a

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Quilon

C

ar C

ARABIAN SEA

Palk

Cochin

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10°

BAY OF BENGAL

CEYLON KANDY

E KOT T

MAL

DIV

5°

INDIAN OCEAN 5°

E

MALE ATOLL Male

DS ISLAN

MALUKU ATOLL

HUVADU ATOLL

0°

0° ADDU ATOLL

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Map 2

Sri Lanka and the Maldives

80°

R

Se

a

an

Gul f

ARABIAN SEA

DECCAN

BENGAL

BAY OF BENGAL

ORISSA

Ava

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Melaka

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PEGU

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INDIAN OCEAN

MALDIVE IS.

SRI LANKA

Machilipatnam Goa VIJAYANAGARA Cannanore Pulicat Madurai

Diu

GUJARAT

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The Indian Ocean

ed

EQUATOR

Pe S UM

Map 3

rsi

JAVA

MALUKU IS.

xxvi Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Introduction

xxvii

Figure 1 Sinhalas (Chingalas). Biblioteca Casanatense, cod.1889, LIX p. 107

xxviii

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Figure 2 Sinhala Women (Molheres chingalas). Biblioteca Casanatense, cod.1889, LXX, p. 109

Introduction

Figure 3 People of the Maldive Islands (Gente das ilhas de Maldivas). Biblioteca Casanatense, cod.1889, LXV. (Gentios) p. 119

xxix

xxx

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Figure 4 City of Colombo (Cidade de Columbo) folio 3r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza

Introduction

Figure 5 Settlement of Jaffna (Povoacao de Iafanapatao) f. 9r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza

xxxi

xxxii

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Figure 6 Location of the settlement of Galle (Scitio da povoassao de Gale) f. 24r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza

Introduction

xxxiii

Figure 7 The Residence of the King of Kandy (Forma dos passos d’el Rei de Candea) f. 40r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza

xxxiv

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Figure 8 Map of Sri Lanka, f. 42r, Ms 13, Biblioteca Universitaria de Zaragoza

Chapter 1

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

The documents in this chapter illustrate different perspectives of the first encounter between the Portuguese and the people of the kingdom of Kotte in the island of Sri Lanka. The Portuguese, having arrived in India in 1498, had established a trading factory at Cochin in 1500 and a permanent presence in the Indian Ocean by 1502.1 They learnt about Sri Lanka very early.2 Nevertheless, as seen in document (a) in Chapter 2 of this volume, understanding of social and religious traditions lagged far behind knowledge of commercial opportunities. In 1505, Viceroy Francisco de Almeida received definite instructions from his king to ‘discover’ Sri Lanka.3 His son, D. Lourenço de Almeida, who was sent to intercept Muslim traders in the Maldives soon after, was blown by adverse winds and forced to make landfall in Sri Lanka. Barros (document (b)) and Queirós (document (d)) following him, suggest that the Portuguese made first landfall in Galle, but the placing of the first padrão4 in Colombo suggests that Gaspar Correia (document (c)) was correct when he reported that the Portuguese landed in Colombo. Much of what we know about the local ruler comes from the Rajavaliya (document (e)). The extracts that follow give a fascinating glimpse of how both the Portuguese and the Sinhalas elaborated the story of the first encounter to build their own versions of history.

1

Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700 (London and New York, 1993), pp. 56–62. 2 See information in Introduction. 3 Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, R. A. de Bulhão Pato and H. Lopes de Mendonça (eds), 7 vols (Lisbon, 1884–1935), II, p. 327. 4 Stone tablet or pillar with the royal coat of arms erected as a mark of the Portuguese discovery of a new territory and of their claim to possess it.

2

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

(a)

King Manuel’s Letter, 1507 Letter of King Manuel to Pope Julius II, Abrantes, 25 September 1507, translation adapted from V. Perniola (ed.), The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka: The Portuguese Period, 1 (Dehiwala, 1989), pp. 4–6. The Latin original of this has been published in Bullarium Patronatus Portugalliae Regem in Ecclesis Africae, Asiae atque Oceaniae, Levy Maria Jordão (ed.), 1, (Lisbon, 1868) pp. 319–20, and in Corpo Diplomático Portuguez, Luíz Augusto Rebello de Silva (ed.), 1 (Lisbon, 1862), pp. 116–9 and in Donald Ferguson, ‘The Discovery of Ceylon by the Portuguese in 1506’, in Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XIX, 1907, pp. 340–41. The letter was sent by King Manuel of Portugal (1495–1521) to Pope Julius II (1503–13) soon after the receipt of news of the Portuguese discovery of the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). It illustrates the ways in which the king of Portugal used his successes in the East to boost his prestige in Europe and gives some indications that the Portuguese ruler thought the event to be of great importance. The document also suggests that King Manuel believed that the ruler of Kotte had offered tribute to him, while the extract from the Alakesvara Yuddhaya (document 2 (f)) states that the king of Kotte saw it merely as an exchange of gifts. Finally, this source gives us a near contemporary account of how an indigenous king received a Portuguese envoy.

To the most Holy and Blessed Father in Christ, Julius, supreme pontiff by Divine Providence; His Holiness’s devoted son, Manuel, by the Grace of God, king of Portugal and of Algarve, on this side of the sea, and on the other side in Africa, lord of Guinea and of the naval and commercial conquest of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India, humbly kisses the sacred feet. Most Holy Father, may Your Holiness rejoice and be happy that, from the rising of the sun even to its setting, Almighty God causes all the nations to acknowledge the righteousness and praise of His Catholic faith and of the Holy See. In his goodness, Almighty God grants us a prosperous journey to the end of the earth, subjecting through us new nations and countries to Christianity. Therefore, his enemies are scattered and they who hate Him flee from his face; the islands see and fear; the ends of the earth stand in awe; the Saracens5 are thrown into confusion; the Most High appears to have uttered His word, and the earth, the sea and its fullness are moved for the advance of Christian glory and the despair of infidel potentates. For the mysteri-

5

Muslims.

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

3

ous designs pertaining to our exploits in India and the East, which at first sight could perhaps have seemed to be for our personal honour and gain, appear now unfolded and worked out, not so much for ourselves but for the Holy See and the Christian commonwealth. We wish to pass over many things that the Immortal God in His almighty power has accomplished there through us against the Saracens in previous years and continues to accomplish every day. All these have been granted to us with equal generosity. Now, however, may it please Your Holiness gladly to give ear to the very happy news that a short letter from there has brought to us. We think Your Holiness is aware that in previous years we sent a viceroy6 as our representative in those eastern lands. This was demanded by the daily increase of business, since whatever comes from God is bound to increase. There he will be able to conduct that military undertaking with greater vigour and authority. After making many attacks on the enemies, the viceroy sent his son, Lourenço de Almeida, to harass the enemy’s coast and lands with a naval force. He too, as bidden, approached that most renowned island, Taprobane7 (once thought to be another country, now called in their language Zeylon). He did so to find out from the people there whether he could enter into an alliance with them or should wage war on them. Therefore, after landing in the port of the greatest and most powerful king, who rules over six other kings in the island, he sent his father’s ambassadors, whom he had brought with him. It is worth hearing how the king himself received them, because of its novelty. There was a very large hall, at the end of which the king’s throne, shaped like an altar, was set in great splendour. On that throne sat the king, according to the fashion of the country, wearing on his head horns, resembling a diadem and adorned with the most precious stones, as are found in the island. Around the king’s throne stood six men, three on the right and three on the left holding large torches, which were lit, though it was day. There were many large silver candlesticks also lit. A multitude of nobles and gentlemen filled the hall on either side, leaving a passage in the centre, which gave free and unhampered access to the king. The king received our ambassadors with great honour as they approached that place, listened to them very gladly, replied to our demands most politely and settled everything peacefully and favourably with our men. Of these demands, one was that he would give us annually one hundred and fifty measures of cinnamon, the best found in the island. Then and there he delivered the first tribute. To this amount our men likewise agreed, on the understanding that it would be acceptable to our viceroy. When the affairs in Taprobane were thus concluded, our men departed thence, and attacked and burnt some maritime towns belonging to the Saracens, situated on the mainland …

6 7

Dom Francisco de Almeida, viceroy of India, 1505–9. Taprobane was the name by which Ceylon was known to the Greeks and the Romans.

4

(b)

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

João de Barros’s Account, 1552 Extract from João de Barros, Da Ásia, Década I, livro 5, capítulo V. The most recent edition of Barros is found in Asia (Lisbon, 1973). The translation is adapted from Donald Ferguson (trans.), ‘The History of Ceylon from the Earliest Times to 1600 AD as related by João de Barros and Diogo de Couto’, in Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XX (1908), pp. 22–5. Barros, encouraged by King Manuel I and his successor João III to write an account of Portuguese triumphs in Asia, published his first Década (from which this extract is taken) in 1552. Although he never visited the East, he was well placed to obtain documents and information on Portuguese activities in Asia in his position as treasurer (1525– 8) and, later, factor (1533–70) of the Casa da Índia, the institution that organized Portuguese trade with the East. The extract illustrates how Portuguese hostility to the Muslims (Mouros, as the Portuguese called them) influenced the evolution of the story of the first encounter. The Moors, fearing for their interests, are said to have offered ‘tribute’ of cinnamon on behalf of the king of Kotte. The amount originally offered, which was reported in document (a) as 150 measures, is inflated in Barros’s account to 400 bahar. This was the actual annual tribute from 1533 onwards.8 Barros blamed the ‘deceitful’ Moors for taking the Portuguese on a circuitous path and presenting them, not to the king but to a lord who pretended to be the king. However, Sinhala documents 2 (e) and 2 (f) below indicate that they actually met with the king of Kotte, and the contemporary Portuguese document 2 (a) implies that the Portuguese believed that too. The Moors were also suspected of being responsible for an attempt to damage the Portuguese coat of arms carved on a rock, although the Muslims had sought to place all blame on the ignorant ‘natives’. The document seeks to indicate, however, that the Portuguese were not deceived by the Muslims; they simply decided to pretend that they were taken in. The Portuguese achievement was further elaborated a century later. See document 2 (d).

How the viceroy sent his son Dom Lourenço to discover the islands of the Maldives and the island of Ceylon and what he did on the voyage until he reached Cochin.

8 See C. R. de Silva, ‘Colonialism and Trade: The Cinnamon Contract of 1533 between Bhuvanekabahu, King of Kotte and António Pessoa, Portuguese factor in Kotte,’ in University of Colombo Review, 10 (Dec. 1991), pp. 27–34.

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

5

The Moors who engaged in the spice trade and the riches of India, seeing that with our arrival they could no longer make their voyages because of the fleets that we maintained on the Malabar coast, at which they all called, sought another new route by which to convey the spices, such as cloves, nutmegs, mace and sandalwood, which they obtained from around Melaka, and pepper, which they obtained from the island of Sumatra at the ports of Pedir and Pasai, and many other things from those parts. This route they followed by coming around the island of Ceylon and between the islands of the Maldives, crossing that great gulf until they reached the mouth of the two straits we have mentioned9 in order to avoid this coast of India, which we had closed to them. The viceroy learnt of the new route that they were taking and also of the island of Ceylon, where they loaded cinnamon, because all that was to be found in those parts was there. It was of great importance to the king’s service to stop that route and to discover that island [of Ceylon] and also those of the Maldives, by reason of the coir obtained from them, which was the one essential for all Indian navigation, since all rigging was made of it, so he determined to send his son, Dom Lourenço, on this enterprise, it being monsoon weather for the passage. The latter took nine sail of those that formed his armada, and although they took some natives with them, owing to the scant knowledge that our people had of that route, they were carried by the currents to the island of Ceylon, which the ancients call Taprobana …, to Colombo port, [that was] fourteen leagues to the north of Galle,10 which [itself] is at the point of the island where Dom Lourenço made landfall. [There] he found many ships belonging to Moors, who were engaged in loading cinnamon and elephants for Cambay.11 When they saw themselves surrounded by our fleet, they pretended to desire peace with us in order to secure their persons and property. They said that the king of Ceylon had requested them to notify the viceroy and send him someone to conclude peace and friendship with the king of Portugal when they crossed over to the coast of India. [This was] on account of his proximity to the captains and the fortresses they were making in India, and also because of the cinnamon that was in that island of his and other wares that he could give him for the loading of his ships by way of trade. Dom Lourenço had set out to discover and capture the ships of the Moors of Mecca that were sailing from the strait to Melaka by that new route. He knew by the cargo of elephants that these had, as well as from other information that he received from native pilots that he carried, that they were ships of Cambay, with which we were not at war, so he did not wish to do them any harm. Also, because he had arrived with an armed force at that port, where the Moors had spread the story that the Portuguese were sea pirates, he was willing to accept what they offered on behalf

9

The straits of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Colombo is about 100 km north of Galle. 11 The main port of Gujarat on the west coast of India. 10

6

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

of the king. With their assistance he got together some people of the country, with whose approval he erected a stone [marker] on a rock, and upon it he ordered to be cut an inscription saying how he had arrived there and had discovered the island … When the Moors saw that Dom Lourenço trusted in the words that they spoke to him on behalf of the king, they pretended to go and come back with messages for him. They finally brought four hundred bahar of cinnamon from that which they had collected on shore for loading, saying that the king, in token of the peace and amity that he desired to have with the king of Portugal (although it had not yet been agreed to by his ambassadors), offered him all that cinnamon to load his ships with if he wished. And because Dom Lourenço said that he wished to send a message to the king, they offered to take and bring back the persons that he would select for that purpose. They were Paio de Sousa, who went in the capacity of ambassador, and [also] his clerk, Gaspar Dias, son of Martim Alho, a resident of Lisbon, and Diogo Velho, a servant of Dom Martinho de Castelobranco, the king’s controller of revenue, who afterwards became conde de Villanova, and one Fernão Cotrim and other persons in his service. These, being entrusted to the Moors who had arranged this expedition, were conducted through such dense thickets that they could scarcely see the sun and took so many turns that it seemed to them more like a labyrinth than a direct road to any place. And after traversing for a whole day, they were brought to an open place where there were many people. At the end of it were some houses of wood that seemed to be somewhat superior. They said that the king had come there to take his pleasure, as it was a kind of provincial centre. At the end of this open space, at a good distance from the houses, they made them wait, saying that it was not proper for them to go further without leave of the king, and they began to go and come with messages and questions to Paio de Sousa, as if they were from the king, feigning to be pleased at his coming. Finally, Paio de Sousa, with only two of his company, was conducted to the place where, according to the Moors, the person of the king was. As soon as they reached him he at once sent them on their way, feigning to be pleased at seeing things from the king of Portugal and giving thanks to Paio de Sousa for coming and to the captain-major for sending them to him. As regards the peace and amity that he desired to have with the king of Portugal, he promised to send his ambassadors to Cochin and said that he had sent the cinnamon as a token of goodwill. He said that he would order that they be given whatever they might need for the provision of the fleet. The manner of Paio de Sousa’s coming and going at the hands of the Moors, his arrival at this place and the conversation that he had with the person who they told him was the king of Ceylon was all a trick of theirs. In a way this was a representation of things that did not exist, part of which Paio de Sousa understood and afterwards discovered to be true. This man with whom he spoke, though from the bearing of his person and the reverence paid to him by his people, appeared to be what they said, he was not the king of Ceylon but the lord of the port of Galle. Others had it that it was not he but some other noble personage who on his orders and by the artifice of the Moors

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

7

showed himself to our people in that manner and place so that they might secure their ships, and while they [the Portuguese] were occupied in this, might collect the goods they had on shore, which they did. When Dom Lourenço learnt from Paio de Sousa what had happened and perceived how matters stood, he dissembled with the Moors because, as that island was under a heathen king (although at that time there was no certain knowledge of its affairs), it seemed to him that, whether or not it was he with whom Paio de Sousa had spoken, the whole affair might have been arranged by him, for all heathen kings are very superstitious in their mode of communication with us, and that perhaps the Moors had frightened him against us. He did not desire to inquire further into the matter because the weather would not allow his remaining longer in that port where he ran risks, so he set sail to return to Cochin. The rough weather that had forced them to leave broke the main yard of Nuno Vaz Pereira’s ship, and he found it necessary to return once more to the port. There he found that our padrão12 was already blackened by fire as if they had lighted one at the foot of it. And the Moors who were there, on being asked the reason for this, laid the blame on the heathens of the country, saying that the latter, being an idolatrous people, had fancies about such things wherever they were made. Nuno Vaz, threatening reprisals if they carried this further, overlooked the past offence and, having mended the yard of his ship, returned to Dom Lourenço, whom he found on the coast of India.

(c)

Gaspar Correia’s Account, 1550s From Gaspar Correia (Corrêa), Lendas da India, Rodrigo José de Lima Felner (ed.), 4 vols (Lisbon, 1858), 1, pp. 646–50. The translation is adapted from Donald Ferguson ‘The Discovery of Ceylon’, in Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XIX (1907), pp. 352–8. Correia went to India in 1512 and became secretary to Viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque. After 1515 he served as inspector of works and writer at the Portuguese factory in Cochin and lived in India until his death in 1564. Correia’s account offers a useful perspective, because he was often critical of the Portuguese. However, his book contains many factual errors, and he has the habit of making up lengthy speeches that he puts in the mouths of his main characters. Like Barros, he pictures the Moors as villains but gives some support to

12

See note 4 above.

8

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

the notion that the king of Kotte might have considered what he gave the Portuguese as a gift, while the Portuguese were willing to construe it as tribute. This version is supported by a letter of Valentim Fernandes dated 26 June 1510, which states that the king of Ceylon had said that, if the Christians were lords of the sea, he was master of the land.13 Having set sail from Cochin, Dom Lourenço went towards the Maldive Islands. Because the pilot did not take good heed to avoid the currents, they sailed for eighteen days without seeing the islands and made landfall on Ceylon, whither the currents had taken them. By good luck they came to land in the principal port of the island, which is called Colombo, and here Dom Lourenço entered with his fleet and anchored. There were many ships there loading cinnamon and very small elephants, for which there is a great trade to all ports, especially Cambay, many being produced in the island and in these parts. They were also loading coconuts, both fresh and dried, from which they extract oil and much areca nut,14 all of which fetch high prices in Cambay. They were also loading masts and yards and timber that they were taking to sell in Ormuz with cinnamon, because this island of Ceylon has good wood in abundance. On entering, Dom Lourenço ordered the brigantines to overhaul all the ships to see what was in them and whence they came, and they found three large ships of Calicut with cinnamon and elephants and other ships of the said Cambay. All the ships were deserted, because all the crews had fled on shore on seeing Dom Lourenço entering. Dom Lourenço then sent his men in the boats to haul up the anchors of the Calicut ships and brought them amidst our ships. The Moors of these ships had told the king of Ceylon much evil about us; that we went about the sea robbing and murdering, that we burnt whatever we did not want, in order that it might not be of service to anyone, that on land, we took merchandise by force and paid what we liked, that we carried off the women and children, that our captives were fastened with chains and employed in rowing the galleys, and many other evils, which the king and the people fully believed, because all told the same story. The Moors, seeing our fleet entering, hastened to tell the king that our fleet was in port, at which he was very frightened and at once took counsel as to what he ought to do. It was resolved on the advice of the Moors to send a large force to the port to prevent our people from landing, and the king sent a message to ask Dom Lourenço what he wanted in his port, so that he could give him a suitable 13 Valentim Fernandes to Stefan Gabler, 26 June 1510, on p. 19 of ‘Uma carta inedita de Valention Fenandes’, published by A. Brasio with a translation by Albin Beau, Boletim da Biblioteca da Universidade de Coimbra, 24 (1960), pp. 5–25. 14 The nut of the areca palm chewed with the betel leaf in many parts of India and Southeast Asia. See Glossary.

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

9

welcome. Dom Lourenço sent him a reply that he was going to the Maldive Islands, that the pilots had navigated badly so that he had come there by chance, that he was a merchant, that he carried goods which he would sell and would buy goods on land, with great peace and friendship, if he wished and would agree to have it so. If not, he would go his way when the weather served, because he was a slave of the king of Portugal, who was the lord of the seas of the whole world and who did good to the good and who desired peace, and evil to the evil. The king, having heard this answer, was very glad and relieved from the fears that the Moors had instilled into him, saying that it was well that they did evil to those who did not desire peace. Yet, being in doubt and uncertain of the truth of the message, because the Moors had told him that our people entered countries with professions of friendship and afterwards committed robberies and other evils in them, in order to know the truth he sent word to Dom Lourenço, with a present of many provisions, saying that he rejoiced and was very glad at receiving his message and that he desired all peace and friendship, and asking him to send someone therefore to speak with him and to arrange some matters that he desired to settle. And for the security of the person who was to go he sent his ring, which was the token of his truth. This was a cat’s eye, a stone of great price, which he sent by a trusted man of his household. Dom Lourenço paid much honour to the messenger, showing great pleasure and ordering him to be given a piece of fine scarlet cloth, and returned the ring to the king, saying that in the case of low people it was necessary to take their wives and children as a pledge of truth, but from great kings like him he did not require any pledge other than his word, which was better than gold or precious stones. And with this message he sent Diogo de Almeida, a gentleman to whom he gave directions regarding all that he was to say and do, and as a present he sent the king a piece of crimson satin velvet, for which he asked his pardon, as he had nothing else with which to pay for the provisions that the king had sent, because if he had come direct to Ceylon, he would have brought whatever was necessary to make a fitting present for so great a king. Diogo de Almeida, well clad, went with the messenger accompanied by four of his men. On their arrival the king did him much honour, because he had never seen any Portuguese and, on hearing the message from Dom Lourenço, was very glad and received the present, saying to his followers who were with him, ‘The Moors carried on their business with these people with evil deeds and therefore found evil in them; and all that they said is false. Inasmuch as I see that these men are so good that they would rather trust my word than my pledge, and without hostage come and speak with me inside my house, therefore I say that they are good men and only do evil to those who wish to do them evil.’ He then inquired of Diogo de Almeida what it was that the captain desired. He replied, ‘Sire, the captain of this fleet is the son of the viceroy of India and they are slaves of the king of Portugal, the greatest lord that there is in the world. They have come to India with many goods to sell and buy with the folk, who are good merchants, and in all the countries that desire peace and good

10

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

relations with them and to make war on any that may not desire peace, because the thing that they are most delighted to buy is good faith, which wherever they find it good, they purchase forever and purchase it with very good deeds, even to giving their lives and whatever they have for their friends. But when those people have thus agreed to a good peace and break it without justice and reason, they then take vengeance with fire and sword. With their good friends they keep friendship as with their own brothers, guarding their ports and people and vessels wherever they find them, because the Portuguese are lords of the sea. The captain has sent me to say to you that, if you shall approve of this settling with him, this friendship and good peace, he will establish trade with this country and, if you agree to this, he will consider himself fortunate to have arrived at this court of yours. He is now waiting for you to send a reply to this and says that, if you conclude this peace with him, in order that he may know that you will keep it firmly like a good friend, you will have to send him every year when our ships come here something good, as it shall please you, to be sent to the king of Portugal in order that he may know that you continue to be at peace with him and that he likewise might send you his gift, because, if you do not send him this gift of your own goodwill, he will not know if you are his friend or not. If you do this, your territories and ports and vessels will remain secure forever without anyone’s making war on you or doing you harm. And if anyone should make war on you, they will send you a fleet and soldiers and will help you against your enemies like their own brothers, and if you do not desire this peace, you will remain his enemy and they will do harm to everything of yours wherever they find it. You can take counsel on this and choose what you approve of.’ The king, while listening to what Diogo de Almeida said, had settled in his heart what reply he would give and answered that he was very pleased with all that he had said, if only the deeds should be equal to the words, that he desired peace as he had said, as to which he must give his bond, that every year he would give the king of Portugal of the best that was in his country, which was cinnamon and elephants, and that, if he wished, he would at once order the ships to be loaded with cinnamon and with two elephants and that in the bond he should say that as the son of the viceroy he had concluded this peace with him and every year he would send him a shipload of cinnamon and two elephants. Diogo de Almeida replied that he also must give his bond for what he had said and promised, signed with his own hand and by his prince and governors. ‘And order the bond that you ask for, to be written in your olas, and the captain will sign them,’ he added. This seemed good to the king, and he immediately had his bond of what he thus promised to give every year drawn up on a strip of gold and signed it with his prince and governors, and through one of these he sent it to Dom Lourenço, who received it with many honours that he showed to the governor, who thereupon drew from a cloth, a strip of silver which he gave to Dom Lourenço, and he wrote on it his bond of peace that he was concluding with him, and because the ink would not adhere to the silver, it was written on

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

11

paper pasted on the piece of silver, all written as Diogo de Almeida had said, and Dom Lourenço signed it and sealed it with the seal of arms in ink. This deed the governor likewise wrote on his olas, which Dom Lourenço also signed. Then he sent the king a piece of scarlet cloth and another of black velvet and to the governor he gave a piece of red satin and six scarlet caps, with which the king was greatly pleased, saying that Dom Lourenço had given him more than double the value of what he had to give him. Then the king sent a present of provisions for the whole armada, consisting of many fowls and figs15 and coconuts,16 which are eaten shell and all, and sweet oranges, of which the woods are full, and lemons and other fruits and sweet herbs. The rest of the natural forest consists of cinnamon trees, which are low with slender stems. It is a very salubrious country and abounding in big springs and very large streams of excellent water, and throughout the forests bees’ nests with much honey, wild birds and beasts of every kind in the world, so many that they wander among the houses. The island is about three hundred leagues in circumference, and four kings rule the whole [island], but this one is the principal, because only in his kingdom does cinnamon grow. But to return to my subject, I have to say that the Moors of Calicut whose ships Dom Lourenço had captured, seeing that the evil things they had said about us availed them nothing, and that the king had already concluded peace with Dom Lourenço, seeking some means of getting back their ships, collected a great present and brought it to the king and his governors, begging him not to allow their ships to be taken away from them in his port, which was a great derogation of his honour. The king replied that they had not considered his honour when they told him lies, and now they desired that his honour should be preserved in order that they might not have taken from them their ships, which had been captured by those whom they had called robbers, and who, according to them, were so bad that he could not ask for what they certainly would not give. The Moors answered, ‘Sire, we speak ill of the Portuguese, because they act so towards us, but do thou as a great king have pity on us.’ The king, in order to see whether what had been done was good or bad, sent and asked Dom Lourenço to release the ships, because by doing so he would gratify him. Dom Lourenço sent him word that the king of Calicut was false and had murdered the Portuguese who were in his city buying and selling in order that he might steal what they had. With this message he sent Fernão Cotrim, whom Dom Lourenço ordered to relate to the king all the evils that the king of Calicut had done. For this reason the king of Portugal had commanded that all merchants of Calicut, wherever they were found, were to be burnt alive and, on arriving at the port, he had not ordered the ships to be burnt because there were no Moors in them, 15

Plantains. King coconuts (Sinhala: tambili), which are consumed before they mature. Correia is obviously mistaken when he says ‘shell and all’. 16

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

but as he had requested it, he gave him the ships that he might use them as his own and did not give them to the Moors, being still their enemy, and he gave him the ships on condition that never again would he allow Moors of Calicut to enter his ports, because, if he found them there, he was bound to burn their ships. Then he ordered the ships to be taken back to the places where they had been anchored, for which the king sent him hearty thanks, saying that never again would he allow Moors of Calicut in his ports. Then Dom Lourenço, taking the cinnamon and the two elephants, prepared to depart and sent word to the king that he wished to leave behind at that port a memorial set up in remembrance of the peace that had been agreed to. At this the king was much pleased, saying that he would be glad if he erected many memorials that would last forever. Then Dom Lourenço went on shore and on a point of land which stood above the bay he erected a column of stone with the coat of arms such as I have already described and, when the marble was raised and put in place, Dom Lourenço, on his knees, offered a prayer to the cross that was on it and then retired.

(d)

Fernão de Queirós’s Version, 1680s From Fernão de Queyroz [Queirós], Conquista Temporal e Espiritual de Ceylão (Colombo, 1916), pp. 138–42. The translation is adapted from that of S. G. Perera in Fernão de Queyroz [Queirós], The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon (Colombo, 1930), pp. 176–82. Fernão de Queirós (1617–87), a Jesuit who never visited Sri Lanka, lived in India from 1635 onwards. He collected many documents on the Portuguese in Sri Lanka and in the 1680s wrote a comprehensive account of Portuguese activities in the island, which is a useful tool for analysing the evolution of the Portuguese story of the first encounter. Queirós’s account suggests that the hand of God directed the arrival of the Portuguese. The Moors are still viewed as the enemy and as untrustworthy. They are also portrayed as cowardly and having to be restrained by the Portuguese from fleeing overseas in fear of their lives. In this account also we have more explicit views of the Sinhalas of Kotte. The people, unaccustomed to cannon, were easily frightened by Portuguese fire. The king, who had heard of the Portuguese exploits, was quick to send presents and submit to vassalage. Local fright at Portuguese power made them try to bring the Portuguese envoy by a circuitous route to the capital city of Kotte, located just a few miles from the port of Colombo. However, the astute Portuguese on board fired a shot every hour so that the envoy heard it and knew he had not gone beyond a few miles of the port. Here was a story of Sinhala

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

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cunning which failed to outwit the Portuguese.17 A Sinhala saying – parangiya Kotte giya vagei (the way in which the Portuguese reached Kotte) – however, insinuates that, in fact, the Portuguese were taken in. The story of the first meeting becomes more elaborate. Now the tale includes two encounters between the Portuguese and the king of Kotte’s court. According to Queirós, the first Portuguese envoy did not meet the king but returned with a favourable message, and then an ambassador was sent to conclude a formal treaty. The ambassador met the king but saluted him in ‘European fashion’. By the seventeenth century it had become inconceivable to record that a Portuguese envoy had fallen prostrate before the ruler of a small Asian kingdom. Queirós’s story repeats other Portuguese accounts of how the king immediately agreed to tribute and vassalage. It is interesting to note that, according to this version, the copy of the treaty that the king of Kotte handed to the Portuguese was inscribed on beaten gold leaf, while that which was given to the local ruler was on paper, though Correia states that the paper was pasted on a strip of silver. Queirós’s account begins with the saving of Almeida’s fleet by divine intervention and ends symbolically with the establishment of a hermitage (church) next to a feitoria (trading post). The spiritual conquest is thus clearly made coeval with the temporal. Dom Lourenço de Almeida set out from Cochin in November of the year 150518 of our redemption with nine buggalows,19 of which the captains were Paio de Sousa, Lopo Cão, Nuno Vaz Pereira, Fernão Cutrim and others whom the negligence of time has left in oblivion, making for the Maldives, which are sixty leagues from that port, to await the ships of the south which sail between those islands to the strait of Bab el Mandeb. Being driven by contrary winds and finally by a violent storm, Dom Lourenço sought comfort from Frei Vicente, a Franciscan and a man of known sanctity, and said to him, ‘Father, what Jonas will put an end to this tempest? For were it in my power, I should try the impossible to carry out the order I have, not so much because of the prizes that would be secured by this expedition, but rather that I might not seem to be wanting in my duty.’ Frei Vicente replied, ‘The secrets of God are known to Him alone, and to those who by His favour share in them. I trust in the same Lord that towards morning I shall be able to give a better solution, for in matters of such import all hurry is rash.’ They passed the night in hopes of this reply, while the wind opposed the desire of 17

For a discussion of this incident see C. R. de Silva, ‘Beyond the Cape,’ in Implicit Understandings, Stuart B. Schwartz (ed.) (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 308–13. 18 On the date of the first encounter, see note 20 in Introduction above. 19 Two-masted Arab sailing vessel (Marathi: baglä, bagalä).

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

all. It abated in the early morning, and afterwards they heard Mass, which being over [they listened to] Frei Vicente, who said to them in public, ‘Brethren, the purpose of God in diverting our course will be shown by His Divine Majesty Himself, for before beginning Mass, I placed under the altar stone two writings in which I begged Him to show us whither He was pleased we should sail, for the Maldives or back to Cochin, and looking for them afterwards, I found neither; and as there was no way that the wind could have carried them away, I conclude that Heaven is leading us in another direction for the greater service of God.’ And though the virtuous man tried to encourage them, they were discouraged all the more, because it appeared to them that, since those ports had disappeared, there was only the sea left to them. But by a dispensation of Heaven, when they least expected it, they came in sight of the port of Galle at the extremity of the island of Ceylon, God wishing thereby to show them that He did not lead them to India to be pirates, but to be conquerors. There he spoke with [people of the] land and had some refreshment, and with scanty information from one who ill understood them, they went coasting along up to the port of Colombo, where they anchored on the fifteenth of the month of November, causing as much astonishment to the natives as grief to the Moors resident there for the loss which they foresaw either from our trade or from our presence. For, as so far we had made no attempt at the other conquest,20 they could not foresee that loss. They prudently dissembled their distrust by visiting our squadron and inquiring from the captain-major what spices he wished to buy and giving besides such information about the country and its people that, though for the nonce it seemed deceitful, in the future it proved to be true. King Parakramabahu21 soon learnt of the arrival of the Portuguese, of whom he had already heard before, and meanwhile, when our men, relying on the fair words of the inhabitants of Colombo, sent [on land] for wood and water, they tried to hinder them. But as they had so far had no experience of firearms, so great was their astonishment at the cannon balls that they fled into the interior, and the king of Kotte, which [city] is one short league from Colombo, at once sent his ambassadors the next day to give satisfaction for the disorder and to offer peace and friendship to Dom Lourenço with vassalage to the king of Portugal. They brought valuable presents [and] expressed how much their king was pleased that the Portuguese should come to his ports and carry on commerce with that island. For, as he had already had tidings of our arms, he thought it wiser to submit for the time being rather than run the risk of perishing. Such is the power of fear in a kingdom that is not prejudiced! So much did God facilitate our undertakings, so long as misgovernment and wrongs did not frustrate them.

20 21

The spiritual conquest. Dharma Parakramabahu IX.

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15

Dom Lourenço, accepting the apology, showed himself pleased with the proposal and, keeping sufficient hostages, sent Fernão Cutrim to visit the king and to assure him that, when he set out from Cochin with that squadron, it was for a different purpose and not for the one which circumstances brought about, and that, since Heaven had led him to that port, he would be ever grateful for the kind welcome which he had been given; and he commissioned Cutrim to act according to his wishes. The envoy set out and, though the way was very short, through the industry of the Sinhalas he spent three days on the journey, going up hill and down dale and crossing the same river several times. But as everything was foreseen and it had been agreed that a gun would be fired at every [turn of the] hourglass, he knew very well that the distance was short. He remonstrated with those who guided him, but in reply they laughed outright, making fun of his ignorance of the lay of the land, for their intention was merely to secure themselves from any danger. Cutrim reached Kotte but had no audience with the king, [who] intended thereby, it seems, to make himself more revered. However, he accepted the visit and agreed to comply with the proposal. The envoy returned in another three days, the Sinhalas keeping up the same deception, and gave D. Lourenço an account of what took place and of the favourable reply which he brought, which the captain-major ordered to be celebrated by firing all the artillery, waving flags and dressing the ships. The Moors did not understand that this was a courteous demonstration of joy, but thought it was [a manifestation] of hostilities as a result of our having received an unsatisfactory reply. Indeed, it frightened them so much that they began to cross over to the opposite coast on the mainland, preferring to quit their fatherland than to lose their lives. Dom Lourenço hindered this and, sending for some persons of authority, he told them that, when he arrived at that port, it was not [his purpose] to make war on the conquered, but to defend the fearful, and that they were not well advised to abandon for his sake the land in which they were born and in which they lived, for his intention was not to injure them, but to defend them, for if he understood their minds well, it was not a time for fresh altercations. They went back satisfied for the time being with this assurance, though they suspected it was a trick to catch them unawares. They were confirmed in this fear when they heard what the reply of the king was and the rejoicings of the fleet. These people had come to India by land and sea … [and] because of trade, they increased to such numbers that they formed a goodly population; and as the commerce of other nations also came to this port, it was so populated and so rich when Dom Lourenço arrived there that this must have given some people occasion to think that it was the metropolis of that kingdom, a title it never had. It was chiefly by means of these Moors that the products of this island were exported, from which they derived great profits, so that on the arrival of the Portuguese they gave everything up for lost, and thus common hatred as well as private interest made them ever seek our ruin.

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Dom Lourenço did not like to cause any delay in a matter of such great importance. He despatched Paio de Sousa as ambassador with every possible pomp to conclude what Fernão Cutrim had begun, giving him the necessary instructions agreed upon in Council with his captains. Paio de Sousa set out for Kotte, accompanied by some Portuguese on elephants that the king had sent, and followed the same route as Cutrim, with no small trouble. He met the king in a large, dim hall (a [style of] architecture common to these Asiatic heathen). It was hung with Persian carpets, and the king, dressed in a white garment,22 was seated on a throne of ivory delicately wrought, on a dais of six steps and covered with cloth of gold. On his head was a kind of mitre of brocade, ornamented with precious stones and large pearls, with two points or shawls23 of excellent workmanship falling on his shoulders. He was girt with a cloth of silver, the ends of which fell to his feet. He was shod with sandals studded with rubies. On his fingers could be seen a vast number of rubies, as well as emeralds and diamonds. His ears were pierced and were weighed down to his shoulders by earrings of great value. Many sconces and torchstands of silver surrounded him, shedding their light to dispel the darkness of the building. On both sides of the hall stood a row of men brightly clad in their fashion, with naked swords hanging and shields on their arms. Between them advanced the ambassador dressed in green velvet with loops of silver and a sword of the same metal. At the proper distance he made due obeisance in the European or Portuguese fashion, which the king was pleased to see, though the bystanders noticed how little we abase ourselves to kings, for as they treat them like their pagodes,24 they want our manners to be accommodated to theirs. They call them suamis,25 a word that among them and in this country signifies Lord God. They also address them as Sieto, Amuduru, Pacadac,26 which mean Majesty, Highness and Excellency. Nor do they behave with less ceremony towards their lords according to their quality, for it is only the officers of the household that they address as ‘ You’ and to the rest they use the words To, Umba, Tamiune, Tamuce, Tamunacete, Tamunde, Tamanaz, Amiduru,27 which have more applications than our ‘Your Lordship’ and ‘Your Honour’, for in these trifles they are very heedful and observant. In these Asiatic nations and castes of some credit there is neither anything of greater esteem than that they be given the honorific treatment due to them, nor on the other hand a greater grief than that anything due to them in this matter should be wanting.

22

Cabaya. Sauastos. 24 Pagoda, temple or shrine, usually Hindu or Buddhist; here used to indicate any sacred building. 25 Lord, deity. See Glossary. 26 Atto, Hamuduruwo and Pasadak are terms of respect designating superior persons. 27 Tho, Umba, Tamuse, Tamunnanse and Hamuduruwo are progressively more respectful terms of address in Sinhala. 23

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The ambassador, being seated after the first salutation and having given a long account of the Portuguese king and people to satisfy the curiosity of the Sinhala king, in whose opinion the king of Portugal had no less power than the greatest and the most powerful potentate in the world, came to the business which had brought him there, and he represented to the king how necessary it was for the captain-major to return at once to Cochin and to give an account of everything to the viceroy, his father, for confirmation of what was done there. The king showed not the slightest hesitation but, calling the council, he placed before his ministers the advantages resulting to his realm from the friendship and treaty with the Portuguese, with such good reasons as for the time being were enough to satisfy them all. They agreed that the king should be willing to give every year four hundred bahar of cinnamon as tribute to the king of Portugal, on condition that all the ports of Ceylon belonging to his kingdom should be under our protection to defend them and protect them from anyone who on our account should attempt to do them harm. This short agreement, written in Portuguese and in Sinhala, was read in public and signed by the king and the ambassador, who handed the Portuguese copy to the members of the king’s council and kept for himself the Sinhala copy on an ola28 of gold beaten for this purpose. Afterwards he took leave with many marks of friendship and on his return to Colombo was greatly welcomed by our people. The captain-major, to whom was accorded nearly all the credit for this great success, spent some days in feasts on board ship and, accepting the agreement conditionally, subject to the approval of the viceroy, he ordered the tribute of four hundred bahar of cinnamon to be taken on board with the intention of leaving behind him as factor (feitor) Jaime29 Mendes Cardoso, with some Portuguese. He ordered the Portuguese coat of arms to be engraved on a rock in front of the bay, a memorial that, though worn away by time, was still there in our time. On the same spot he erected a small hermitage dedicated to St Lawrence, which gave its name to that hill, and alongside it a factory, without any intention at the time of putting up other fortifications. The first Mass was said in it by the aforesaid Father Frei Vicente, who had come to India on the second voyage which the Portuguese made here with Pedro Álvares Cabral, and though he desired to remain in Ceylon to spread the faith of Christ there, it did not seem convenient at the time before a more lasting friendship had been formed and for other good considerations to give scope to his apostolic zeal, and he returned to Cochin in the same fleet. Dom Lourenço was treated well by the king and by the native Sinhalas as long as he was there, and [he] left them with the same regret as he felt at leaving the Portuguese who remained there.

28 29

Palm-leaf used for writing. Here it refers to a strip of gold leaf. See Glossary. The Portuguese text has Jane.

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

In a short time he reached Cochin and gave an account of everything to his father. This news gave general contentment and was received with many secular rejoicings, such as jousts, bullfights and other demonstrations; and on the religious side with processions, solemn Masses, sermons and other thanksgivings to Our Lord, who by this means had opened the door for the mastery of a new kingdom and to a large conquest of so many infidel souls. The viceroy confirmed the agreement and formed such an idea of the advantages of Ceylon that he wrote to the king, Dom Manuel, to persuade him that a part of the fleet setting out from the kingdom [of Portugal] should be directed to Ceylon, where, that island having been subdued, a new government could be created independent of the one already begun …

(e)

The Rajavaliya Story, mid-sixteenth century From Rajavaliya, A. V. Suraweera (ed.) (Colombo, 1976), pp. 213–4. Translation by Chandra R. de Silva.30 The following extract was copied into the Rajavaliya (except as noted below) from an earlier work, the Alakesvara Yuddhaya.31 Evidence within both the Rajavaliya and the Alakesvara Yuddhaya suggests that they were compilations of several traditions. The Alakesvara Yuddhaya appears to have been completed by 1581. The Rajavaliya (a larger chronicle with which the Alakesvara Yuddhaya was amalgamated) was periodically updated until the early nineteenth century. However, there is reason to believe that the section dealing with the period 1500 to about 1543 may have been composed as early as the 1540s or 1550s by someone who probably used existing folk tales to craft a story of the first encounter. If this is correct, the extract translated below is a near contemporary account. The text describes the newcomers in graphic terms, and the main ways in which they were different – appearance, dress, food, wealth and power – are all carefully noted. At first glance this is a picture of attractive and active people of great wealth and power confronting a group of locals, who were struck with amazement at the physical beauty,

30 This extract has also been translated into English in The Rajavaliya, B. Gunasekera (trans.), (Colombo, 1900), p. 63 and in Rajavaliya, A. V. Suraweera (trans.), (Colombo, 2000) p. 69. 31 The section of the Rajavaliya translated here is almost identical to the version found in the Alakesvara Yuddhaya. See Alakesvara Yuddhaya, A. V. Suraweera (ed.), (Colombo, 1965), p. 28.

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

19

strange food and carefree liberality of the strangers and were awed by their armour and cannon. However, within this very description is a vision of the ‘other’ that is much less complimentary.32 The picture of a soldier clad in full armour in tropical South Asia is also a picture of ridicule, and restless pacing is the opposite of the Buddhist ideals of serenity and of calm detachment. Is the story of the Portuguese seeming to drink blood intended to hint that they were a people ‘polluted’ in the Hindu sense of the term or perhaps that they were denigrating the Eucharist? It can be argued that there is no reason to believe that the Portuguese, after almost a decade of experience in Asia, were still paying exorbitant prices for fresh fruit (limes) and fish. Moreover, according to this account, the Sinhalas took the initiative. A royal prince was sent to observe the conduct of the Portuguese, and on the basis of his report the king granted an audience (dâkum) to the Portuguese. The word dâkum implies the grant to a subordinate of the right to appear before the royal presence. The subordinate would then offer gifts to the ruler, who could, if he wished, grant him favours and material benefits. The Sinhala version thus implied that it was the Portuguese who came as supplicants and that the king of Kotte graciously gave them gifts and honours. A ship set out from Portuguese territory in India in the year 1522 [sic]33 of our Lord Jesus Christ, and traversing the immeasurable ocean without harm through the power of God,34 arrived at the harbour of Colombo. The people who were at the port, having seen the ship, reported thus to King Parakramabahu: there is in our port of Colombo a race35 of people very white in colour and of great beauty; they wear jackets and hats of iron and pace up and down without resting for a moment. Seeing them eat bread and grapes and drink arrack, they reported that these people devour stones36 and drink blood. They said that these people give two or three pieces of gold or silver for one fish or one lime. The sound of their cannon is louder 32

Michael W. Roberts, ‘A Tale of Resistance: The Story of the Arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka’, in Ethnos (Stockholm), 54 (1–2), (1989), pp. 69–82. In 1984, Roberts, formerly of the Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide, introduced me to the idea that the description in the Rajavaliya contained a scornful view of the ‘other’. 33 The date is given only in the Rajavaliya, not in the Alakesvara Yuddhaya, and is an error. The first Portuguese visit was probably in 1506. See C. R. de Silva, ‘The First Visit of the Portuguese to Ceylon, 1505 or 1506?’ in Senerath Paranavithana Commemoration Volume, Prematilleke, Indrapala and van Leeuw (eds), (Leiden, 1978), pp. 218–20. 34 Alternative reading: ‘of the gods’. 35 jati. Alternative reading: kind, caste. 36 kudugal. Alternative reading: meat. This reading was first suggested by Michael Roberts in ‘A Tale of Resistance’, in Ethnos, 54, pp. 70–4.

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than thunder at the end of the world.37 Their cannon balls fly many leagues and shatter forts of stone and iron. These and countless other details were related to the king. On hearing this news, King Dharma Parakramabahu summoned his four younger brothers to his city and, having informed them and other chiefs and wise ministers, inquired, ‘Should we make peace with them or fight them?’ Thereupon Prince Chakrayudha said, ‘I will go myself and, after observing what kind of people they are, will inform you as to which of these two courses of action should be adopted.’ He went to the port of Colombo in disguise and, having observed and understood the ways of the Portuguese, he returned to the city and reported back that it was not worth38 fighting them and that it was better to grant them an audience. [Accordingly] one or two Portuguese were granted audience by the king, who gave them presents and made them bring presents and curiosities to him. The king also granted innumerable honours39 to the king of Portugal and became his true friend. Let it be known that from that day the Portuguese lived in the port of Colombo.

(f)

The Sitawaka Hatana Account, c. 1585 From A. W. A. Alahapperuma, Sitawaka Hatana, Rohini Paranavithana (ed.) (Colombo, 1999), stanzas 38–41. Translation by Chandra R. de Silva. This is a panegyric war poem composed around 1585 describing the achievements of the rulers of Sitawaka. The author was a commander of the Sitawaka armed forces. It provides a sense of a local understanding of the first encounter three generations after the event.

Stanza 38. The Portuguese set out from the land of Goa and, crossing the ocean, arrived at the port of Colombo. Stanza 39. Having landed at the port of Colombo, they constructed a fairground and began to trade their goods.

37 The words in the Rajavaliya mean ‘louder than thunder bursting on the rock of Yugandara’, and that is how both Gunasekera and Suraweera have translated it. This seems to be a corruption of the text in the Alakesvara Yuddhaya, and I have therefore used the Alakesvara Yuddhaya version here. 38 kam natha. Alternative reading: ‘that it was useless’. 39 nathak sammana deva. Alternative reading: ‘granted innumerable tokens of esteem’.

The First Visit of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka

21

Stanza 40. The Portuguese then went to Jayawardhanapura40 and received permission to trade there. Stanza 41. Having presented dâkum41 at the city of Kotte, they received permission (to trade) from that day onwards.

(g)

The Maha Hatana Account, late seventeenth century Kirimatiyawe, Maha Hatana, T. S. Hemakumar (ed.) (Kandy, 1964), stanzas 3–19. Translation by Chandra R. de Silva. This poem, composed in the second half of the seventeenth century, illustrates the further elaboration of the idea that the Portuguese were simply allowed to trade by the ruler of Lanka but used their cunning to consolidate their power. Compare this account with that of how the Portuguese established a foothold in Jaffna in document (c) in chapter 5. As the first encounter was in 1506, the reference in the text to Bhuvanekabahu (r. 1521–51) is an error.

Stanza 2. When king Bhuvanekaba was reigning justly and gaining fame, as if King Sakra had descended from heaven in the famous isle of Lanka, Stanza 3. The Portuguese, having had a pleasant stay in India, loaded valuables on their ships and came to blessed Lanka and saw its riches. Stanza 4. With their ships caught in a storm and losing their sails, the Portuguese made landfall at the port of Colombo by sheer physical strength. Stanza 5. Having entered Lanka, they gathered their presents, placing them on their heads and, (making everyone) happy, went to see king Bhuvanekaba. Stanza 6. Seeing the resplendent ruler, they kept aside the gifts that they had brought and, paying their respects by lowering their heads without reserve, they waited on the side after falling down at the [king’s] feet. Stanza 7. The king, who shone like the full moon and was as beautiful as a burnished golden statue, asked, ‘What are you called, you who fall before my clean feet?’ 40 41

Capital city of Jayawardhanapura Kotte. Customary dues presented to the ruler on being granted an audience.

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Stanza 8. ‘We are called the Portuguese42 from the city of Goa in India, which is full of prosperous people and where there are prosperous merchants. Stanza 9. We have brought many attractive goods from India and all imaginable kinds of valuable things. Please give us a plot of land extensive enough to lay a cowhide so that we might stay and trade with all comers.’ Stanza 10. The good ruler granted the extent of a cowhide in the city of Colombo, to which many ships come, so that they could trade with all comers without trouble. Stanza 11. When the just compassionate ruler granted land equal to a cowhide, the Portuguese, full of wisdom, tore the cowhide into hair-thin strips Stanza 12. Having promised king Bhuvanekaba to trade from the land and having promised to pay dues to him, [the Portuguese] seized the land, built a fort and thought of taking over the country. Stanza 13. Having obtained permission from the king of Lanka, they stretched the torn cowhide so that it enclosed much land with it and, quickly using wood and stones, they built a strong fort, which was like a royal residence. Stanza 14. Having become prosperous through trade in this place and having raised strong armies, they went to war with the gentle king. Stanza 15. Having vanquished the armies of Lanka and lowering the victorious flags of the king without hesitation, they spoke in ways that banish happiness and raised the prestige of the one who was to be the heir to Lanka. Stanza 16. Initiating claims to be the rulers and demonstrating their strength, they changed the name of the port of Colombo and called it the city of Colombo. Stanza 17. Achieving status by displaying their qualities, seizing parts of the country by force and converting those who were strong in their piety, they went about building forts. Stanza 18. The brave and powerful Portuguese, displaying their warlike skills and bravery, looked for foes in many lands and fought as one man many times. Stanza 19. Fighting the kings who ruled Lanka victoriously and uniting Lanka, the Portuguese levied taxes as they pleased and lived in comfort. 42

Pratikal.

Chapter 2

Sri Lanka and its Peoples

This chapter contains seven documents that describe Sri Lanka and its inhabitants. The earliest was written in 1518, and the material in the last dates from the 1620s. They illustrate some of the major interests of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka and their growing knowledge of the island. The first three accounts, all composed in the second decade of the sixteenth century, illustrate some of the aspects of Sri Lanka and its people about which the Portuguese had obtained information. Francisco de Albuquerque had some idea of the trading goods of Lanka but was willing to believe exotic stories about the marriage customs and social habits of the people, whom he did not distinguish from those of the Malabar coast. Both Barbosa and Pires were more discriminating observers, but their accounts concentrate on their chief interest – commerce. The missionaries of the mid-sixteenth century seem to have had some interest in learning about the local religions, but their combative attitude seems to have repelled the local Buddhist monks.1 By the end of the sixteenth century, as document (f) indicates, Portuguese knowledge of the mechanics of production of Sri Lanka’s exports had become much better and they were engaged in rationalizing these mechanisms to cut expenses or increase revenues. Yet, it is only in the seventeenthcentury account of Queirós (document (g)) that we see evidence of a more detailed knowledge about Sinhala society and caste.

(a)

Francisco de Albuquerque’s Report, 1518 From the Referir de Francesco dal Bocchier of 1 April 1518, in Jean Aubin, ‘Francisco de Albuquerque, un juif castillan au service de l’Inde portugaise, 1510–1515,’ in Arquivos do Centro Cultural Português, VI (1974), pp. 194–6. Translated from the Italian by Maura Hametz. Aubin identifies Francesco dal Bocchier with Francisco de Albuquerque, a Castilian Jew who served in Portuguese India from 1510 in various

1 See document (e) in this chapter and Paulo da Trindade, Chapters on the Introduction of Christianity to Ceylon taken from the Conquista Espiritual do Oriente, Edmund Pieris and Achilles Meersman (trans.), (Colombo, 1972), pp. 45–7.

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

capacities, but mostly as a translator. The document gives a good idea of what contemporary Portuguese knew and did not know about Ceylon at this time. Albuquerque was mistaken in thinking that cinnamon wood was used to build ships but he knew that the king claimed all precious stones over a certain value found in gem mines in the country. His garbled and fantastic accounts of marriage customs and the way in which the king granted audiences reflect the readiness with which exotic tales about the East gained ready currency among the Portuguese. This extract may be compared with the two following documents, which also date from the early sixteenth century. Ceylon is twelve leagues further,2 and the island measures fifteen leagues: a great deal of cinnamon grows there. There are great forests of trees, and the scrubby ones are the cinnamon [trees]. They are like laurels, and [their] wood is used to make ships, and those who do not want to [build ships] can scavenge natural things of the land. Other trees do not grow in this land, neither lemon nor citrons nor sweet oranges in quantity. It is a great land, which cannot be planted because nothing can be cultivated, but all things come naturally from the ground. The people are white, fat and well-built, dressed in apostolic fashion with their bodies covered; there are great jewels, and in a mountain on this island are found a great number of rubies, jacinths, sapphires, topazes, amethysts and garnets. Rubies of eight carats or more are found and belong to the king, and it is said that the king has greater wealth in jewels than in anything else, and many appreciate this. And if a foreigner comes to live on this island, they give him two men to accompany him, so that no one but the king can sell him jewels, and he [the king] sells them for a high price, as they are highly valued among this tribe. The animals on this island are domesticated elephants, and they are very numerous. They are appreciated throughout India more than other [elephants] because the elephants of Vijayanagar and Urin3 and Malabar fear these elephants of Ceylon, which are victorious in battle, so that the others cannot but dread them. It is said all over the Indies that on this island Adam was born, and everyone comes to the island on a pilgrimage: the rubies of the island are greater than those of Ava.4 As in Vijayanagar, when the king gives a public audience he is naked. [He is] entirely covered with jewels great in size and of various types. The room where he stays is adorned in gold and hung with jewels, principally rubies, and he stands with one foot drawn up,5 with a ruby-studded toothpick, which is large and well made and becomes intertwined with his moustache. He lives in a house on an island surrounded by water and there keeps an idol of gold 2

From Palayakayal. This place cannot be identified, but it may refer to a place in Pegu (southern Burma). 4 In Burma. 5 Perhaps in the posture of the dancing god S ´ iva. 3

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25

adorned with many jewels of excellent quality. To guard this idol he has some crocodiles that are tame for their overseer but are dangerous to others. There is a custom that no one may wed any woman unless a priest, who is called brahmin, has not first taken her virginity. From Malabar to Ceylon the people follow this [religious] order, and this is done as a guarantee. And I, Francesco dal Bocchier, saw that the sister of the king of Cochin, wanting to marry, sent for the brahmin and gave him 3 000 fanões, so that he could take her virginity, for otherwise she could not be married. Any man who worships the above-mentioned idol believes that, if he is infirm and suffers from an incurable disease and cannot provide for himself, he can go in front of this idol with some incense and with a dagger in his hand and his body swaying and there petition for mercy and commend his soul. [By doing so] his body will be transformed into that of a king. Believing this will happen, he kills himself in this fantasy. After death his body is burned, and his ashes are strewn in the wind with great ceremony, but a portion is saved for his devotion. Finally, here in Ceylon is the end of India: others who die there are called focaria.

(b)

Duarte Barbosa’s Description, c. 1518 From Duarte Barbosa, The Book of Duarte Barbosa, Mansel Longworth Dames (trans. and ed.), 2 vols (London: Hakluyt Society, 1921), 1, pp. 109–20. I have checked Dames’s translation against Augusto Reis Machado (ed.), Livro em que dá relação do que viu e ouviu no Oriente Duarte Barbosa (Lisbon, 1946), pp. 176–81 and Maria Augusta Viega de Souza (ed.), O Livro de Duarte Barbosa, 2 vols. (Lisbon, 2000) II, pp. 278–95. Barbosa lived in Portuguese India from 1501 for most of the rest of his life. He completed his book around 1518. It was first published in an Italian translation in Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Delle Navigazioni e Viaggi (Venice, 1550–59), and the first Portuguese version was published only in 1813. In the version below the materials added in the Ramusio version are given in footnotes. Barbosa’s (seemingly accurate) information on the appearance of merchants, the hunting of elephants, on cinnamon and the dangers of the shipping routes illustrates Portuguese commercial interests, while his colourful description of the pilgrimage to Adam’s Peak shows a growing accumulation of knowledge among the Portuguese of the more exotic social and religious aspects of the East.

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

The Island of Ceylon Leaving these Maldive islands and proceeding further,6 we come to the great island of Ceylon7 where the king our lord possesses a newly built fort for trade, which was set up by Lopo Soares de Albergaria when he was governor of India.8 The people of this island are heathen, and many Moors, who are obedient to the king of the land, live in large settlements in its seaports. The natives of this island, Moors and heathen, are great merchants. They are stout and good-looking, tawny, almost white in colour. Most of them are bigbellied; they are extremely luxurious and pay no attention to matters of armaments, nor do they possess any weapons. All are merchants and given to good living. They go naked from the waist up and below they are clothed in silk and cotton. They wear small turbans on their heads. Their ears are pierced, and they wear much gold in them.9 In this island is found the true and good cinnamon. It grows on the hillsides in bushes like bay trees. The king has it cut into fine branches, and the bark is stripped

6 The Italian version in ‘Libro di Odoardo Barbosa’ in Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Navigazioni e Viaggi, 6 vols (Turin, 1978), Vol. II, pp. 537–709 adds, ‘where the Cape Camorim is turned.’ As translated by Dames in Duarte Barbosa, I, p. 109. 7 Ramusio, Delle Navigazioni, adds ‘which Moors, Arabs, Persians and Syrians call by that name, but by the Indians it is called Tenarisim, which means “land of delight”’. Translation adapted from Dames in Duarte Barbosa, I, p. 109. 8 The fort was built in 1518. 9 Ramusio, Delle Navigazioni, has the following:

and precious stones in such quantity and so great that their ears touch their shoulders; on their fingers they wear many rings set with the finest gems, and they find themselves with golden belts set with stones. Their language is drawn partly from Malabar and partly from Coromandel. Many Malabar Moors come to settle in this island because of the great liberty that they enjoy there and also because it is not only well furnished with all the comforts and delights of the world, but is also a country with a very moderate climate, where men live in good health longer than in any other part of India, and few become ill. Here grow many and excellent fruits, the hillsides are covered with sweet and bitter oranges with three or four distinct flavours, and of some the rind is sweeter than the juice, and they are even larger than Adam’s apple; lemons of a sweet bitterness, some large and some very small and sweet; also many other kinds of fruit not found in our lands, and the trees are continually laden with them throughout the year, so that flowers and fruits ripe and unripe are seen perpetually. There is also very great plenty of flesh of different kinds of animals, and of fowls of the air, all delicate food, of fish as well great store, which are caught close to the island. Of rice there is but little; they bring the greater part of it hither from Coromandel and this is their principal food. There is also great plenty of good honey, and of sugar, which is brought from Bengal. Butter is found on the island in abundance. Translated by Dames in Duarte Barbosa, I, pp. 110—112.

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27

and dried during certain months of the year. He gives it over with his own hand to those merchants who come to buy it, for no resident in this country except the king can gather it. In this island are reared many wild elephants which the king has ordered to be caught and tamed. These he sells to the merchants of Coromandel, of Vijayanagar, Malabar, the Deccan and Cambay, who come hither to seek them. They are captured in this way: a female elephant is placed as a decoy, fastened by the foot to a tree with strong chains on the hill where they graze. Around it they dig three or four very deep pits covered with very thin branches spread over the ground as cunningly as they can. The wild elephants, seeing the female, fall into these pits, where they are kept for seven or eight days without food, and many men watch them night and day and speak to them so as not to allow them to sleep until they become tame, and then feed them from their hands. When the elephants are tame and broken in, they surround them very gently with thick chains, and in order to draw them forth from the pit, they throw in so many branches that the elephant gradually rises until he can come out. They then tie him to a tree, where they keep him several days more, men with fires always watching by night, coaxing him and speaking to him constantly, and giving him food in small quantities until they have him at their disposal. In this way they capture male and female, great and small. Sometimes two fall into one pit. For them, these elephants are valuable merchandise; they are worth much and are greatly esteemed by the kings of India, who keep them for war and to labour on various tasks. Some are very tame and have as much sense and understanding as humans. The best are worth a thousand or fifteen hundred cruzados, others four or five hundred according to their training; this in Malabar and Coromandel. In this island their price is low. No one save the king may take them.10 Also in this island are found precious stones of various kinds in plenty and also many lapidaries, who are so skilled that, if somebody should bring one of them a handful of earth in which there are precious stones, he would say at once, ‘There are rubies in this hand and sapphires in that.’ In the same way, when they see a ruby or other stone they say, ‘This must be kept for so many hours in the fire and it will turn out very clear and good.’ The king sometimes ventures to place a ruby in a very fierce charcoal fire for the time the lapidary tells him; and if any ruby endures this without peril of destruction, it remains much more perfect in colour. When the king finds any precious stone he keeps it for himself and places it in his treasury.11

10

Ramusio, Delle Navigazioni, has I, ‘and he pays those who capture them.’ Translation adapted from Dames, Duarte Barbosa, p. 115. 11 Ramusio, Delle Navigazioni, adds Near this island there is a shoal in the sea covered by a depth of ten or twelve fathoms of water whereon are found pearls both great and small in great quantity. Of these some are

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

In the middle of this island there is a lofty range of mountains, among which is a very high stony peak. On the summit of this is a tank of water deep enough to swim in and a very great footprint of a man in a rock, well-shaped. The Moors say this is the footprint of our father Adam, whom they call Adombaba. From all the Moorish regions and realms they come here on pilgrimage, declaring that from that spot Adam ascended to Heaven. They travel in pilgrims’ clothing, girt about with great iron chains and clad in the hides of leopards, lions and other wild beasts of the field. On their right arms they have great blisters caused by burning, which they perpetually expose on the way so that they may always bear open wounds with them, saying that they do so for the love of God and of Mohammed and of Adam. When they reach the mountain, they go up, but they cannot ascend the peak by reason of its steepness except by the ladders of very thick iron chains that are placed around it. At the top they bathe in the water of that tank and recite their prayers, and they hold that thereby they are saved and freed from all their sins. This island of Ceylon is very near the mainland, and between them there are two shoals in the midst of which is a channel called by the Moors and heathen, Chilaw. All the zambucos of Malabar pass through here on their way to Coromandel. Many of these are lost on the shoals every year, for the channel is very narrow. In the year when the admiral12 came the second time to settle the affairs of India, so many of these ships and zambucos of Malabar were lost that twelve thousand men who came here determined to drive away the Portuguese fleet from India without allowing it to obtain cargoes were drowned.

shaped like a pear. The Moors and heathen of a city named Kayalpattinam, belonging to the king of Kollum, used to come hither twice in every year to fish for them. They are in oysters smaller and smoother than ours. Men dive and find them at the bottom of the sea, where they can stay for a great length of time. The little pearls belong to those who gather them but the great ones are for the king, who keeps his factor there. Besides this, they pay him certain dues to obtain his permission to fish. The king of Ceylon lives in a city called Colombo, which stands on a river with a good port, to which every year ships from divers lands sail to take cargoes of cinnamon and elephants and bringing gold, silver, very fine Cambay cotton cloths and goods of many other kinds such as saffron, coral, quicksilver, cinnabar. Yet their greatest profit is in gold and silver, for they are worth more here than elsewhere. Also many ships come from Bengal and Coromandel, and some from Melaka to buy elephants, cinnamon and jewels. There are also four or five other ports in this island, populous towns, where great trade is carried on, which are under the rule of other lords, nephews of the king of Ceylon, to whom they owe allegiance; yet at times they rise up against him. Translation adapted from Dames in Duarte Barbosa, I, pp. 116–17. Vasco da Gama in 1502.

12

Sri Lanka and its Peoples

(c)

29

Tomé Pires’s Description, c. 1518 Adapted from Tomé Pires, The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires and the Book of Francisco Rodriguez, Armando Cortesão (trans. and ed.), 2 vols (London: Hakluyt Society, 1944), I, pp. 84–7. Tomé Pires was a Portuguese apothecary who served in the East from 1511. He supervised the spice trade in Melaka from 1512 to 1515. His book was completed soon after and, although parts of it were published in an Italian translation in Ramusio’s Delle Navigazioni et Viaggi, vol. 1 (Venice, 1554), the full text remained unpublished until 1944. Pires’s account, like Barbosa’s, indicates the great Portuguese interest in trade. However, his statement that priests wear white suggests that he was unaware that the majority of people in Sri Lanka were Buddhists and that Buddhist monks wore saffron robes in contrast to the priests in Hindu temples, who wore white.

Account of the island of Ceylon The beautiful island of Ceylon is situated over against Comorin; it extends almost to Nagore, which must be a good hundred and thirty leagues of coastline. Cape Comorin is thirty-five leagues out to sea, and from there onwards it draws nearer until at the nearest point it is only fifteen leagues away. All the Malabar ships sail between this island and the Coromandel Coast, but those making for Bengal or Pegu or Siam go round the island on the southern side. The island of Ceylon is large; it must be three hundred leagues in circumference, much longer than it is wide. It is very populous; it has many towns and large houses of prayer, with copper pillars and with roofs covered with lead and copper. There are five kings in Ceylon. They are all heathens. They stand between the people of Malabar and the Klings.13 The land is well provided with everything, except that there is a scarcity of rice. It has plenty of other foodstuffs. The best part of the island is from Galle up to the point opposite Comorin, and this is where the chief king is and the best towns. At this point rise great mountain ranges, and here are found precious stones in this king’s land, where all trade is. It is an island for trade and navigation.

13

The people of Kalinga on the northeast coast of India.

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Ports of the island of Ceylon The chief one is Colombo; others are Negombo, Chilaw,14 Devinuwara and Weligama. The king has his residence near the port of Colombo, half a league from the port, and in the greater part of the island has the following merchandise: Ceylon merchandise It has all kinds of precious stones, except diamonds, emeralds, and turquoises. It has all the others in quantities. The stones are not sold without the king’s licence. Every stone in the country worth fifty cruzados belongs to the king. This is by decree under pain of death to whoever has it, and it is sold through the king’s hands to whoever goes there to buy it. Ceylon has a great abundance of elephants and ivory; it has cinnamon. Elephants are sold by the cubit; they are measured from the tip of the front foot to the top of the shoulder. Cinnamon is usually worth a cruzado a bahar. The bahar is the same as that of Cochin – three quintais and thirty arrateis. The country has a great deal of areca-nut, which is called avelana Indiae in Latin. It is eaten with betel. It is a foodstuff and is very cheap. It is sold in Coromandel. Ceylon trades elephants, cinnamon, ivory and areca with the whole of Coromandel and Bengal, [and] Pulicat, taking rice, white sandalwood, seed-pearls, cloth and other merchandise in return. Merchandise of value in Ceylon Rice, silver, copper, a little quicksilver, rosewater, white sandalwood and Cambay cloths, a few cacutos, a great many mantazes, vispices.15 All white cloth is of value, and some clothing – not much of this from Pulicat – a little pepper, and also cloves and nutmeg. Coinage of the country They have silver fanões, four being worth one Cochin fanão, of which there are eighteen to the cruzado. Gold money is current everywhere in Ceylon at its face value. Ceylon has good craftsmen – chiefly jewellers, blacksmiths, carpenters and turners. The people of Ceylon are serious and well-educated. The grandees do little honour to strangers, and they only do not steal if they cannot. They have complete justice among themselves.

14

Celabão. Cacuto was an Indian cloth, perhaps black or dark, of Persian origin. Mantaz was a Gujarati (Cambay) cloth, perhaps of cotton. Vispice is a coarse cotton cloth in India. 15

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The king is very arrogant: he does not allow people to speak to him except from far off. He always used to be a tributary of the king of Kollum, sending him forty elephants yearly. But since the affair of the factor whom they killed there in Kollum, they say the king of Ceylon has not paid him any more tribute. The land of Ceylon is beautiful and umbrageous. It has many native fighting men, archers and lancers. It has a few ships of its own, [and] they trade from Kollum [and] from Bengal to Cambay. They trade mainly in the port of Colombo because it is the most important. They do not trade with the other kings because these have no ports and, if some have them, they are shallow. But the kings are wealthy; they come and bring elephants and cinnamon to this king’s land and there they arrange about their merchandise. These kings have some rice in their lands. They are all relations and friends of each other. The island of Ceylon has many religious men, such as friars, monks and beguines, who are bound by a vow of chastity; and every man of Malabar and every gentile holds the observances of Ceylon in veneration. Their temples are richly adorned, and the priests dress in white, not after the fashion of the people. They are illdisposed towards Moors and even worse towards us. The different peoples say that they are all ruled justly.

(d)

António Pessoa’s Report, (1548?) From ‘Information on Matters Relating to Ceylon by António Pessoa, factor who was [there]’, from António Pessoa, ‘Livro que trata das cousas da India e do Japão’, Boletim Biblioteca da Universidade de Coimbra, XXIV (1960), pp. 36–9. Translated by Chandra R. de Silva. This account is part of a long manuscript entitled Livro que Trata das Cousas da India e do Japão, now in the Biblioteca Municipal de Elvas. It is published here for the first time in English translation. It illustrates the value that the Portuguese placed on the supply of Sri Lankan cinnamon and how they used local wood for shipbuilding and for the supply of oars for galleys. Pessoa was the Portuguese factor in Kotte in the 1530s. Adelino de Almeida Calado, who edited the Portuguese version, dates the document as completed in 1548.

Your Lordship ordered me to give information regarding some of the things of Ceylon and of cinnamon and its price in order to deal with it as it pleases him. In Ceylon, three hundred bahar of cinnamon of tribute, collected at three quintais per bahar, are paid as tribute to our lord the king, for I settled with the king regarding the weight. For formerly it used to be less by two arrobas and twenty

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arrateis per bahar, and the rest that is taken is bought for the said lord and for each five bahar is paid one gold português, which makes one pardão of tangas per quintal. For the other coarse [cinnamon] that remains from that from which the tribute is chosen, the king is obligated to pay one gold português for eight bahar, which is twenty-four quintais; all this I settled by an agreement he signed in my time.16 All this cinnamon begins to be harvested in June, which is the time the blacks are made to go to harvest it, and they do this until the end of October and for part of November, until it has finished being gathered in the house, and in these dealings there are always three Portuguese men, for without them it cannot be done, and they have to be very careful at harvesting. If your lordship wants us to harvest as much as can be harvested, this can be done up to fifteen hundred bahar, if great diligence is put into it. If that much is not needed, in March you can write to tell this to the factor [feitor] who is there, so that he harvests only the amount necessary, because, if more than necessary is harvested, the king is upset if it is not bought, and it seems he is right. This other way all [trouble] is prevented. If there is war in Ceylon, I say that in no way can there be any cinnamon, even if there is a fortress there, because it is harvested by the native people and in many places throughout the whole island, so that when there is dissension17 in the land between one man and his brother, it cannot be so plentiful, except with much work on the part of the factor and the Portuguese there, and more [work] when there is war. In Ceylon as many masts and yards can be obtained as are wanted for galleons, galleys and ships, and all other things for which there is need, of puna18 and cherapuna, which is the best type to be found.19 In Ceylon I made in a year, fifteen hundred galley oars, and two bastardas,20 and I believe they will cost about five hundred xerafins, and these were made in the winter. If made in the summer and with luuas21 cutting the wood, they would be better. It will be necessary, if they are made here, to send here someone who 16

This contract was signed in 1533. For an English translation of the contract see C. R. de Silva, ‘Colonialism and Trade: The Cinnamon Contract of 1533 between Bhuvanekabahu, King of Kotte and António Pessoa, Portuguese factor in Kotte,’ University of Colombo Review, 10 (Dec. 1991), pp. 32–3. The original Portuguese version found in Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Corpo Chronologico 2–51–96 has not been published. 17 ha desavemça. 18 Name of a tree of which the wood was used to build masts. 19 Written on the side in a different hand ‘and also all sorts of wood and tavoado in great abundance’. 20 Small sailing vessel. 21 The Portuguese edition has substituted limas for the word luuas in the manuscript but admits that this is questionable. This word could refer to carpenters.

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specializes in making oars22 in order to show the carpenters the way to work them and to cut them in the king’s woods with his permission. As for the problem of the ships that go to Ceylon, it is this: I say that those who go there to make their fortunes in that land bring cinnamon from there to India, which is to Cambay and from there to the Strait.23 Nevertheless, if Your Lordship wishes to give some permits, it can be done thus: they will be required after they load their merchandise to go to the port of Colombo and there be examined by the factor or by the person in charge, with a clerk of the factory [feitoria], to get a certificate from the factor confirming that they were examined. They [the traders] will come directly from Cochin in order to be examined by order of the superintendent of revenue or of the person Your Lordship designates. There they will get another certificate stating how the merchandise [cinnamon] was acquired and, if they do not have these, they will lose the ships and the merchandise they carry to Your Highness. There24 is more in Ceylon and very much fishing of chanks, pearls and coral, and each of these things in its perfection, and there are in the land great mines of rubies and sapphires;25 the forests are all of cinnamon and sweet orange trees, the fruit of which are the best in the universe, and there is around these forests great abundance of elephants, which are taken to all parts of India and are very valuable. In addition, Ceylon produces much cardamom of the very best kind, be it from Brazil or Portugal, and much eaglewood,26 but not as good as Melaka’s. There is in the land much pepper and, if one wanted to plant it, there would be as much of it as in Malabar. There is very fertile land and it would give great abundance of wheat and rice, and one of the reasons why it does not is that the people of the area have no property because it all belongs to the king. In addition there is in Ceylon great abundance of very cheap meats, namely, cows, pigs, sheep, chickens,27 and many things of the woods, of hares, deer, and other animals, as well as a great quantity of fish, especially swordfish, of which a great number is taken to India each year, because it is the best around, and also flounder, sardines, and many other kinds of fish. There is also in the land much pitch and much coconut oil, the cheapest in all India, which they load, and there is also another oil they make of paoo and a great quantity of butter, and cottons, from which one could make many clothes. The whole land is full of palm trees and

22

This translation of ‘remolar’ was suggested by Alan Strathern. Straits of Hormuz 24 The Portuguese editor notes that the whole of this long paragraph as well as the marginal notes that go with it were written by another scribe. This suggests that it is a later addition, and was not written by António Pessoa. 25 (In the margin) ‘and cat’s eyes’. 26 A hardwood of the daphne family, also known as aloes-wood, which, however, is not found in Ceylon. 27 In the margin ‘e bufaras’. 23

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

areca-nut trees, from which is gathered every year a great quantity of coconuts and areca-nut that they ship to India and to the coast of Pegu and Martaban and, if one wanted to get the coir rope from the coconuts, there would be as great an abundance of it as there is in the Maldives. So there is in the land so many of the fruits of India and some grape vines from Portugal.

(e)

Fr Morais’s Letter, 1552 Letter of Fr E. Morais to the Jesuits of Coimbra, Colombo, 28 November 1552. Translation adapted from that of Fr V. Perniola in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka: The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, 1505–1565 (Dehiwala, 1989), pp. 318–26. The Portuguese original of this letter was published in Josef Wicki, SJ, (ed.), Documenta Indica (Rome, 1948–79) vol. II, pp. 425–38 and in Georg Schurhammer SJ and E. A. Voretsch (eds), Ceylon sur Zeit des Königs Bhuvaneka Bähu und Franz Xavers, 1539–1552 (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 622–35. This letter of Fr Morais makes it clear that by 1552 there were communities of Portuguese living in Colombo and Kotte. Morais seems unable to view with much sympathy either the vegetarians or those who only abstained from eating beef (obviously those influenced by the Hindu tradition). His letter also gives us glimpses of how local attitudes influenced the Portuguese who settled in Sri Lanka. Morais notices that even the fishermen have been influenced by (Buddhist) antipathy to taking life. He mistakenly thinks that some people subsist only by chewing betel leaves and areca-nut. Clearly, however, he is impressed by Buddhist temples and wishes to know more about the religions of the East.

It was at the earnest request of the viceroy when I was in Goa that Father Master Gaspar28 sent me to the island of Ceylon, where I am still. This island is two hundred leagues from Goa. The principal purpose for which I was sent to this island is the conversion of the king and also the welfare of the Portuguese, of whom there are many here. These, being in the island and far from the governor, were in the habit of disobeying the law of God and man, committing many evils. I also brought the jubilee29 that the king obtained from the pope30 and sent to the bishop 28

Gaspar Barzeus was vice-provincial in Goa from April 1552 to October 1553. Celebration of every fiftieth year. 30 Julius II (r. 1550–55). 29

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of these regions. The bishop31 authorized me to publish it in two cities of this island, that is, in Colombo and Kotte. I published and preached it, and Our Lord in his great mercy granted such an abundance of grace that the people did penance with very great zeal. Up to now, I have not seen anything like it. The most sinful and lewd actions were openly performed. There was no one to reproach them, except in so far as it was possible some Franciscan friars who were here and who, not being preachers, could only reprimand individuals. There were those who lived in open concubinage with pagan and even with Christian women. They publicly ate meat on Fridays and Saturdays, [some] at the table of all the captains and the others in their own homes. They baked bread on Sundays and feast days just as on any other days; carpenters and blacksmiths worked on feast days as on other days. Nobody observed the precepts of the Church, nor paid any attention to them. Most people did not go to confession. There were more public women than wives to be found, since the number of women was greater than the number of men. The majority of the men were quarrelsome, lawless, and mixed up with the pagans. All this was so general and widespread that nobody took it as a sin, and nobody tried to avoid it. After I had preached two or three times, while I was in the house of the captaingeneral, there was there also a fidalgo who, as if to do me a great favour, told me, ‘Father, today you frightened me so much that, instead of eating a chicken for dinner, I took only sweet dessert.’32 This took place on a Friday. When I heard this, I began to speak very strongly and to ask the captain to arrest this person, for it was a heresy. For he was certainly a bad Christian and did not well understand the Faith if, being in good health, he still ate such a sweet dessert on a Friday in his own house. The fidalgo took this as a joke so as not to feel ashamed. But I told him more of the truth as far as I knew it and was able to do. I am sure that, if the same thing were to happen again, he would not dare to answer me in that way. Another time, at the invitation of the captain, I went to the house where we were to lodge, in order that I might arrange to enter into possession the following day. That day happened to be a Sunday. When I arrived, I found workmen at work in the house, together with the meirinho.33 There also I showed my astonishment that they should be working on a Sunday with such impunity. I told them that, if they continued, I would not take the house. They went away and till today they have not come back, I suppose because they are angry. Regarding the baking of bread, they produced many contradictory excuses, saying that the bread could not be kept because it became hard. The real reason was that they wanted to eat fresh bread baked on the same day. Regarding this, I said many things as the Lord inspired me that we should sanctify the Lord’s Day. I told 31

Bishop of Goa, D. João de Albuquerque. A dish made with milk, sugar, rice, flour and chicken. 33 Officer of justice who apprehends criminals. 32

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them that I would rather not eat at all and assured them of this. Finally, they abstained from baking bread on Sundays and feast days. It was the same with regard to the eating of meat. It was less trouble to find and cook meat than fish, though there is an abundance of fish, if only they look for it. But it was hard for them to forego meat and, believing that I would get tired of speaking of this, they decided not to give up meat completely, till I told them in my sermon of the evil brought about by the mouthful of food taken by Adam. I also explained to them the saying of the Gospel, ‘It is not what goes into a person’s mouth that makes him unclean,’ a saying many misunderstand and appropriate to suit their needs. The outcome of it was that they came to my house on that day to ask pardon and promised me that they would no longer serve or eat meat. To point out their faults and to instruct them with regard to these sinful actions, I began to preach to them twice every Sunday and on feast days. So they then began to come to confession in fear and trembling, protesting that, if they had had someone to instruct them, they would not have sinned so much and so openly, but that they had never had things explained to them in that way. They said that the viceroy had come with the bishop and with four or six preachers, but that they had never preached or said the things that I was telling them. This was true, for the preachers, though six of them had gone there with the viceroy, had not preached except to the viceroy. They had said nothing to stir them, nor had they preached to them, since discords prevailed among them. Thus the country suffered greatly, and the people were restless and leading scandalous lives, and neither reproof nor instruction was given. To the ignorant they gave the impression that sinning was not such an evil. The sermons were preached before educated people, and such behaviour had not been their subject. Of those living in concubinage, many gave up their mistresses, others married them and made reparation for the scandal they had caused. They did their penance privately. But they would have been ready to do public penances if I had imposed them. But I did not think it expedient, nor did I impose them. But there was nobody who did not take the discipline34 from time to time. I had seven disciplines with me, and they were always in great demand. They also got the Franciscan friars to lend them their disciplines. Many attended my sermons and became very pious, and many of them now go about with a rosary in their hands. We have to give many thanks to God for such a quick change. Many offer me gifts, but I do not accept them, and if they send them to me, I send them back. I have accepted only a cassock sent to me by the vicar, and this only because be insisted very much; but then, with his permission, I passed it on to my brother,35 who was in greater need of it. They used to send me such a quantity

34 35

An instrument of penance and mortification in the form of a whip or cord. Brother António Dias.

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of food that much was left over. Since in this land it is taken as a great offence to return it, I went from Colombo to Kotte to avoid the gifts they were sending. I said this to them in the hope that they would stop sending so much food. I have never asked directly or indirectly for anything whatsoever that the captain and all the officers of justice have not granted, either for the Christians or for the pagans. But I do not ask, unless a thing seems to me just and, nevertheless, I lean more towards mercy than towards severity. Thinking that I might be on their side, many pagans have become Christians. I baptized them, knowing that they were asking to become Christians for this reason and not for any other motive, because some, though they enter by this door, are sometimes good. I sincerely believe that all would be good if they had someone to instruct them. But it is a pity to see that there are many Christians here who have never been taught to make the sign of the Cross or to recite the ‘Our Father’. They know nothing of what it means to be a Christian because there is nobody to teach them. Since I noticed this, I have not easily baptized anyone, unless I have first been requested several times. Now I have to go to a region where they have sent for me, as more than a thousand people there wish to become Christians. They have asked me to go there since so many of them cannot come to where I am. I am delaying my going there as there is nobody in that place to whom I can entrust their teaching. A few days ago a man of influence in these parts, not far from where I am, became a Christian, with many of his people. When he was baptized, he told me that his wife wanted to become a Christian, and that he would bring her here. Today he sent me a letter telling me that she is anxious to become a Christian, but that I should go to her house to baptize her one day early in the morning, so that she might not be seen by anyone. Noblewomen in this country hold it as a great disgrace to be seen by any man other than their husband. A princess of these parts, the wife of the prince of the Seven Korales, when she happened to be seen by a man, committed suicide by taking poison. Yet I did not want to agree to baptize her on that condition, as I did not wish to put the women who had already become Christian in a bad light. In this country there are many false beliefs sown by the devil, and to eradicate them there is need of much time and trouble. I mention those that I remember, for I do not know them all. There is a class of gentiles who do not kill any living creature, not even the most poisonous snakes, nor any insect or worm whatever. They do not eat anything that has been killed, whether it is meat or fish. They do not eat bread, however hungry or needy they might be. Their food is made up of the leaves of a certain creeper36 that climbs other trees like ivy. These leaves are smeared with the same kind of lime that they use for whitewashing their houses.

36

Betel leaves.

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When they run short of lime, they scrape some from the walls, which they then smear on the leaves that they want to eat. With these leaves they eat a fruit37 that is like the fir cone of the cypress tree. This fruit tastes like dry bread and is equally hard, whether it is green or dried. They eat rice also, but, as I have already said, their main food is these leaves with lime. There is another class of people who do not kill any living creature, except those that they themselves need for their food, such as rats and salamanders and lizards of the forests; for they do not eat beef or the flesh of other animals. There is another class of people who kill fish, and this is only the caste they call paravas. These do not kill any poisonous insect they may find in their house. Yet all these people, if they choose and are able to do so, kill men, and their doctrine does not forbid it. There is another class of people that eats fowl and wild boar and deer, but does not eat the flesh of cows, since they believe that their souls enter into cows after death; they will never kill a cow or eat its flesh. All these people worship idols of stone, bronze and gold, and they have spacious pagodes,38 which are their churches where they perform their idolatrous worship with as much devotion as good Christians who pray to the true God and offer the true sacrifice of the Mass. These unfortunate people have two different kinds of priests: the yogis39 and the Buddhist monks,40 who are very zealous, just as friars are among us. They dress in yellow robes, and their dress is very different from the dress of other people. None of these priests wants to meet me. When they travel by road, they get out of the way, if they can, till I have passed. I have already spoken with two of them, because they were not able to avoid me, but they did not want to tell me anything about their beliefs or answer any question. But when I have time, I want to meet41 a well-known Buddhist monk who resides here, who never leaves his dwelling, and whom all of them obey and hold as a holy man. When they go out of their dwelling, the monks all carry a great fan, which shelters them from the sun and, more important, prevents them from seeing unseemly objects and from being seen themselves. They live by the side of the pagodes, apart from other people, and their dwellings are secluded like our monasteries and are ornamented with paintings like the pagodes. Some of the pagodes are more magnificent than the most magnificent church of Lisbon, except that the buildings are not so spacious, for they are all ornamented in

37

Areca-nut. The Portuguese used this word to describe any kind of religious edifice in Asia, including image houses, Buddhist stupas and even mosques. See p. 16, n. 24. 39 Ascetics 40 changatares, probably a conflation of sangha (community of Buddhist monks) and terun (monk). 41 It is unlikely that this actually occurred, because Morais fell ill around April 1553 and returned to Goa, where he died in August 1553. 38

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gold of all qualities. I entered one pagode which impressed me more than the many buildings I have seen so far, for it seemed to me to be much richer and much more magnificent than the chapel of the archdeacon of Salamanca and a more spacious building, since it is like a church of a good size. Moreover, it has a principal shrine which is like the chapels of our churches. This is the richest building I have seen so far. And the altar of this shrine is round, like the altar of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Lisbon. On that altar there were many statues of metal, all covered with much pure gold. It looked as if they had just been made, since they were shining as brightly as if they had been completed at that very moment. At each corner of that altar there were two statues of the size of two men, very wellproportioned, made of metal overlaid with gold. The candlesticks, which were at the corners of the altar, were greater than those in the main chapel at Belém42 and like those great ones that come from Flanders; but for workmanship these are superior. This is the way the devil even now tries to make himself equal to God and find those who will serve and support him, while there is nobody to drive him away from the kingdom over which he rules tyrannically. It looks to me, brethren, that nobody has greater possibilities or a greater obligation to wage war on him than we of our Society, for the friars and other priests do not have such possibilities and such an obligation. This country is the most fertile in the world, as far as I know. It produces things that are not found elsewhere. First of all, there are various kinds of animals that are not found in other lands. There are many elephants of such size that those which are there cannot possibly be compared with those which are here. They are of such strength that two of them can draw a ship from the sea and push it back again into the sea. When a man is close to them, he is as if he were close to a tower. They are all born in this island; they are reared here. People capture them in the forest, sometimes when they are full-grown and sometimes when they are still small. It happens also that elephants bring forth and rear their young in the village and they roam about through the streets with their young ones behind them. Everyone makes use of these female elephants here, just as there you make use of pack-mules, and any man can keep them, just as anyone can keep a mule there. The elephants prostrate themselves on the ground to receive their loads. Otherwise one would need a ladder for that purpose. There are also wild bulls and cows besides those that are domesticated. There are many stags and does. There are other animals called meerus,43 which are as big as oxen, and their flesh is eaten and much valued. It is eaten by the nobles of the country and also by the Portuguese. There are other animals called buffaloes, which are like black oxen; people eat the curd from the milk of the females and use them as beasts of burden just like oxen. There are wild

42 43

The Jerónimos monastery near Lisbon. Stags (Konkani: merum).

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boars that are hunted for food, whose flesh is greatly favoured by the nobility. There also many hares, which are also hunted, and porcupines, lions and civet cats. There are many sweet oranges, the best I have ever seen. In the forest there are tigers, panthers, monkeys and other animals. There is a wonderful variety of birds, chiefly royal eagles, falcons, hawks and sparrowhawks, hens and cocks, both wild and domesticated, peacocks, parrots and many other species. As for fruit, there are plantains the whole year round, like those of Portugal, and a great variety of fruits proper to the country. There is cinnamon, all of which is exported to Portugal and which is not found anywhere else. There is pepper and ginger and another spice called cardamom. There are precious stones, chiefly rubies, better than those that can be found anywhere else; there are topazes and cat’s-eyes. These are the precious stones of this island; but there are also sapphires and diamonds, though not as precious as the others.

(f)

Jorge Florim de Almeida’s Revenue Register, 1599 From ‘The First Portuguese Revenue Register of Kotte, 1599 by Jorge Florim de Almeida’, translated by Chandra R. de Silva, in The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, V (1975), pp. 108–10. The extract published here is from the manuscript located in the Arquivo Nacional do Torre do Tombo, Manuscritos do Convento da Graça, tomo 6D, pp. 330–3. It illustrates some of the changes in the administrative and revenue structures that were attractive to the Portuguese and also provides a glimpse of the tensions between the state and the Franciscan missionaries over the ownership of villages formerly held by Buddhist and Hindu temples.

The districts and royal villages and lands that are in the kingdom of Kotte and the kingdom of Sitawaka are to be seen in this folio. The districts, as in Goa and in some of our villages in Salcete and Bardes, record the revenue of the smaller lands under a single category, in which are also included the fines of the evil-doers and the maralas, and up to now it has been usual and convenient to collect them thus. Marala means that, when a person who has a wife and a male child dies, a third of his goods are given to the king, and if he has only daughters, all goes to the king and nothing to his wife. This is included in the revenue of the districts that are in the kingdom of Kotte and the kingdom of Sitawaka, as is given in the folios below. Apart from this revenue of the districts, there is revenue paid to the king from each royal village, as can be seen from the folios that follow. Both are collected by the vidanas, who are like our collectors, in the villages of Salcete and Bardes. However, the system of India should be adopted

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here and not [collection] by so many officials that in the middle of a single village there are people called vidana, gamea, medidor, canacapole, atecorlea44 and others, all of whom have small parcels of land on which they live in the best parts of the land in these villages. Some of them may be dispensed with. At present they wish to call themselves lords and cultivators of the land and will pay only that tribute or rent that they paid to their king, and since, when there are fewer officers there is more revenue, so it is better to collect it and to lease all the royal village lands. This is the opposite of the opinion [I had] when I arrived here, because I now see that, in the absence of a royal collector of revenue, the affairs of Your Majesty are in a state like a thing without a master and are even worse in the hands of the revenue collectors of Your Majesty. The revenue of the ports The revenue of the seaports, their location according to the district, and their garrisons and forts are in the folios that follow, and the present revenue depends, as it did in the past, on the extent of cultivation. Pepper The pepper of the island is very good and was always reserved for the king,45 who paid one larin of silver for eight large measures of it. Each of these measures is equal to four of ours, which is close to one arroba, and at this price one quintal is worth four larins. The lease documents should declare that the pepper cultivated on the land should be sold at this price to the king – or for a little more – in discount of the rent that they have to pay Your Majesty, for this land yields much pepper and of good quality in comparison to that of Malabar. Areca-nut The areca-nut was also handled by the king. There are lands that yield a large quantity, which up to now has been enjoyed by the nobles. They yield good revenue, which when collected always amounts to ten thousand xerafins a year and is said to be worth much more.

44 gamea = headman, medidor = measurer, kanakapulle = record keeper, atukorale = assistant to the vidana in a district. Medidor is a Portuguese word, the rest are Sinhala, except kanakapulle which is of Tamil origin. 45 In 1636, the Sinhalas protested that this was a new imposition. See Fernão de Queyroz [Queirós], The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, p. 1017.

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Elephants There are also places with many elephants that yield a certain amount by their sale, and as they have not been caught [for long], there are places where there are now so many of them that we are unable to travel there, for we would come to harm. Temples and Friars The alms and revenues of the temple lands belong to the king, and the kings collect them in their storehouses whenever they wish to do so. The Franciscan friars of this land claim all the lands and revenues that are in all this island as a result of a donation that the king of Ceylon, D. João made to them,46 and some that they have they do not wish to let out of their hands, even though they do not belong to the temples and despite many reasons that are demonstrated to them. As soon as I order that a piece of land be taken from them by my decree, they come to me with books and bulls and excommunications, saying that only the pope can be their judge. It is necessary to verify this donation that they have, whether it is just or whether instead they should be paid whatever alms are required monthly or annually and be stopped from going to these lands like bailiffs and having people under their rule. I ask them if it was not forbidden by the blessed St Francis to possess lands and rents, which I believe but am unable to check either here or with the custodian in Goa, because as soon as the commissioners and guardians come here, they become lords of their lands in the same way as laymen obtain government responsibilities. Now a request has been sent to the count-viceroy to send them a collector with a clerk to deal with the revenues of the lands given to them and, if necessary, more from the king’s factory [feitoria], so that no one would wish to take away the lands with which God is helping the work of the friars.47

46 47

See document 3 (j). Written later in the margin of the manuscript is the following:

Following an order that Your Majesty sent to the count-viceroy, D. Francisco da Gama, written on 21 November 1598, that the friars should not have the revenues of the temples and of the lands they hold, the captain-general, D. Jerónimo de Azevedo ordered the factor of the king and of the conquest to collect the revenues of the lands which these Fathers had and to see that their maintenance was paid to them. This declaration was made today, 10 November 1599, on the orders of the viceroy given on 6 October 1599. The friars have twelve churches at present, and they were given 1060 xerafins for all of them.

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The fishery of Chilaw In the sea at Chilaw and in other parts of this island there is said to be as good a pearl fishery as is found off the coast of Mannar, and we should have a fishery here, for which we ought to obtain the assistance of the people of the other coasts through the Jesuits, of whom this land is in great need. For many saint’s days and Sundays pass without there being friars to preach the gospel. Cinnamon The forests of this island of Ceylon yield cinnamon in most places, from which it was possible to collect two thousand bahar annually. The salagama, who are bound to do this work and have this occupation, have lands from the king on which they live, and each one pays a fixed tribute as quit rent to the king of their persons and lands. These are called mahabadda,48 and the cinnamon tribute [given] as dues is small and amounts to four hundred bahar. It is collected by the salagama of the districts of Kalutara, Welisara and Galle, and this amount is given each year to the captains, who collect it as the contractors of the king our lord. Similarly, in the district of Negombo there is also much cinnamon, and there are many bondsmen who give green leaves for the elephants of the king, for which they had lands on which they lived. The captain-general, Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo obliged them to collect cinnamon, because there are no elephants for which they would need to collect green leaves. Moreover, the woodcutters of the forests and plains have lands on which they live and, as there is not at present so great a necessity for them, it is rumoured that they too are occupied in making cinnamon for the king, because so great an amount is needed every year for the kingdom and for Harmuz on His Majesty’s account, and for this amount the collector of revenue collects a tribute of four hundred bahar every year. It is also rumoured that the captains of the fort and the captain-general and some of the other people take the rest that the forests yield without permission, and thus it is possible to make the great amount that has been made. Rajasinha49 and the kings of the past gave each lascarin50 one amuna of paddy for sowing and, when he was in the field, one larin each month or every two months as maintenance grant, and to others more was given according to their quality and merits. Composed by the collector of revenue, Jorge Frolim de Almeida, today, 20 November 1599.

48

Literally ‘major department’. Rajasinha I of Sitawaka (r. 1581–92) 50 Lascarins or lascars (from Persian: lashkar, ‘army’, ‘camp’) were soldiers of indigenous origin recruited to fight for the Portuguese and other colonial powers. 49

44

(g)

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Description by Fernão de Queirós, seventeenth century From Fernão de Queyroz [Queirós], Conquista Temporal e Espiritual de Ceylão (Colombo, 1916), pp. 13–18. Translation adapted from that of S. G. Perera in Fernão de Queyroz [Queirós], The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon (Colombo, 1930), pp. 16–23. On Queirós see Chapter 1 (d) above. This extract provides a valuable illustration of seventeenth-century Portuguese knowledge of social structures among the Sinhalas and of perceptions of Sinhala attitudes and character. Jorge Manuel Flores in his Os Olhos do Rei: Desenhos e Descrições Portugueses da Ilha de Ceilão (1624, 1628), (Lisbon, 2001), has pointed out that Queirós took some of his account from a 1628 manuscript by Constantino de Sá de Miranda. A comparison of pp. 177–9 in Os Olhos do Rei with the extract below makes it clear that Queirós, writing half a century after Sá de Miranda, used the latter’s account and added to it.

The common people, who were not able to follow the Court, either remained in the town of Anuradhapura, or fleeing from those calamities, betook themselves to the forests in those mountains; and being deprived for a long time of the urbanity of the Court and communication with men in those mountain ranges, they became altogether wild barbarians, and they are the Vaddas, which means brutes. They live between Wellassa and Batticaloa, and from there to Trincomalee, spreading as far as Jaffna. They have no law or king, nor do they worship any deity or use any other clothing save the barks of trees, cut and fashioned in their way, though they have an abundance of hides from the beasts that they kill. They have no settled abode but wander in bands through the woods in pursuit of the beasts on which they live, being most dexterous with the bows and arrows made of wood hardened in the fire. They preserve meat by putting it in honey, which makes it become soft and fitter to be eaten, without any further cooking or seasoning save that of their stomachs. Thereby they become very robust and very strong and so nimble by the practice of running over those mountains, that, it is said, they despise those among them who cannot catch a stag running. Every three months a hundred or more men gather together for these hunts in four different places to kill and feast, and they leave the recently killed game in the same wooden vessels from which they have eaten what was previously killed. They are almost unmanageable, and the natives understand only a few rough and badly uttered words. Those of the district of Wellassa, when they want arrows, which are the only arms they use, have recourse to the blacksmiths of that vidana,51 51

Locality or group over which there was a revenue-collecting official (vidane).

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and by means of two quarters of meat and the measure and number of arrows hung up by night at the doors, they indicate who they are and why they have come. They return, when two nights are past, to find the arrows hung up in reply; and if they want knives or hatchets, they bring wax and ivory, and in the same way they make themselves understood and make bargains. Those who live between Batticaloa and Trincomalee, when in the same need of arrows, go in like manner to Batticaloa, and those who live between Batticaloa and Jaffna bargain there, and they are held to be more civilized, because they trade with the people of the kingdom, bartering wax and ivory for clothing, arrows, knives and hatchets. In the places where they keep the vessels of meat they have houses covered with thatch. Into one of these wandered a Portuguese who had escaped from the rout52 of Constantino de Sá de Noronha. They received him and nursed him with great humanity, treating him as a son of the sun [deity], and when he became well, they led him to Batticaloa. This has also happened at other times. Though these people are so wild, in no other has the king of Kandy greater confidence, for in men left to their own nature, where shrewdness grows there grows malice. The Vaddas of Wellassa have in their keeping the treasure of that king, for which he chooses twelve of these men, and as a distinction he gives them twelve earrings of silver and canes with ornaments of silver and garments different from the others, that they may be known and respected; and they come by night to speak with the king about what concerns his service. In the hardships of war, as on the occasion when the Portuguese entered Kandy, the kings entrust their wives to them, and they have made houses for them in their fashion in those jungles and woods, very clean and with many flowers. As they have little elegance themselves, they must have done this on the instruction of the same kings. Over a distance of a space of twelve leagues of inaccessible thickets from Wellassa to the first chain of mountains of Batticaloa, they must have built about fifty houses, one athwart the other, where our arms neither reached nor were able to cause any damage, because of the careful watch they kept and because of the incredible ruggedness and diversified character of those places. Concerning the inhabitants of the lands of Batticaloa, the most constant tradition is the story of a second Paris and another Helen. A prince of Tenassarim robbed the daughter of the king, with whom he had had for some time an understanding, and having prepared forty vessels, he embarked with her and with his relations, friends and servants, making for Jaffna with the intention of peopling the neighbouring islands. But when the kinglet of the country did not let them, the prince died of grief, and the princess with the rest made port at Batticaloa, where the lord of the land gave them for a dwelling one of the islands that are within the bay on which the Portuguese afterwards built a fortress. There they lived for three months, till they arranged

52

In 1630. See C. R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon, pp. 106–9.

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with the kinglet that he should marry the foreign princess, and as a reward he gave them lands on which to live, since it was for her sake that they had lost theirs. The espousals being celebrated, they, now considered as natives, were distributed among the seventy-two villages of which that kinglet was lord. In course of time the kinglet had three sons by her, and the Mukkuvars (which is the name of those foreigners) persuaded them that the king, being afraid of their strength, was contemplating killing them all, without sparing even his own sons. For this reason on the following night, they beheaded their father, seized the lands and divided them equally among themselves, one at Sammanturai the other in Palugama, the third in Hira-hura. They imprisoned the pandari-pulo53 or noblemen and soldiers who escaped their arms; and from reign to reign these princes, who were called vanniyar,54 continued until the times of General Constantino de Sá de Noronha, who killed and exterminated two. The third was killed by the prince of Matale, when in 1632 he came down upon Batticaloa with the intention of going over to the service of His Majesty, which [intention] was not carried into effect because of that death. Because he did it only to plunder him, he delayed in this business, and his intention becoming known to his people, they rebelled against him, and on the day they declared themselves, he would have been killed by the twenty-two Portuguese who were with him out of those who had remained prisoners in Kandy after the rout of Constantino de Sá de Noronha. But he humbled himself so much after he saw himself abandoned by his own people that, changing their minds for a while, they encouraged and defended him. The Mukkuvars, taking advantage of the success of the aforesaid treachery, freed themselves from all tribute and bound themselves to cultivate the land only for the princes, without other fields of their own, save those that were allotted to them every year, giving in return only a beatilha55 and a tupeti,56 which is another kind of thicker and shorter cloth with which they clothe themselves. This payment alone they give today as tribute to the king of Kandy. This country has better xaya57 than that of Rayigama, of which we shall speak later, much wax, ivory, rice, fish, fowl and butter, because of the many cattle they rear. They eat no kind of meat whatever; hence also it happens that it is very cheap there, for in religion they are different from the Sinhalas and are more like the people of Jaffna, though, unlike them, their principal god is not Rama but Perumal, to whom in the village of Palugama they dedicated a pagode with his most shameful image. For the crime of killing their father and their king they incurred the infamy of being reputed to be of low caste. But these are not the only low castes of people in Ceylon, for there are seven others which they consider so low that they will not eat anything touched by these 53

Tamil: pandarapillai. Chieftains. 55 Thin cotton cloth. 56 Tuppetiya or waist cloth. 57 Indian madder (Oldenlandia umbella), from which a red dye is made. 54

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people without considering themselves polluted by it; and though they do well in war, as do the batgama, this is not enough to raise them from this wretched state, which is very common among other castes of the heathen of Asia, where for every manual occupation and for the cult of their idols there are special castes with different dress and customs. Considering the genius of the people and how much they are given to ease, the more so the nearer they are to the Equator, because of the slackness caused by the greater heat of the climate, one sees in this a special providence, for if they were not forced by caste, no one would be disposed to practise any manual skill that demands greater labour. The low castes of Ceylon, besides the vadda and mukkuwa, are the following: hakuru (chandaz), karava (carea), salagama (chaleaz), batgama (pacha), pallaru (Palaraz),58 berawaya (berbaya) and rodiya (roriz). The greater part of the hakuru live in the environs of Negombo, though they are also found in other places on the island, for as it is they (whom the Canarese of Goa call xindo and those of the north bandari) who draw the liquor or toddy [sura] from the palm trees and make from it wine, vinegar and jaggery (something between honey and sugar). They go where there are palm groves and mostly to Negombo, because the largest are there. The karava or fishermen also flock there, as those shores are better provided with fish, though they are not lacking in the other disava. The salagama, of whom we have spoken already, prepare the cinnamon in the mahabadda59 and are also spread over the three other neighbouring disava in the north. The same work is done by the batgama, most of whom live in the Four Korales and in the Seven Korales. There also live the pallaru, lascarins or soldiers by calling, because among those nations lascar is the word for the whole of an army, though the Portuguese and Moors also call any sailor lascar. The berawayo are weavers and beaters of drums, which in Ceylon make a very warlike sound. These are scattered over the four disava, and they are of such low caste that not even the batgama can eat in their houses. The rodiya are like gypsies, for they have no houses of their own. They live by singing and dancing and are the lowest people in Ceylon. Those who live in Kandy cannot look at the face of the king, and they address his vassals as Highness and Majesty. Even the animals they bring with them, such as buffaloes and hunting dogs, incur the same infamy, and if they enter the houses or the fields of the natives, though they cause considerable damage there, it is deemed a disgrace to drive them away. Though they deserve everything because of their barbarous manners and lack of shame (for they are not ashamed to marry their own daughters), the extravagance of their heathen pride and their superstitions prevent the good use of the division

58 59

Washermen for the lower castes. Mahabadda or major department, entrusted with cinnamon collection. See n. 48 above.

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into castes, which has come to be one of the greatest obstacles to their conversion to the Faith of Christ, and to their admittance by the other Christians to the communion of the faithful and to the intercourse required by the charity of our religion. Later on we shall speak of their priests. Those called vagueaz are not a separate caste; vagueaz is a generic name in Hindustan for all thieves who live in bands in the forests. Already when the Portuguese entered Ceylon there were Moors in Colombo and in other parts of the island, but later they increased in great numbers on account of the commerce and attracted by the healthiness of the land, and they lived not only in the ports but also in the interior. The Sinhalas of Colombo call them Dakkini, because the first were from Deccan, but generally they call them Yona, which means circumcised, from ioncolavaddanava, which means to circumcise. In this Hindustan, the heathens call them Turks, as in Italy, while the Portuguese generally call them Moors, for the first whom they know were from Mauritania. In its place we shall describe the harm they did in Ceylon. As for the character of the Sinhalas, they are generally proud, vain and lazy; the first on account of their presumption that they are of celestial descent, especially those who are of royal blood; the second because of the antiquity of their kingdom and nation, and the liberty in which they have always been brought up; the third on account of the position, climate and riches of the land, which being so fertile both as regards what springs from it and what is entrusted to it, they have no interest in cultivating. They do not care to acquire riches, being content with little, not because they are not covetous, but because they are presumptuous, and with three larins (which make one xerafim) they think themselves rich and aspire to great things. They dress, as in all other places, according to their means and are pleased with red caps and Portuguese coats, and when caps are unavailable, they make use of their rumal,60 which is a fine white cloth tied above the ears, with the corners falling on the shoulders for elegance. Even the poorest wear a cloth decently adjusted below the knees, and we have seen the prince of Matale himself riding on horseback here in Goa in such apparel. Their feet are generally unshod and invariably so in the case of the women, as in all heathen India, though in the rest of their apparel [they appear] with great splendour and much jewellery of precious stones, gold, silver and ivory, according to their means, with bracelets, bangles, necklaces, earrings and ear-drops, both sexes having their ears so pierced that they attach to them a great part of their beauty. It would be quite strange in Asia to try to make any change in this, either partial or total, for both Moors and Gentiles are according to their castes most resolute in conserving their own dress, because that is how they are all distinguished from one another. It is really a great reproach to the Portuguese nation who, in spite of having so great a conceit of themselves, adopt all

60

Persian: rumal, ‘towel’, ‘handkerchief’.

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foreign fashions, and it is enough that a fool admits it for the wise to follow suit, to the equal detriment of their credit, and in the case of the women, of their modesty as well as of money. As they are all Pythagoreans and believe in the transmigration of souls, they bury their treasures in their lifetime to escape the maralas or confiscations at death, and they hide them even from their own children, keeping them for their rebirth. In obeying their native kings, they have always been changeable and inconstant, but most stubborn against admitting any foreign dominion, and when the Portuguese entered Ceylon, at first foreseeing their future vassalage and afterwards experiencing foreign dominion, they did not hesitate to submit to any bold rebel in order to recover their liberty. We must, however, admire some of their moral customs, which may well be an example to us, for they have such a horror of theft (probably because of some great punishment in olden times) that they use no locks on the doors of their houses. Of Raju61 it is said that, to test their probity, he ordered the cattle to be let loose in the fields with golden collars and bangles, and in our days there reigned a blind kaffir in Marave62 who was so strict in preserving this mutual trust, that if a kaffir of the Portuguese, being tired, left his motoro or bundle of clothes on the road, nowhere else could it be safer, on account of the severe punishments he used to administer. The constancy and mental strength with which they await death is wonderful, without any complaint or change of countenance. They deem it a shame to kill by poison, and as their greatest occupation is soldiering, they enjoy peace only as an accident, and war is the custom. Their captains are also their judges, and as war obtained for them their empire, it is also its conservation. This exercise has made them warlike, and already they are accustomed to condemn the fear of death, for practice is able to turn cowards into valorous men and to discipline the uncouth.

61 62

Rajasinha I of Sitawaka (r. 1581–92). In Mozambique.

Chapter 3

King Bhuvanekabahu and the Portuguese

All the documents in this chapter cover a period of less than twenty years of the mid-sixteenth century. They deal with Portuguese relations with the rulers and people of Kotte, their efforts at conversion and the economic and political interactions between the two groups. By this time Bhuvanekabahu (r.1521–51) was ruler of Kotte, but his brother, Mayadunne (r.1521–81), had become a powerful sub-ruler at Sitawaka. In the 1520s the two brothers had drifted apart. One of the causes for this may have been the pro-Portuguese policy of Bhuvanekabahu, although Portuguese chroniclers argued that the root cause was Mayadunne’s ambition. Two inconclusive wars in the 1520s had resulted in a stalemate and the virtual independence of Sitawaka. The Portuguese position in Kotte gradually became stronger. In 1526, following an attack by Muslims from Malabar, Bhuvanekabahu expelled all foreign Muslims from Kotte. In 1533 he gave the Portuguese a monopoly of the purchase of cinnamon for export. Mayadunne on the other hand welcomed the expelled Muslims into his kingdom. Since Bhuvanekabahu did not have a legitimate son, his brother, Mayadunne, had the strongest claim to the succession. Both the Portuguese and those court officials who were identified with Bhuvanekabahu viewed this prospect with some dismay. Thus, when Bhuvanekabahu’s daughter gave birth to a son in 1538, an attempt was soon made to designate this infant as heir apparent.1 This step had the support of the Portuguese viceroy, D. Estêvão da Gama, who wrote to King João III on 11 November 1539 that ‘everything must be done to prevent it being his brother, who for a long time has been ill-disposed towards Your Highness and your people, and it is possible that the grandson should be the one to succeed him …’2 In 1541 Bhuvanekabahu was persuaded to send two envoys with a gold statue of his infant grandson to Portugal to gain the formal support of the king of Portugal. Bhuvanekabahu’s envoys arrived in Lisbon at a time when the court of D. João was taking a more conservative turn. The liberal learning of the Renaissance, which 1 C. R. de Silva, ‘The Rise and Fall of Sitawaka’, in University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka, K. M. de Silva (ed.) (Peradeniya, 1995), pp. 62–71. 2 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Corpo Chronologico, 1–9–99. The English translation is from Ceylon and Portugal: Kings and Christians, 1539–1552, P. E. Pieris and M. A. Hedwig Fitzler (eds) (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 47–8.

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had enjoyed court patronage up to the 1530s, was now out of favour, and increasing stress was being placed on religious orthodoxy. The first breakthrough in mass conversions in Asia, the conversion of the paravas of South India (see Chapter 5) was in the news in Lisbon.3 In this context, the request of the Kotte envoys for missionaries, with a strong hint, if not a promise, that the ruler himself would convert, was received with great favour, and the envoys returned with their mission successfully accomplished. Among the representations they made were the contents of the memorial in document 3(a). While he received Portuguese assurances on the question of the succession, Bhuvanekabahu received no relief from the problems arising from the erosion of his power by the Portuguese. D. João III issued a number of decrees addressing Bhuvanekabahu’s complaints,4 but difficulties arose in their implementation. For instance, a decree of 13 March 1543 stated that ships could be built in Kotte only with the permission of the king of Kotte and the Portuguese governor of India. The intention was to address Bhuvanekabahu’s complaint indicated in document 3(a). The order was interpreted to mean that even the king of Kotte could not build a ship without the permission of the Portuguese. With the arrival of four Franciscan missionaries in 1545, more problems arose for Bhuvanekabahu when, led by Frei João de Vila do Conde, the Franciscans insisted on the king’s conversion (see documents 3(b), 3(c), and 3(d)). The viceroy, D. João de Castro, counselled caution (see document 3(e)), but by now there was a Portuguese community in Colombo that had also become hostile to, and often contemptuous of, the authority of Bhuvanekabahu (see documents 3(f), 3(g) and 3(h)). Indeed, Bhuvanekabahu found his subjects deserting in large numbers and his brother gaining power every year. Portuguese adventurers were seen aiding the ruler of Kandy to throw off the yoke of Kotte’s suzerainty. He tried various tactics to keep power. An alliance was forged with Mayadunne in 1546–8 to bring Kandy to heel. When Mayadunne subsequently tried to wean the Portuguese away from the Kotte alliance, Bhuvanekabahu sent his own envoys to Goa and the king had to walk a tightrope between refusing personal conversion and trying to accommodate the aggressive Christian missionaries (see document 3(i)). The Portuguese state had its own dilemmas. Here was a monarch who faithfully paid tribute and indeed had given several loans to the Estado da Índia. Unless the Portuguese propped up his power, Kotte would fall to the less reliable Mayadunne. On the other hand, both the Franciscans and the increasingly influential settlers were campaigning for his removal.

3

S. Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700 (London and New York, 1993), pp. 81–97. 4 Ceylon zur Zeit des Königs Bhuvaneka Bähu und Franz Xavers, 1539–1552, G. Schurhammer and E. A. Voretsch (eds) (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 99–104, 113–18.

King Bhuvanekabahu and the Portuguese

(a)

53

Bhuvanekabahu’s Memorial of 1541 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Fragmentos, Maço 1. Memorial from King Bhuvanekabahu, 1541. The Portuguese original was published in Ceylon sur Zeit des Königs Bhuvaneka Bähu und Franz Xavers, 1539–1552, G. Schurhammer and E. A. Voretsch (eds), (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 99–106, and an English translation in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, V. Perniola (ed.), (Dehiwala, 1989), pp. 14–23. All translations in this chapter except document (k) are adapted from those by V. Perniola. The king of Kotte complains in this document that both the Portuguese living in the kingdom of Kotte and the Christian converts were acting unlawfully. The appeal for decrees from the king of Portugal suggests that King Bhuvanekabahu did not feel he could exert his own authority to remedy the situation. D. João III issued a series of decrees on these matters (see The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, pp. 24–34) but in virtually all cases they were not enforced.

The lands and the ports: these were always his [the king’s].5 Now they do not belong to him nor do they bring revenue, because Mayadunne has seized them. Therefore his revenues have declined, as his ambassador6 will explain in detail to Your Highness. He requests through me7 that you listen to him. He requests that a decree be issued on the various matters submitted. The king of Ceylon is obliged every year to pay to Your Highness three hundred bahar of cinnamon as tribute, and when he has it, he gives four hundred bahar and even more when your factors request it. Very often, almost every year, much cinnamon is left over, either because your factors are not in need of it or because they discard it as being of inferior quality. In these cases your factors demand that the cinnamon be burnt, as this is of no profit and of no service to Your Highness. He begs Your Highness that, when some cinnamon is left over and amounting to not more than a hundred bahar, he might be allowed to sell it this side of Cape Comorin. In this way he will receive some profit from the sale. He requests that a decree be issued on this matter. The cinnamon gathered here is preserved in a storehouse of which one key is with your factor and another with a servant of the king. In spite of this, the factor 5 The original has seis (six), so a literal translation would read ‘these were always six’, but Perniola (The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, Volume 1, p. 14) has suggested that this was probably an error for seus (his). For the number of ports, see n. 10 below. 6 Sri Ramarasksha Panditha, who was sent to Lisbon. 7 Duarte Teixeira de Macedo.

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keeps stealing cinnamon, choosing the best for himself and leaving that of inferior quality for Your Highness. A decree should therefore be issued as seems best for your service. Of this the ambassador will give you a fuller account. May Your Highness be pleased to order that Portuguese merchants in Ceylon pay what is due both on what they sell and on what they buy in the country. Similarly, you should order that merchants who do not find a buyer for their goods, either because they try to sell them at a price higher than what they are worth, or because they do not find anyone ready to buy them, be forbidden to throw them into the houses and oblige the people to pay the price they want. Similarly, they should buy the goods of the country, not at the price they set but at the price that prevails in the country at the time, a price that is honest and sanctioned by custom. Similarly, they should not take by force from merchants and from inhabitants whatever they have in their houses for their own use and needs, unless they give them willingly, for in such cases people are unduly intimidated. He requests that a decree be issued concerning this matter. In this kingdom there may be thirty Christians, both married and single. They own many gardens and fields acquired fraudulently and by force. He requests Your Highness to order that henceforth no Portuguese Christians should acquire any gardens or fields from any person whatsoever without his permission, and that, further, when they are allowed to buy lands, they should pay a suitable price and render any service, just as did those who owned the land before. He requests that a decree be issued in this matter. He requests Your Highness to issue orders that no Portuguese may buy anything from any non-Christian native of the country by giving money beforehand, on pain of forfeiting what he has given. For many Portuguese give money beforehand to many persons, and in their books they enter an amount three or four times more than that which they have actually given. When a gentile brings to a Portuguese house goods which have been agreed upon, the Portuguese gives what he likes and claims that he has advanced more money than he has actually given. If the gentile protests and complains at the loss this has caused him, the Portuguese has him arrested and sent immediately to Cochin, where he is sold, leaving behind wife and children stranded. This is certainly not to the service of Your Highness. He requests that a decree be issued concerning this matter. He requests Your Highness to give orders that no ship or champana may leave the ports of Ceylon without the permission of the king, so that he may first have it searched lest it should leave carrying kidnapped boys and girls, men and women, or many criminals or much cinnamon. He requests Your Highness to give orders that no ships may leave without his permission, so that they may be searched. He requests that a decree be issued concerning this matter. Many slaves8 become Christians in order to free themselves from slavery. He requests Your Highness that, if these slaves become Christians to gain their free8

In Ceylon, slaves were either people who sold themselves when in difficulties, or people

King Bhuvanekabahu and the Portuguese

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dom, Your Highness should give orders for due compensation to be paid to the owners, and, further, that if any free men were to become Christians while holding fields and gardens for which they had been paying taxes, they should continue to pay them as before, since they still keep these fields and gardens, which are subject to such taxes. If pagans become Christians while owing money to other pagans, they ought to pay what they owe, despite the fact that they have become Christians. He requests that a decree be issued concerning this matter. In Ceylon there are nine ports,9 and in all of them commercial transactions take place. Therefore many ships and champanas visit them all. From them the king receives the customs dues, which enable him to meet his expenses, and these are his best source of revenue. The factors [feitores] of Your Highness place one of their servants in each of these ports. If the merchants who bring areca-nut and other goods do not wish to pay their dues, the servant of the factors says that he wants to buy something or that the goods belong to him, and that is enough to avoid payment. The servant of the factor also makes use of the ships of the gentiles that start from these ports to send his merchandise without paying any freight. When the ships that have carried his goods come back, they are obliged to pay him at a higher value, while he pays them less than the purchase price for the goods they bring for him. Similarly, when a pagan quarrels with another and is condemned to pay a fine, as is their custom, this pagan goes to the servant of the factor and gives him four or five fanöes, bribing him and getting him to say that he is in his service. So long as the servant holds that the other is in his service, the king loses the fine to which the pagan has been condemned and thus justice is not done. The king requests Your Highness to issue an order to forbid the factor and his servant to act in that way; to occupy himself with taking charge of the cinnamon of Your Highness and not to mix himself up with other matters, for in that way the country is brought to ruin. Concerning this matter he requests that a decree be issued. He requests Your Highness to give orders forbidding your factor to send any Portuguese, still less any natives to the lands of Mayadunne or to receive anyone coming from the lands of Mayadunne, to avoid rebellions, intrigues, war and losses. He requests that a decree be issued concerning this matter. The ports of Kalpitiya10 and Chilaw belong to the king. In them there is fishing for seed-pearls, and people come there every year in the months of February and October. On those occasions many champanas of gentiles come and are obliged to pay certain dues on the fish catch. To those ports also comes the captain of the Fishery Coast, who is a servant of Your Highness. He will not give any permits to suffering punishment for certain crimes, or prisoners of war. These slaves could redeem themselves or be redeemed by others. 9 The nine ports of the kingdom were Kalpitiya, Chilaw, Kammala, Negombo, Colombo, Beruwela, Galle, Weligama and Matara. 10 Carediba.

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the Moors, unless they pay him what they used to pay us. Often as many as two hundred champanas, both large and small, arrive on such occasions. The dues they pay, and which it is customary to pay are reckoned according to the days: they are allowed to fish four days for themselves and one day for the king. When the season is bad, they fish ten days for themselves and one day for the king. He requests Your Highness to give orders that they pay him as they used to do before and as is customary. He therefore requests that a decree be issued concerning this matter. He requests Your Highness to give orders that no captain or factor or any other person whatsoever may build champanas and ships in Ceylon,11 because in Ceylon there is no other timber except coconut, jak and mango12 trees, from which they make the oil that they use for their lamps. When the Christians want to build champanas and ships, they do not know how to cut any other timber except the trees mentioned above, which are the mainstay of the country, thus causing the people to lose their source of income, for most of those who build ships are employees of the factor, and if they like a piece of timber, they cut it and they beat the owners. Those who have to build ships should do so only after obtaining a permit from the king allowing them to cut timber from the forest and from nowhere else on pain of forfeiting it. He requests that a decree be issued in this matter. He requests Your Highness that, to avoid hatred and ill-will and to prevent thefts from your revenue as well as from his, which belongs equally to Your Highness, and to prevent insurrections in Jaffna and from Mayadunne on account of the damage and losses which your factor causes in those lands to him as well as to the native inhabitants, and to avoid the loss of his territories, Your Highness be pleased to send to this country every three years fifty men to guard his revenue, for the peace and tranquillity of his territories, and to avoid what I have mentioned above, and things which I here pass over so as not to tax your patience with matters that are the object of the greed of men. Besides the pay that those men will receive from Your Highness, I will be happy to treat, entertain and pay them well. For me it will be great gain if Your Highness sends them. Those who come will not regret having come, nor will they ever have a chance of speaking ill of me for not providing them with the proper accommodation. And those men will not be obliged to do what your factor commands them, but only what I command them in what regards the service of Your Highness. They will thus be able to see for themselves what others are doing, whether good or bad. He requests that a decree be issued concerning this matter … The king of Ceylon requests that, besides the twenty bahar of cinnamon which he is allowed every year, Your Highness grant him another thirty bahar, so that he 11

See document 4(d). Jak is artocarpus integrifolia. Perniola suggests that the word jak may be derived from Malayalam chakka, which in Portuguese becomes jaca, and that the word used for mango, bunamarao, seems to be connected with the Tamil word mamarum. 12

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may be allowed fifty bahar in all. He requests that a decree be issued concerning this matter. With the ambassador Panditer13 comes Duarte Teixeira.14 He requests that Your Highness will grant him the office of factor of these lands so long as he serves Your Highness loyally and does no evil, and on condition that he places no man of his own in any port of Ceylon and occupies himself only with the collection of the revenue of Your Highness.

(b)

King Bhuvanekabahu’s Letter of 1545 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff 345–7. King Bhuvanekabahu to the viceroy of India, Kotte, 12 November 1545. The original Portuguese document is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 194–8 and an English translation in Ceylon and Portugal: Kings and Christians, 1539–1552, P. E. Pieris and M. A. Hedwig Fitzler (eds), (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 86–90, and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, vol. 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 94–8. This document describes King Bhuvanekabahu’s effort to maintain the Portuguese alliance despite remaining a Buddhist. He continued the traditional policy of offering opportunities for conversion while trying to ensure that converts continued to pay him customary taxes and services.15

I, the king of Ceylon, make known to you that, because of the great friendship which His Highness has always borne towards me with regard to whatever concerns his service, he was pleased to send me the decrees which he issued for me. But I find that, though such matters are observed as His Highness commands, the Christians of this country are not ready to comply with them. Therefore, I request you not to believe anyone who might come or might be sent to you to say the contrary. If they are satisfied and pleased that those decrees come from His Highness, as they actually do, let them fulfil them. The reason for this request is that they might tell you that I am not pleased when they become Christians. This is true, because they become Christians out of fear when they have killed someone, or have robbed a person of his property, or have committed some similar offences that fall 13

Sri Ramaraksa Pandita. Duarte Teixeira de Macedo. 15 For background see Alan Strathern, Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth Century Sri Lanka: Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Land (Cambridge, 2007). 14

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under my royal authority. Once they become Christians they are not ready to recognize my right over them and to pay what they owe according to our laws. I cannot approve such people becoming Christians, but I have no objections when people become Christians out of conviction, and still recognize my rights over them, and pay what they owe me according to the laws of the country. For this reason I would request that, when one of my subjects wishes to become a Christian, he should be made to wait nine days and only made a Christian after it has been established that he is embracing Christianity, not because of any offence committed, but only for love of God. To such conversions I will have no objection but will rather be pleased. But when someone has committed an offence, and I come to know that this is the reason that has led him to become a Christian, then I will give orders that such a person be dealt with according to justice with regard to his offence, even though he has embraced Christianity. I also request you to give orders that no Christians should enjoy any privilege without my permission. This cannot possibly please me, because it shows that they have become Christians in order to take people away from me. Similarly, I believe and know that many people become Christians two or three days before they die. Their aim is to secure their property for their kinsmen. So I cannot be pleased with this. I would be happy if, on becoming Christians, they would serve me in the same way as they did before. And if any of my adigars were to illtreat them and the chief guard brought a complaint to me, I would punish them. Therefore, I request you to give orders to the factors to see to it that what I say is done, because whatever is done for me is in the interest of the king. If what I say is done, I will be very pleased to see them becoming Christians. But if you do nothing in this matter, my people and I cannot be pleased with their becoming Christians, and His Highness will not be served as is proper. Accordingly, they will come and tell you that I do not like them to become Christians. When my ambassador returned from Portugal, His Highness sent me friars. I was very pleased with them and showed them as much honour as was proper, and immediately I set aside money for their maintenance and gave it to Father Guardian.16 As he said that he could not take it, I gave it to Manuel Rodrigues Coutinho, who was chief guard at that time. He also refused, as did also a certain Belchior Rodrigues, who is married here. This money I offered them many times, but none of them was willing to accept it from me, and this went on for five or six months. Father Guardian grew annoyed with me without any cause and left without speaking a word to me. I now greatly desire that my request be granted, so that my people and I may live in harmony with the Christians. If what I ask of you is carried out, I will give immediate orders to build a church for them and I will treat them as is proper.

16

Frei João Vila de Conde.

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With regard to lands granted to people, I wish to explain to you their nature. From ancient times up till now, kings have been in the habit of granting lands to whomsoever they pleased, and when they had given them, they could take them back if the tenants became crippled or aged, and incapable of mounting guard at the royal palace or of going to war, or if in any way they became disobedient. But I am unable to do so when they become Christians, for I cannot even venture to speak to them, as I have no authority over them. For this reason I take away their lands from them as soon as they become Christians. As regards the two young men17 who became Christians and at present are there in Goa, the Portuguese officials who were here can tell Your Lordship of their faults, of which I have written to the previous governor. From him also you can know the truth, if he is willing to speak. Therefore I request that, since I am a vassal of the king of Portugal, you do not send them back to this country. If they were to come, it would be impossible to serve the king of Portugal as I desire. As long as they do not come here, you can do what you like. If you are to forbid their return, I shall be greatly pleased, if not, it is the service of His Highness that will suffer. As regards what your ambassador asked me, I can assure you I have always been a loyal vassal and friend to His Highness, as is shown by the service I have rendered him and which I always desire to render. I have lent money at a time when he needed it, for no other reason than my desire that our friendship be strengthened. In fact, I do all I can to achieve this. Therefore, I decided to send him an ambassador,18 for they told me that former governors were so occupied with other matters that they never spoke to him of my services. So I sent an ambassador to obtain from His Highness decrees for my kingdom and the seaports, and orders to Christians to serve me as before. It was for this purpose that I sent an ambassador there, and not in order to become a Christian. Never did such a thought enter my mind, and a Christian I cannot become. A good witness of this is Duarte Teixeira de Macedo, who is now in Portugal; for it is he who drew up the document that I submitted. He can inform His Highness. In the presence of the ambassador, Duarte Barbudo, I questioned Duarte Teixeira, who was factor here, and he replied that he knew nothing of this. You can verify this from your ambassador; you must believe that I do not have more than one single word and one single purpose. No one, whether great or small, calls anyone ‘Father’ except his own. I am unable to believe in any other god besides my own, though I will not cease to be the vassal of the king of Portugal as long as he favours me and is pleased to do so. As to the ola I have given in regard to the property of the Christians, I will carry it out just as it is, so long as they carry out the decrees issued for my sake by the king of Portugal.

17 18

D. Luís and D. João, son and nephew of Bhuvanekabahu. Sri Ramaraksha Panditha.

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A Franciscan Perspective, 1545 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, Frei João Vila de Conde to João de Castro, viceroy of India, 17 November 1545. The Portuguese original of this document is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 223–5, and an English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 110–12 and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 117–19. This document presents the point of view of the leader of the Franciscan mission and provides a contrast to the letters of King Bhuvenakabahu printed above.

I had made up my mind to return with Duarte Barbudo19 to tell Your Lordship of the intentions, the words and the actions which I have seen in the king, so different from what the king of Portugal expected of him, after giving him so many proofs of his friendship and benevolence. With this in mind I went on board and waited there three days. But seeing that the weather continued to be unfavourable, I disembarked, because the monsoon, which had set in, proved unreliable. I see the zeal, devotion, and eagerness shown by Your Lordship over this matter, and the reputation and determination of Duarte Barbudo. According to what they tell me, Your Lordship will believe more than what we can report to you. At the same time I have instructed the Father20 who is coming there to tell you what is taking place here, and also how the king is requesting me not to go away, promising to do whatever I desire. This is a matter that has been going on for three years. He says a thing and never does it. That will happen now. I mention to Your Lordship a conviction I have formed: men say to you what they think will please you, the more so because the king gives rewards, and that is why they try to please him. I do not blame them (though in reality they are not free from blame), for they came from Portugal for that purpose. But I place them before Jesus crucified, who shed His Precious Blood for each one of these poor and helpless souls, whom the devil by himself and through his servants (of whom the king is one) tries to draw to his banner. The king wrote to Your Lordship a reply to your letter. He says in this that he cannot become a Christian, that he never had such an intention or idea, and that those who have become or are becoming Christians are a cause of great dissatisfac-

19 Frei João Vila de Conde was in Ceylon from September 1543 to March 1544 and returned in September 1545. 20 Frei António Padrão.

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tion to him, for they do not pay their dues to him and are rebellious and disobedient. I assure Your Lordship that this is not the case, for all the chief guards who have been here in charge since we came here have made them pay their taxes, and so do I in respect of everything for which they are liable. And this is a pretext, as he has in truth no other reason to urge for being annoyed at their conversion. He is angry with them and pays no attention to them. Up till now he has not admitted into his palace one single convert, though he has admitted Moors and all kinds of pagans. He says that he does not want the Christians, letting it be understood that through them we would try to take away the kingdom from him. The ambassador did well to reply that, if the king of Portugal wanted to do that, he would not be in need of the people of Ceylon. The king fears and dislikes us even more on account of his nephews21 who are there. On account of this he has changed his way of speaking and acting, and of choosing his guard (for in his guard he has persons of various races) to the exclusion of the Portuguese. As the great lord he says he is, he has become bold in the way he treats all of us and in the way he writes to you and to the king of Portugal. He declares that for no consideration is he prepared to do what your ambassador begged from him on behalf of the king and of yourself, both by not becoming a Christian and by countenancing whatever suffering the Christians are made to undergo. But while the ambassador was here, many became Christians, as he can tell you in greater detail. The king further says that, just as they treated him, so will they find him in the service of the king. He made other statements that Your Lordship will be able to evaluate better. He showed himself in such a fashion that the Portuguese who are here stand in fear of his doing them some harm once the galleons which are here sail away. The details of this business are so many that they cannot be put down in writing. In everything I rely upon the goodness of Duarte Barbudo and of the Father who is coming here. I entreat Your Lordship to protect us in the best manner possible. The second reason that induced me to come there was the fact that the king of half this island22 is anxious to become a Christian. The Father and Duarte Barbudo, and the letters I am sending with him will give you all the information you need concerning the king’s wishes to become a Christian. As our lord is commending to you a matter of such importance at this moment, my opinion is that you ought to bring it to a conclusion, for I feel you have a great desire to accomplish this task; unless our sins were to prevent it. In our days there is nobody who fosters a work of such magnitude. It is the love of God that leads me to send you this Father. Grant him whatever he asks, for we are in great need.

21 22

D. João and D. Luís. Jayavira Bandara of Kandy.

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Bhuvanekabahu’s Letter of 1546 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 379–80, King Bhuvanekabahu to Francisco d’Ayora, 17 November 1546. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 399–402, and an English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 167–70 and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 181–5. This letter illustrates once again the effort of the Sri Lankan monarch to preserve his economic and political rights. He continues to protest that he pursues a policy of tolerance and royal patronage towards Christianity. The kings of Kotte were traditionally expected to be tolerant towards all religions, and Bhuvanekabahu resists Portuguese urgings to patronize Christianity exclusively.

Francisco d’Ayora,23 as you are a nobleman and you are going as captain of this expedition, I trust in your goodness that you will speak the truth to the governor. I therefore recommend and request that you discuss with the governor these instructions to which I have affixed my signature, so that through you the governor may come to know the truth. You should tell the governor that he writes and recommends to me that I should treat the friars well, because he has been ill-informed about me. You should tell him that, when the friars arrived here from Portugal, I received them with all goodwill and ordered them to be given two hundred pardaus per year for their needs and expenses. I gave orders for the whole amount or a part of it to be given immediately to a Portuguese who would look after their expenses, as they were unwilling to receive the money from me, and of this, Manuel Rodrigues Coutinho, who was here as my guard, and António Pereira, a topaz,24 and others were witnesses. He also writes recommending the Christians to me. In this also he seems to be ill-informed. You can tell him that it is they who treat me badly, because, after they become Christians, they render no service and show no respect to me or to the chiefs of the country, nor till now have they paid me my dues. On the other hand, they cause much harm in this country to those who are not Christians. I therefore request that in this matter he should take such action as is just.

23

Francisco d’Ayora was the captain of the ship that had gone to Colombo to load the annual tribute of cinnamon. 24 Half-caste or indigenous Christian who spoke Portuguese as well as a vernacular language and could therefore act as an interpreter.

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You should also inform the governor that I have great regard for the churches they have in my kingdom, and that to every church of their religious Order I have assigned, as a gift to your God, a sum of fifty pardaus to be paid annually during the whole of my life and that of my grandson. Further, when Duarte Teixeira was factor here,25 I assigned to the church and to the Confraternity26 ten bahar of cinnamon. Again I gave to António Pessoa27 another ten bahar to buy articles needed for the church. They told me that with the money they made a chalice and a thurible of silver, which the factor showed me and which seemed to me to be very good. They ought to be grateful to the man who made these articles for the churches. You should tell him that the chief guards and the factors send their men to my ports to carry on their trade, causing a great deal of hardship in the country. Every day I receive complaints against them and I hear of the outrages caused by them. I am unable to control them. I request that men like these should not be assigned here without my consent and without an authorization signed by me, so that, whenever they do that which they ought not, they should be removed from here. On this point I have asked for a decree. You should tell him what you have seen happening to the decrees which the king my lord sent me. In this matter I desire that a person approved by me should have the supervision of them. Such a person will serve God and the king my lord and me in that matter and do it authoritatively, so that whatever he says or does will be carried out; and they will not lay the blame on me as if I were doing wrong to the Christians of the country or to the Portuguese. The chief guard likes to lay hands on some people, a thing for which I have given no authority and for which he cannot claim authority just because he is my chief guard and factor. Further, he owns vessels for which he has to pay dues. I therefore request that he [the governor] be pleased to allow me to have this person to do my work for me. To this person should be entrusted all the decrees which the king my lord has sent me, and if such a man were to err therein, His Lordship ought to punish him. Find out from the governor if I have the power to issue licences (cartazes) to Portuguese or to anyone else to make champanas28 and ships. They make them in the country without licence from the governor. For the chief guard says that, even if I wish to issue a licence, he will not agree in the absence of another licence from the governor. In this he deprives me of my power and authority. In my country the licence of the governor will hold good only to build ships and boats for your personal use, which naturally should not be built without permission. 25

From 1539 to 1541. A Confraternity is an association established and guided by an ecclesiastical authority for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety or both. 27 Factor 1541–3. 28 Small sailing vesssel used in China, Malaysia and India (Chin: san pan, Mal: sampan). 26

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You should request him to be pleased in the case of licences issued to ships to come to this island to oblige those ships to come to Colombo and not to go to any other port. In the port of Colombo they should anchor their ships and there carry on the trade, so that I too may be able to collect my dues in one single port and not in several, for that cannot be done. And if they have to go to other ports because the weather does not allow them to reach Colombo, they should not unload the cargo they bring till they have informed the officer who is entrusted with the supervision. If they unload without giving this information, the cargo should be forfeited to me. You should ask him to issue a decree that António de Fonseca, who is now writing for me, should remain as my secretary to the exclusion of everybody else; and that, when he is writing, neither the chief guard nor the factor should be present. For very often I wish to write about matters affecting the service of the king my lord and my own service, but I cannot do so. This is the reason why they say that I change in what I do and write. In respect of all this and of everything else which appears to you to be for my service, make your applications and obtain written orders for me, for I do not want to see contradictions in what is passed to me. I know that you will act as is expected of you. For it is already a long time since you came to this country and you know what is going on. Further, you should ask for an order from him that no one may buy a black inhabitant of this country of mine from the others without an ola29 and a licence from my officer [adiguar] and that anyone who infringes this order should forfeit such money to whomsoever the governor directs. You should ask for the payment of a salary and subsistence allowance for António Pereira, the topaz, in accordance with the patent of the king my lord; for he is old and has done much service and has children and a wife to provide for. The factors here do not pay him, for which reason he is not able to serve the king my lord or me. Let him, as is right, issue an order that the factors here should pay him out of the revenue that they have in their control. Accept this statement as true, since it has been written at my command.30 Svasti Sri

(e)

The Viceroy’s Advice, 1546 From Biblioteca da Ajuda, 51–XII–42, ff. 60–1, D. João de Castro, viceroy of India, to King João III, 16 December 1546 . The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch

29 30

Decree written on a palm leaf or on a sheet of gold or copper. This sentence is written in Tamil.

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(eds), pp. 406–15, and an English translation in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 191–5. This document illustrates some of the debates that went on among the Portuguese over the question of pressurizing rulers to convert to Christianity. The viceroy of India clearly counsels a policy of constructive engagement. … I sent Duarte Barbudo as ambassador to the king of Ceylon with Your Highness’s letter. He spoke with the king and several times urged him to become a Christian and fulfil the promises he had made to Your Highness, because great advantages would come to him from this step both in this world and in the next, but otherwise he would suffer great losses. But no argument could shake him from his obstinacy. He said that for no reason on earth would he ever become a Christian. He denied that he had ever authorized anyone to make such a promise to Your Highness and he laid all the blame on the ambassador. For the rest he agreed to give permission for churches and monasteries to be built in his kingdom and to allow friars to preach and to convert anyone, and that he would not stand in their way. But he made the condition that any of his subjects who became Christians should continue to pay him their dues and render him service as to their king and true lord. He also offered help to build a monastery for the friars and to maintain them. He issued an ola by which he bound himself not to touch the properties of Christians when they died, so that their children might inherit them, even though, according to the laws of the kingdom, the king was the heir to all the properties of his subjects. He made some other concessions that I omit here so as not to be too prolix. As Duarte Barbudo saw that the king was reasonable, he did not think of annulling the royal decrees. He acted thus in accordance with an article of his instructions ordering him not to annul the royal decrees, if he saw that the king would permit his subjects to become Christians and the friars to build a monastery and a church in his kingdom, and would not confiscate the properties of Christians, even though he personally would not become a Christian. In this case Duarte Barbudo would dissemble with him till he came to report what had taken place, so that I might decide what would be for the greater service of God and of Your Highness. In this case I suggest that Your Highness refrain from insisting with this king, for his conversion is a work of God, who will accomplish it when He is pleased, and not a thing that can be achieved by force or by the importunate urging of the friars who are with him and who, as far as I have heard, have offended him and exasperated him; for they ought to have dealt with him with greater simplicity and in a more respectful manner, instead of having recourse to such harsh ways as to cause astonishment.

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The king resides in his city, the capital of his kingdom. In the city there is a church for the celebration of the Divine Offices and a Confraternity where they take the dead for burial, crossing the city carrying a cross. There are many little ones, children of native Christians, who are learning the Christian doctrine and who serve at Mass. To this church the king has given a silver cross, a thurible and a chalice. He himself has visited the church several times. He is a man of good disposition. I should not be surprised if, provided he is treated gently, he comes to the knowledge of the truth and receives Holy Baptism. Otherwise it may happen that all the good work that has already been started may come to naught. The same fate may befall the cinnamon and all the trade that His Highness has in Ceylon. Taking all these things into consideration, it seems to me that for the service of God and of Your Highness, it is better not to be hard on him and put the idea into his head that he must embrace Christianity together with his people, but rather to dissemble till I receive a reply from Your Highness. At a time like this, full of dangers, when we ought to make ourselves secure against the rebellions of kings and rulers in India, it will not be prudent to pick new quarrels and turn friends into enemies.

(f)

Views of Portuguese Settlers, 1547 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 395–6. Letter from the Portuguese in Ceylon to D. João de Castro, viceroy of India, 27 November 1547. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 494–7, and English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 216–18, and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 238–40. The resident Portuguese as a group often advocated a policy of conversion and conquest, and this document is a good illustration of their point of view.

This country is so corrupt that for the service of God we are all bound to inform Your Lordship of the truth, so that suitable measures may be taken regarding the many things that are ill-done here, even by the king. This king, who calls himself a friend of the Portuguese, is the greatest enemy that we have here. So long as we do not defend ourselves against him, he worries us with impunity. He works against the Christians in ways that are hard to imagine. He persecutes those who become Christians here so much that no one now dares to be baptized. On the other hand, those who are already Christians have for a long time ceased to dare to profess their religion. Because of the numerous persecutions that

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he and his followers inflict upon them, they now go to the pagodes as they did before. This country is ready for a large number of people to become Christians, if they see that the Portuguese can protect them from the oppressions that the king inflicts upon the new converts. But they receive so little help from us that they do not dare to remain on our side. All admit that the reason why the king of Kandy did not become a Christian was because the king of Kotte deterred him from it, and many of his own people say the same. The oppressions that he inflicts upon us who are married and have settled down here are so many that, if Your Lordship does not obtain any justice for us, we shall be compelled to abandon this country and the lands which we have cultivated. We are not speaking here of the dues we pay to the king of Kotte, because the king of Portugal, as a result of being wrongly informed on the point, was pleased to order that we should pay them. Your Lordship should direct that we be given some concession in the payment of the duties, just as is done in other parts and other ports. Here there is no such provision, and we are made to pay what they wish, so that, even when a vessel carries no ballast of stone or sand, we are made to pay entry and anchorage dues. Our coinage here has been so devalued that a gold pardau is only worth four tangas, and among these there are many counterfeit fanões. The king always strives to satisfy the captains of the cinnamon ship and a number of influential individuals, so that he can oppress the rest of us as he likes, without Your Lordship and the other governors coming to know the real state of affairs, and he is being punished as he deserves. The sin of sodomy is so prevalent in this kingdom of Kotte that it almost frightens us to live here. If one of the prominent men of the kingdom is reproached for not being ashamed of such an ugly vice, he replies that they do everything that they see their king doing, for this is their custom. Before the cinnamon ship sailed away, the king of Kandy sent to this king of Kotte the artillery that António Moniz had left behind, and also twelve thousand pardaus to pay the expenses of the fleet and men. The king of Kotte does not like to admit that he has received the money. But two days before the departure of the ship he paid more than fifty of the men who came from Kandy twenty-five pardaus each for the expenses and losses they had incurred upon the way. From this Your Lordship can perceive that he was the cause of the king of Kandy, and with him the whole island, failing to become Christians. His example would have been enough for all to accept baptism at once. Your Lordship can be sure of it, because this is the way with these people. When the ship was ready to start the king ordered proclamations to be issued, forbidding anyone to go to Sitawaka, the territory of Mayadunne, and from taking any merchandise there. He had determined to wage war on Mayadunne as soon as the ship set sail. Your Lordship will already know that for the last eight or nine months he has had houses built in the forest, about which Duarte Teixeira and

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Mestre Luís know very well, as they are the king’s chief advisers, and it is they who make him do everything he does, for they are more loyal to him than to the king and lord of the land of their birth. There must be here in this land forty or fifty residents, though we are far removed from the service of the king of Portugal, since we are not much in contact with those of Cochin, yet as loyal Portuguese we place ourselves and our properties at your service when needed. We entreat Your Lordship to do us the favour of informing yourself of the truth of the matters mentioned above and, when you have so informed yourself, to see to it that justice is done to us and not to acquiesce in our being tyrannized by this heathen king as we are at present. For we have no hope that anyone will protect us save Your Lordship. Your Lordship may obtain information from the friars who are coming31 to meet you from here, and from any other person, so long as that person is not someone dependent on the king here. In this you will do us justice and a great favour.

(g)

Bhuvanekabahu’s Protest, 1548 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Corpo Chronológico, 2–241–93. King Bhuvanekabahu to King João III, 7 December 1548. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 520–23, and English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 219–22, and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 248–51. This document and the next illustrate some of the difficulties that the king of Kotte had to face as a result of the presence of the Portuguese in his kingdom, while at the same time his continuation in power depended largely on Portuguese assistance in time of need.

I, the king of Ceylon, make known to Your Highness that your governor Garcia de Sá32 sent a letter to me by the cinnamon ship, informing me of the good health of Your Highness and also of the queen, my lady, of the prince and of the heir [Infante]. This news gave me great joy, and it will always be for me a source of joy to hear the same, as is natural, in regard to so excellent a king, for the good of all his vassals, and still more because of the obligation which I have and ought to have towards Your Highness. Therefore it will give me pleasure if every year I receive such good news. 31 Perniola reports that the friars who were going to João de Castro were Frei João de Vila de Conde, Frei Francisco de Monteprandone and probably Frei António Padrão. 32 Governor of India from June 1548 to July 1549.

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Your governor further wrote to me that Your Highness is somewhat displeased with me because my ambassador, when he came to Portugal, told you that I would become a Christian. This is a subject that I never mentioned to him, nor did Your Highness write such a thing to me through him. I only heard Frei João de Vila de Conde, the guardian, speak of this. Thereupon I wrote to him that there are two things I will never give up for anything in the world: your friendship and my God.33 To Your Highness I wish to say that, since this is the work of God, it cannot be done by force; God will himself determine when it is to his greater service. As to what Your Highness wrote to me of the evil treatment I give to the Christians, and how I prevent people from becoming Christians when they wish to do so, I am astonished that anyone should dare to say or write such falsehoods. Actually in this matter I can be considered unfortunate, since they do not thank me for the good that I do, either to them or to the Portuguese, your subjects. Indeed, I have never done evil to those who have acted ill towards me. How much less can I do evil to the Christians who have been so highly recommended by Your Highness? To clarify this matter, I am sending to you an official document so that Your Highness may come to know the truth. As regards this and other charges, it is I who have the least power in this land, and the reason for this is my loyalty to Your Highness. Your governor wrote to me that you directed him to pay me part of the debt that Your Highness owes me. I wrote in reply that I was not in need of that at present, and that it would be detrimental to you if he should pay it now, as Your Highness is in such great need of money with so many men in India, so that this would be a disservice to you. Rather, my own person and whatever I have are at your service whenever you need them. Your Highness may certainly rely on my promise. I am giving you an account of this my country and of the trouble which I undergo with the factors of Your Highness, especially with Gaspar de Azevedo34 who, as soon as he came here, adopted an attitude of reluctance to do anything I ordered him, though all my orders are just. He has not given me satisfaction for a single hour, for it seems to him that in this way I will do him more favours than if he serves me well as Your Highness orders. These are not the only wrongs that he has done to me, or the only insults he has offered to my person. The factor has tolerated people in my ports who for no reason have oppressed my subjects to such an extent that they have been leaving their towns. There are other matters that I have dealt with at greater length in a document drawn up after an enquiry held on the arrival of João Fernandes de Vasconcelos, captain of the cargo ships. This was done on instructions from the viceroy, whom God now has, in order to ascertain the truth, so that your governor might punish

33 34

‘a vossa amizade e o meu Deus’. Factor in Colombo in 1548.

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him as justice demanded. Afterwards I considered that it was better for your service and the benefit of my kingdom to send him with the charges against him to your governor, with the idea that he might not be sent back here again. This I set out more fully in the request that I made to the captain regarding the matter. The captain, as your loyal subject, carried out his duty with complete integrity and settled the affairs of this land to my full satisfaction. Now I can say with reason that I am the real sovereign. He vindicated the good name of the Portuguese, which had greatly suffered. Above all, though the charges against Gaspar de Azevedo are such that he deserves to lose his office, yet he should be paid for his period of service that still remains, and this for the love of God and of Your Highness, lest it should be said that I wish him harm. When João Fernandes de Vasconcelos was ready to start, I was compelled to go a league to the place where he was, to request him in your name not to go away, because I was afraid that my brother would wage war against me as soon as he was gone. For this reason and also for various other reasons, which I need not state here to Your Highness, he stayed on till I could inform your governor so that he might give orders as seemed best for my service and the safety of my realm. The viceroy, whom God now has, gave me a certain António da Fonseca as my secretary, and he serves me to my full satisfaction. But your factors do not want him to write for me, though I am greatly in need of him. They try to find some excuse to ship him outside the island, for they think that when I have no one to write for me, I will not be able to make my complaints about the wrongs which they are doing to me. Therefore I request Your Highness to be pleased to send me a decree that no factor or any other person should interfere with him or compel him to do anything, but that he should be entirely at my service as secretary, and that when I have complaints, they should appoint a judge who is above all suspicion; and if the complaints are true, he should submit the matter with his report to your governor. In this you will do me a great favour, for otherwise I have no one to write for me. And may he remain in office all his life unless he deserves some punishment. Please accept as true this document that I have written.35 Svasti Sri.

(h)

The Murder of Tennakoon Mudaliyar, 1548 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Corpo Chronológico, 2–241–96. King Bhuvanekabahu to King João III, 11 December 1548. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch

35

This sentence is in Tamil.

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(eds), pp. 524–5, and English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 223–4 and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 252–3. The major foreign trading communities in Kotte had authorized royal officials to deal with offences committed by their members, but in the case of the Portuguese, the king found the Portuguese factor unwilling to act against his countrymen. This clearly undermined the king’s prestige. I, the king of Ceylon, make known to Your Highness that, after writing to you, it seemed good to me to give you an account of what the Portuguese, your subjects did to me. At my port of Galle, twenty leagues from here, I had a captain, Tennakoon Mudaliyar [Tenagom Mudelyar] by name, one of the chief men of my realm, member of a noble family and distantly related to me. For eight or nine years he was governor in those parts. It happened five months ago that on a festive day he went out with his wife to take part in the rejoicings at Galle. At that time there were in Galle twenty or thirty Portuguese, and two or three of them attempted to uncover the amdor36 in which the wife of Mudaliyar was. They did so to look at her, an act that among us is most objectionable. An attempt was made to prevent their doing such a thing, but the Portuguese would not refrain from doing what they wanted and as a consequence they beat those who resisted. During the disturbance Mudaliyar came up. The Portuguese killed him, together with two of his nephews and two other men, and wounded four or five other men, though nobody had picked a quarrel with the Portuguese and no black slave had been beaten. All this I am enduring for the friendship I have with Your Highness. The blame for this lies with Gaspar de Azevedo, who held no inquiry into the matter. So about this and because of similar matters I am complaining to your governor. I shall kiss the hands of Your Highness if you send me a decree that no Portuguese should remain in any port, with the exception of that of Colombo, within a league from the place where I reside. This will be a great favour for me. For I hope that your governor will punish both the one who murdered Mudaliyar and also Gaspar de Azevedo on account of the outrages done to me, which outrages I am ashamed to mention to Your Highness Please accept as true this document that I have written.37 Svasti Sri.

36 37

Palanquin. This sentence is in Tamil.

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(i)

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Bhuvanekabahu’s Grievances, 1551 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Corpo Chronológico, 1–86–15. Sri Ramaraksha Panditha to Queen D. Catarina, 28 January 1551. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 559–68 and English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 245–54 and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 272– 80. Towards the end of his reign King Bhuvanekabahu felt increasingly powerless, with Portuguese adventurers urging an alliance between Portugal and Bhuvanekabahu’s estranged brother Mayadunne, while the actions of some of the missionaries in his kingdom alienated his Buddhist and Hindu subjects.

… there came to Ceylon a certain Dom Diogo de Noronha, to whom the king openly showed great honour and favour. This man repaid the king by doing in the city and in his very palace things that no nobleman would dream of doing. I am ashamed and think it bad manners to write such things to Your Highness. In the end the king was forced to ask the captain-major to arrest him and to oblige him to leave Ceylon. The captain-major got him to promise that he would leave the island, but Dom Diogo broke the promise, remained in Ceylon and went to Sitawaka to Mayadunne, who was enlisting Portuguese and threatening the king. These matters are so well known that Your Highness can easily obtain information about them. When he saw that the king was complaining about him, Dom Diogo called the king a traitor and offered to prove his accusation. Everything seems to have militated in his favour, for at this juncture there came to Ceylon the viceroy, whose nephew Dom Diogo is supposed to be. He supplied information to the viceroy according to his version, and the viceroy made it clear that he was the uncle of Dom Diogo and so would not listen to anyone who contradicted his nephew. There was the additional fact that the priests were on bad terms with the king. The reason was that, two months before at Devinuwara, thirty leagues from where the king is, in a village of the chief pagode of Ceylon, there was a friar living without the permission of the bishop or the governor or his custodian, and without the approval of his Chapter. Without the knowledge of the king of Ceylon, he put up a building on the pretext that he would teach children in it; then he changed its name and called it a church. The people of the place went and pulled it down. Though the king is blameless in the matter, the priests are bent on laying the blame on him. That this is false is clear from the fact that in the king’s own capital and territories, that is in each of the eight or nine ports owned by the king my master, there are two or three churches and numerous crosses, and in the king’s own city

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and in the middle of the fort there are two important churches, to which till now no insult has ever been offered. On the contrary great honour and respect has been shown to them, as is fitting and as Your Highness very well knows. For their part, these priests helped to say more evil things about the king than Dom Diogo himself. The first information had so much effect on the viceroy that, although later he came to find out that the king was not as they represented him, yet to all appearances he was so ill-disposed towards the king that everyone is astonished. I cannot omit suggesting, gentile and brahmin [bramene] though I be, that charges so extraordinary and so unjust as the good being judged evil and the evil good are manifest portents of the end of the world. It is certainly very monstrous to consider Mayadunne as a good man after he has ordered the murder on his own soil of thirty Portuguese who had been entrusted to a captain of his by a captain-major of Your Highness; to decide that Mayadunne is free from blame in the matter and to lay blame on the king my master, in spite of the fact that he is a vassal and tributary of Your Highness, who has entrusted his grandsons to Your Highness, both during his lifetime and after his death, whose friendship and loyalty have been well known for a long time, and in whose realm the Portuguese enjoy as much liberty as if they were in their own farms and country houses. Let Your Highness be the judge: place in one scale the king’s faults and in the other the merits of Mayadunne. Consider each one’s merits and service and give your decision.

(j)

Gift of Temple Lands, 1557 From Frei Paulo da Trindade, Conquista Espiritual do Oriente, III, Felix Lopes (ed.), 3 vols (Lisbon, 1962–7), p. 48, Gift of Temple Lands, 1557. The original deed of donation is lost. This extract is a copy of the ratification of the deed in 1591. English translations are published in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 352–3, and Trindades’s Chapters on the Introduction of Christianity in Ceylon, E. Pieris and A. Meersman (trans.), pp. 57–9. A slightly different version of the donation is found in Fernão de Queyroz [Queirós], Conquista Temporal e Espiritual de Ceylão (Colombo, 1916), pp. 264–5, with an English translation in The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, S. G. Perera (trans.), 3 vols (Colombo, 1930), pp. 330–1. Dom João Dharmapala succeeded Bhuvanekabahu in 1551 and announced his conversion to Christianity in 1555. Soon after he donated all the temple land in his kingdom to the Franciscan Order. At this time, however, all he actually controlled were the cities of Kotte and Kelaniya, which is why the two cities receive special mention in the document.

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I, Dom João, by the grace of God, Parea Pandar,38 king of Ceylon, make known to all those who will see this document that I ratify my donation and gift [made in 1557]. As it was through the Fathers of the Order of the Blessed Father, the Seraphic St Francis, that I received and still enjoy the great blessing of the knowledge of the Holy Catholic Faith of Christ our Lord; and as those Fathers cooperated with me in the spread of the same Faith, as demanded by the salvation of my soul; and as they again and again bestowed on me many other favours both spiritual and temporal; therefore at the urgent request of Frei João de Vila de Conde, by whom I was made a Christian and who was guardian of the college in my city of Kotte, the metropolitan and capital city of my realms and dominions, when the greater part of them were in my possession, it seemed good to me, and I was pleased to grant to those Fathers some donations and gifts. So I granted to them the revenues of the pagodes and of the lands at Kelaniya on both sides of the river, and of the pagode of the Dalade,39 which became the Church of the Holy Saviour of the same Fathers, and also of all the other pagodes of my realms and territories, that is, their revenues, lands, gardens, fields, rents, and services, just as my predecessors and I myself had granted all these to the same pagodes. As soon as I came to the knowledge of the true religion and received baptism, I transferred those revenues to the colleges. And being reliably informed that those Fathers, by virtue of their rule, are forbidden to hold and possess revenues, as these are not in keeping with their holy profession, I decided that, just as my predecessors and I had bestowed and given to the pagodes those lands and revenues,40 so now that I had come to the knowledge of the true Faith, these same revenues should be utilized for the upkeep of the college and of other colleges that those Fathers might erect and administer in my realms and territories, and for this purpose a person or persons should be chosen and selected who would take care and charge of those revenues in order to maintain those colleges with alms derived from those revenues. I made this arrangement, knowing that the Fathers, in accordance with their profession, aim solely to serve God and save our souls, without reserving anything for themselves personally.

38

D. João Periya Bandara or Dhamapala Astana. The Temple of the Tooth Relic or Dalada Maligawa. 40 Queirós has ‘for the maintenance of ganezes and jadacas’. Ganezes are Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka (Sinh: ganinse, ‘master’; Pali: ganï, ‘one who has disciples’, ‘preceptor’). Jadacas could be a transliteration of yachakas (the poor) or yakdessas (intercessors to the gods (Sinh: yachäkayä, non-Buddhist mendicant in Sri Lanka). 39

King Bhuvanekabahu and the Portuguese

(k)

75

A Sinhala-Buddhist Viewpoint From the Rajavaliya, A. V. Suraweera (ed.) (Colombo, 1976), pp. 219– 20, 238. Alternative English translations are available in The Rajavaliya, B. Gunasekera (trans.) (Colombo, 1900), pp. 68–9, 86, and Rajavaliya, A. V. Suraweera (trans.) (Colombo, 2000), pp. 75–6, 96. This translation is by Chandra R. de Silva. On the Rajavaliya/ Alakesvara Yuddhaya see my introduction to document 1(e). This document, which is written from a Sinhala Buddhist point of view, also reveals that there were social fissures among the Sinhalese.

Bhuvanekabahu, who lived in intimacy with the Portuguese committing foolish acts, was killed by them as a consequence [owing to the karma] of his foolish act in entrusting to the Portuguese king the prince he had brought up [his grandson]. It should be known that Bhuvanekabahu brought misfortune on future generations in Sri Lanka and that, owing to him, harm befell the Buddhist religion (Buddha Sasana) in later times … From that day many women of Kotte became subject to41 the Portuguese and people of low castes, servile castes, the karava caste, the tailor caste, the salagama caste, the durawa caste and the goyigama caste, and the chief people of Kotte became covetous of the wealth of the Portuguese and became subject to42 them and were converted and intermarried with them … Simão Correia [Simankure Rala], paying no respect to the Four Temples nor to the Buddhist religion, which is the most revered in the world, was committing sins by making [children] orphans and by killing innumerable animals, when by the power of the deities who protect Sri Lanka his body became inflamed and he died …

41 42

Alternative reading ‘slept with’. Alternative reading ‘slept with’.

Chapter 4

Kandy: Religion and Politics

All the documents printed in this chapter originated within a period of fourteen months between October 1545 and December 1546. They reveal that questions relating to agency (for example, who should take the initiative in a colonial enterprise or who should bear responsibility for the developments that occurred) involve great complexities. The documents illustrate the various interests of different groups of Portuguese in Kandy. The friars were interested in conversion to Christianity, principally by means of converting the ruler. Even within their ranks, however, there were disputes about strategy and widely different estimates of the prospects of success. Other Portuguese were interested in Kandy from motives of economic gain and improving their prospects, and the documents give some idea of the pressures faced by the viceroy in Goa from religious and military entrepreneurs on the frontier. On the other hand, Jayavira, king of Kandy was not inactive either. Some of the documents indicate that he used conversion as a bait to obtain Portuguese military aid to preserve his power. The story becomes even more complicated when the ruler’s elder son makes a bid to get Portuguese support to ensure his succession by claiming that he would be a better Christian than his father. The story begins with Jayavira (r. 1521–51), who built up the power of his principality. Developments in Kotte had enabled Jayavira to enhance his autonomy from its ruler. He had aided the three sons of Vijayabahu I of Kotte (r. 1513–21) in their revolt against their father. The subsequent emergence of Mayadunne (r. 1521– 81) as a powerful de facto ruler in the new kingdom of Sitawaka that was carved out of Kotte had enabled Jayavira to enhance the autonomy of Kandy from Bhuvanekabahu of Kotte (r. 1521–51). Jayavira wanted to strengthen his power further and, having seen how Portuguese assistance enabled Bhuvanekabahu to repulse the attacks of his brother in the 1530s, began putting out feelers for a Portuguese alliance as early as 1542. Nuno Álvares Pereira, a Portuguese soldierentrepreneur of uncertain origin, hearing of this, offered his services to the ruler of Kandy. Pereira reached Kandy in July 1542 and remained there for years as the ruler’s adviser. In response to an appeal to Governor Martim Afonso de Sousa in August 1542, offering a factory and tribute, a small force of 70 or 80 Portuguese entrepreneurs landed at Trincomalee. These Portuguese, however, were disunited and most of them soon returned to India, while the 20 or 25 men who remained were dissuaded from proceeding to Kandy through the hostility of the local ruler of

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Trincomalee.1 This local ruler appears to have been autonomous at that time and probably saw the rising power of Kandy as a threat. Indeed, documents (a), (c) and (d) indicate that Kandyan power did not as yet command the eastern coastline. In July 1544 the king of Kandy sent yet another message to the Portuguese. By April 1545 Pereira was writing to the Portuguese in India stating that the king of Kandy and his son were both offering to become Christians and ally with the Portuguese. He also reported receiving messages from the ruler of the Seven Korales and some chiefs of Trincomalee, all of whom were offering to be converted.2 By this time the 1543 mission of the Franciscan, João Vila de Conde to Kotte and his pressure on Bhuvanekabahu to convert, as well as Jesuit work of proselytization on the Fishery Coast, had created the impression that conversion was the key to obtaining Portuguese military aid. Document (d) suggests that Pereira was able to persuade local rulers that conversion would speedily procure Portuguese military aid for them. Meanwhile, the king of Kandy was confronting an urgent problem. Bhuvanekabahu, ruler of Kotte, was well aware of Jayavira’s efforts to secure an alliance with the Portuguese and correctly saw it as a bid for independence from his suzerainty. Mayadunne of Sitawaka, who had seen how Portuguese aid to Kotte prevented his dominance in the lowlands, was alarmed at the prospect of another Portuguesedominated kingdom on his flank. Sitawaka and Kandy thus came together in 1545 to bring the Kandyan principality to heel. Jayavira’s increasing desperation is illustrated in document (c). To obtain Portuguese aid he accepted conversion to Christianity in secret on 9 March 1546. A small force of Portuguese under André de Sousa3 arrived in Kandy in late April after marching across southern Ceylon from Yala. However, another force of 20 failed to get through from Trincomalee in the face of a hostile force there (see document (f)). Jayavira might have been hoping to become chief ruler in Ceylon under Portuguese suzerainty, or at least to seize Trincomalee with Portuguese aid. His hopes of luring a large Portuguese force 1 See letter of Nuno Álvares Pereira to João de Castro, Kandy, 13 October 1545, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 335–7, published in Ceylon sur Zeit, G. Schurhammer and E. A. Voretsch (eds) (Leipzig, 1928) pp. 175–84, and in English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, P. E. Pieris and M. A. Heding Fitzler (eds) (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 74–8 and in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, I, V. Perniola (ed.), 3 vols (Dehiwala, 1989–91), pp. 79–88. 2 See letter of Nuno Álvares Pereira to F. Alvares, Kandy, 12 September 1545, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 338–9, published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 148–56, and in English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 53–58 and in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, I, Perniola (ed.), pp. 60–64. 3 In 1544, André de Sousa had tried to make his fortune by converting a son and a nephew of Bhuvanekabahu of Kotte and taking them to Goa as possible claimants to the Kotte throne. They died there, and de Sousa turned to other means to make his fortune.

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under the viceroy to Ceylon faded, and he was forced to accept a harsh peace settlement from Bhuvanekabahu and Mayadunne. The documents published in this chapter provide insights into the policy debates among the Portuguese and their differing views on what might be done. Those who insisted that Kandy presented a great opportunity had one more chance. In mid-1547 a new Portuguese force led by António Moniz Barreto appeared in Batticaloa. Jayavira saw one last chance of recovery and welcomed them, but the differences in objectives that had plagued the alliance since the outset soon re-emerged. Barreto insisted on a public announcement of conversion by both king and heir, while the king insisted on a prior Portuguese conquest and handover of Sitawaka. Barreto, with only about a hundred Portuguese, clearly could not deliver and left Kandy with a bitter taste.4 Document (j) also clearly reveals an emerging rift between Jayavira and his eldest son, Karaliyadde Bandara. After the death of Karaliyadde’s mother, Jayavira had married a princess of the older Gampola royal family and had a second son, Maha Asthana or Kumarasinha Adahasin. Karaliyadde Bandara, who had been recognized as heir apparent, suspected that his stepmother was intriguing against him and so courted Portuguese support. Eventually, in 1551, Karaliyadde (r. 1551– 81) deposed his father, who took refuge with Mayadunne. Karaliyadde then became a steadfast ally of the Portuguese.

(a)

António Ferreira’s Letter, 1545 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 326–7, António Ferreira5 to D. João de Castro, viceroy of India, 5 October 1545. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 160–2, and English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 61–3 and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 67–9. All translations in this chapter are adapted from those by V. Perniola. This document illustrates the links connecting Portuguese policy towards Kotte with that towards Kandy and represents the viewpoint of the Portuguese factor, who arrived in Kotte in 1545 and visited Kandy

4

See letter of António Moniz Bareto to D. João de Castro, Colombo, 11 October 1547, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 387–92, published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 463–71, and in English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 198–206 and in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, I, Perniola (ed.), pp. 219–27. 5 Portuguese factor and magistrate at Kotte, 1545–6. For a sophisticated analysis of royal conversions published after this section was written see Strathern, Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth Century Sri Lanka.

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in the same year. Ferreira fears that the hostility of the Franciscans to Bhuvanekabahu (due to his refusal to convert) would drive him into the arms of his brother, who is seen as an enemy of the Portuguese. About the king of Kandy, the factor clearly has no illusions but advocates stoking the fires of conflict to keep local rulers weak. Frei António6 is coming there. With his great virtue and long experience of this country he will make up for the little I can possibly write to Your Lordship after my short stay here. Personally I know that he approves of the rigorous treatment and severity meted out to the king [of Kotte]. But most probably it is just such treatment that has caused the king to harden his heart and has confirmed him in the opinion that we bear him ill-will, as people tell him. On his side, he has little confidence in us, while he is very friendly and free with his brother.7 At the moment, Sir, if we render him a service, it seems as if he is doing us a favour in allowing us to be friendly with him. He was very embarrassed when he was told that your coming here was quite certain. May it please God to lead him even before you come to the true light that now shines before him. According to what I am discovering here at close quarters, the king persists in friendship with his brother, because they assure him that Your Lordship might oblige him to do what will please God that he should do. And since these kings rely for their safety on the mountains of Kandy, which are in the interior of the country, far from any seaports, they are now trying to conquer these lands by war, which they have been waging for many days. The king of Kandy has been seeking the friendship of the king of Portugal for some time. He says that he will become a Christian, as Your Lordship will learn from the letter of Duarte Teixeira. Sir, I do not believe that he will do what he says, but I do believe that, if Your Lordship were to help Kandy, these kings, who are brothers, will be caught in the middle and they will be obliged to do what Your Lordship desires. I will do my best to see that Kandy keeps up the war. I will use many arguments and hold out ample hopes that Your Lordship will favour him. Even if nothing else were to result from this tangle except that they became weaker, that will be enough. Your Lordship will decide on the best course to follow. The aim of the king of Kandy is to have Portuguese soldiers to defend him. If he obtains them, he might do what he says. No reinforcements can be sent by sea, except through Batticaloa, though it does not belong to him. To do so by land is very risky. We have been well received, and the king is somewhat soothed in mind. The ambassador8 has had two interviews with him. The first was a visit of courtesy; at

6

Frei António Padrão. Mayadunne of Sitawaka. 8 Duarte Barbudo. 7

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the second, business was discussed. The ambassador showed himself so tactful and discreet that Your Lordship could well employ him in some other affair of greater moment. If the king gives a pledge for what he says, he may come to a reasonable conclusion in all things. Father João, the guardian, has knowledge of this. I do not know how these matters will end, but I cherish the hope that they will end well.

(b)

An Appeal for Aid for Kandy, 1545 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, f. 342. Jorge Velho to João de Castro, viceroy of India, 13 November 1545. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 199–201 and English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 91–3, and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 98–100. This letter indicates the urgency felt by Jayavira, the ruler of Kandy. He had been under attack since at least October 1545 by the forces of Kotte and Sitawaka. By this time he was also offering a place for a factory in Trincomalee and a tribute of 15 tusked elephants and 300 oars.9

The king of Kandy asked me to come as his ambassador to Your Lordship to request, entreat and demand in the name of God and of the king of Portugal that Your Lordship come to give him the water of baptism and make him a Christian, because he greatly desires to be baptized, together with his son and his people. He says he will give his daughter in marriage to anyone Your Lordship chooses and he will hand her over so that she may be given in marriage to one of the princes who are there, or to anyone else you choose. In the name of God and of the king of Portugal, he entreats Your Lordship to come to assist him in the great war that Mayadunne and the king of Kotte have been waging against him since the moment they came to know that he is anxious to become a Christian. The more they become sure of this, the more vigorously do they fight against him. He looks to God for help, that he may defend himself against them till Your Lordship comes to his aid. This aid should not be postponed beyond January, because he knows that his forces will not be able to withstand longer, as the two brothers are very strong and powerful. When I bade him farewell, he clasped my hands very warmly and told me that he relied on me entirely to accomplish his business and bring it to a finish with Your

9

The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, I, Perniola (ed.), pp. 79–88.

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Lordship, as if he were to come himself personally. He cherishes this hope and has no other wish except to see this accomplished. For my part, so far as I can judge the king, I assure Your Lordship that he has this desire firm and well fixed in his heart and has had it for a long time. I would not have accepted this mission, and I would not expose myself to the risk of misleading you, if I had a different opinion. While I was on the way there to accomplish this mission, the Lord permitted that the fatigue of the journey should stop me with a serious illness, which has brought me to death’s door. But this task, which is so important, must not fail for lack of diligence and must not be unduly delayed. Therefore, I have asked Frei João de Vila de Conde, guardian of Ceylon, to accept this task and to take this message to Your Lordship. I know that he is a person who will perform this work very faithfully and bring it to a successful end; and Your Lordship will surely find pleasure in granting him his request. I entreat you for the love of God to come and help the king and set matters right for him, as it concerns the salvation of this whole island with so many men, so many women, so many children and so much wealth. For the love of God, let them not perish, especially as Your Lordship has a very great reputation here for honour and service of God, and as a protector of the Christians. The road Your Lordship has to take to come to assist the king is to pass across the shallows and to go to the harbour of Trincomalee. The king told me that he himself would come there to receive Your Lordship. If God restores me to health from the illness which afflicts me now, I will start on my journey to come to give you a fuller account of what is happening here. The Father whom I have mentioned brings a letter that relates everything that the king desires and also an ola. Both are from him and bear his seal. He brings also another letter for Dom Álvaro, your son, in the hope that he also may be on my side in this business.

(c)

Álvares Pereira’s Letter, 1546 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III. ff. 366–8. Nuno Álvares Pereira10 to Dom João de Castro, 29 May 1546. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 362–70, and English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 136–44 and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 158– 67.

10

Pereira reached Kandy in 1542 and was an adviser to King Jayavira.

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No Portuguese aid had arrived by March 1546, but the king nevertheless decided to convert in secret on the ninth of the month. However, by the time André de Sousa arrived in Kandy with a paltry force of 38 Portuguese on 30 April 1546, it was too late, for Jayavira had been forced to agree to a humiliating peace that involved the payment of an indemnity. Your Lordship needs to know what happened about the king’s business from the time that he sent his ambassador from here till the arrival of Frei António and of André de Sousa, and also about some incidents that occurred at their coming. In the month of November 1545 I received a letter from Frei João de Vila de Conde, signed also by Father António Padrão. This was the first letter from the Fathers that I had seen here since I came to this country. It informed me that Father António was going to Your Lordship with a message that I had sent from here on the order of the king. This must have been six or seven days after the departure from here of the ambassador whom Your Lordship met there. When I came to know from Father Guardian that he was at Kotte, I spoke to the king [of Kandy] about his coming there and about the position of the friars among us, and gave him other information about their life: all this seemed to me necessary to facilitate the conduct of affairs in which I was engaged. Consequently, there was an exchange of letters, and with each letter our relationship became more cordial, though I received help only from God, and not from Father Guardian or from Duarte Teixeira, as is evident from their letters, which I am keeping with me. In February 1546, I sent a servant of mine to meet Father Guardian and to hand over to him letters and an ola containing an assurance of what we so much desired. In my letter I begged him to come with as many friars as possible, as in this kingdom there was not a single friar. Father Guardian arranged that Fra Francisco,11 an Italian, with a companion, should come with my servant, taking the way of Yala.12 They were arrested on the way by Mayadunne’s followers, and Fra Francisco has written to Your Lordship all that they went through. He finally reached this city on the first day of March and on the ninth day of the same month, two hours before dawn, he baptized the king, who took the name of Dom Manuel. On the next day, 10 March, by order of the king, I informed Father Guardian of what had taken place, so that from there he might immediately send word to Your Lordship and make a solemn announcement of this at Kotte, if there were many Portuguese there, otherwise to keep the information secret till the right moment. On the 14th of that same month of March the letters were delivered to Frei António, since Father Guardian was at Sitawaka to obtain the release of the companion of Fra Francisco, whom they were keeping prisoner there. Frei António,

11 12

Fra Francisco de Monteprandone. Jala in the document.

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who had arrived from India with André de Sousa, took the letters. It was on the 24th that Father Guardian saw these letters and so, as he wrote to me, he was unable to send this information to Your Lordship. News and letters from André de Sousa and Father António reached here on 17 March. They informed me that they had reached Colombo and were setting out for Galle, and that they wanted me to find out from the king by which road they had to come to the capital. On the orders of the king I wrote immediately that they should come by way of Trincomalee. When, as I have mentioned above, on the 24th of that month Father Guardian received news from me, he announced the baptism of the king of Kandy with as much solemnity as possible. The Portuguese were so pleased that a man named António Gonçalves offered to join in the expedition to Kandy with his foist. Again a casado of Kotte, Miguel Fernandes, offered himself with as many people as he could gather together, and he was able to collect twenty men. These immediately set out from Galle to join André de Sousa, who had stopped there, since he had only thirty-two men. But adverse weather conditions forced them to return to Colombo. The chief guard, António Ferreira, was anxious to prevent them from coming, for he never helped me in this matter, but rather always placed obstacles. In spite of everything, those men made their way by the other coast of the island and went to Trincomalee, where they thought André de Sousa would already be or would be coming as the king had directed him. André de Sousa tells me that, on reaching Yala, he beached a prahu which he had brought, and sent the foist to Trincomalee with a Portuguese. As soon as I received the message that André de Sousa had started from Galle, I set out to meet him. The king ordered that I should go with a large number of people, taking more than five hundred men to carry the baggage. This number was due to the fact that we had received news that a large number of soldiers were coming. The captain, whom I took with me, stopped with the bulk of his men in a district of the king called Tapare. I continued the journey towards Trincomalee, together with five hundred men for the baggage already mentioned and with two hundred fighting men. Trincomalee was still twelve leagues away. We went on as far as three leagues from Trincomalee, thinking that there were one hundred and fifty Portuguese according to the news that had reached us. At Trincomalee, however, I found only thirteen or fourteen Portuguese. Consequently, the inhabitants of the place, being themselves free from fear, caused great fear among my men by the information they gave. This nearly caused me an unfortunate disaster. On Friday I was left without a single man, with the exception of my four servants. Nobody had so far attacked us, but word reached us that they were coming to do so. Since the place where we were was four leagues away from the inhabited districts subject to this king, they were anxious to withdraw in time. It was at this juncture that I received a letter from Fra Francisco and a message from the king informing me that the Portuguese were coming by way of Yala and were

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already within the territory of the king. At this news I took some men and returned to the place where the captain was with the rest. During all this, owing to the guards maintained in the land, no message of mine had reached those men, nor had I received any message. On the Friday after Easter, 30 April, I reached Kandy and found here André de Sousa and Frei António and his companion,13 and thirty-eight Portuguese. They told me that they had been well received and entertained by the king, and that they had been waiting for me. On Saturday we had an audience with the king and I read out Your Lordship’s letter, which the king had not seen till then, because until that day he had not spoken to them more than once. On the night of the Saturday after Easter we baptized five of the chief captains, amongst them a nephew of the king, who is the mudaliyar of Uva14 and who took the name D. João de Castro. Another captain changed his name from Kanaka Mudaliyar to Martim Afonso, a name the king had used to call him during the previous year. Another mudaliyar took the name of Pero Vaz, a fourth took Nuno Álvares, and the last took André de Sousa. On Saturday the king said that he had arranged for those persons to become Christian; now he would see that their wives and the queen herself followed their example. In the case of the prince and princess and of other members of his household, he will wait for Your Lordship or for Dom Álvaro. There was opposition among the kinsmen of the captains and of their wives.15 Since they did not want to agree to what had been arranged, a disturbance was narrowly avoided, when the prince was about to go out by the door to take the way to the church. On that day I had to undergo a good deal of trouble. Owing to the action of the prince, only those I have already mentioned became Christians. This was due to the fact that the Portuguese were few and the country at the time was half disturbed on account of the wars of Mayadunne. For this reason the wives and the queen did not become Christians; they are waiting for a larger force of Portuguese that the king desires in order to avenge himself and even to go further. Then the king gave the sum of three thousand pardaus and more in coin for the soldiers16 and for their expenses. This was to be distributed in the manner in which

13

Frei Simão de Coimbra. Mudelyar of Dua. Mudaliyar was a high military office. 15 André de Sousa states that the country began to revolt and that the ruler calmed the people by assuring them that he had converted only to deceive the Portuguese. Letter of André de Sousa to D. João de Castro, Kandy, 27 May 1546, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 369–72, published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 355–61 and in English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 130–5 and in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, I, Perniola (ed.), pp. 151– 7. See also document 4(h). 16 André de Sousa in his own letter, cited above, does not mention his requests for money 14

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Frei António had laid down and divided among the fifty Portuguese whom he wanted to remain here till the arrival of Your Lordship. Furthermore, he gave everything else that was needed and supplied attendants for everyone. The Father directed that a piece of gold weighing twenty calamjas17 and two thousand fanões of the country be given to each of the men here. De Sousa was given more than six hundred pardaus in coin; namely four hundred for his expenses, for the king says that he will give him his pay, and more than two hundred for Pero Vaz, Guedes and Gomes Ferreira. André de Sousa says that, unless they pay him all his expenses, he will take nothing, and that his expenses go beyond seven hundred pardaus. The Father assures me that it is on his conscience that he has paid more than was due; the greater part of the lascarins also say that what was paid is ample. Pero Vaz and Gomes Ferreira say that what has been given to them is too little. Matters have stood thus for ten or fifteen days without anything being concluded; everything is falling on me. The Lord knows what I am suffering to prevent the king coming to know of our dissensions. For these reasons nothing has been effected; here the men are divided, and about those who have gone to Trincomalee we have not received any message, if they are alive or if they have gone away, as they have no port or any open road. Frei António says that he is anxious to go to São Tomé and that from there he may proceed by land to come and meet Your Lordship. He does not like to leave his companion behind. On the other hand, Fra Francisco does not know our language. I know that heavy toil awaits me if he goes away from here. May it please Our Lord to give me strength to bear it till Your Lordship makes suitable provision. As for the affairs of Kotte, on 23 May there came letters in reply to others that had been sent from here. These were the first letters to come since the arrival of André de Sousa. In them the factor, Miguel de Carvalho, wrote to André de Sousa and to Frei António and to me that an agreement had been arrived at with the king of Kotte for the immediate marriage of his grandson with the princess of Kandy. The immediate celebration of the marriage was due to the fact that many people had stopped at Colombo on the way to Masulipatam with horses to be sold there. André de Sousa pressed hard on this point. Father Guardian wrote to me that he had never found the king of Kotte so yielding; that he had not been allowed to go to Colombo; and that he was having several conversations with him, while hitherto the king had been hostile to him. The king of Kotte writes to the king of Kandy that matters are at variance with what he tells the Portuguese there. He sends to inquire if it is true that the king here has become a Christian, as the Portuguese are saying there. He says that he cannot believe that this is true of a man of such noble blood and of a descendant of the but states that the ruler granted fifty pardaus each in pay and provision to the soldiers and four hundred pardaus and a collar to him. 17 A calamja or calanja was a fifth of a gram.

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solar dynasty, of whom there is none more pure in the country. He says that he cannot believe that the king of Kandy is going to incur a great disgrace. Even if the king himself sends to say to him that it is so, he cannot believe it to be true, unless all this is due to the quarrel with Mayadunne and to the fact that the king of Kotte had not interfered in the recent wars to stop them. He asserts that he himself had sent for the friars to come from Portugal, but that he did not for that reason become a Christian. He advised him against acting to ruin himself and his whole country. He says many other things to the same effect. All this is contained in the ola that he has sent to the king. But at Kotte he tells the Portuguese that he takes everything for granted, and they believe him and write accordingly. Just as I am writing to Your Lordship, so also, by order of the king, I am writing to Father Guardian that he should try, if he can, to bring about the conversion of the king of Kotte. And with regard to the marriage, he should try to hold out hopes while delaying it till the arrival of Your Lordship. This is in secret so as not to fall foul of those who are powerful here and have other aims. As regards Sitawaka, they have received from Kandy two million four hundred thousand fanões18 of the country, nine stones and other jewels, and three elephants, two male and one female, from his stable, which is a source of distinction for him. They would have taken the princess and many more things if Your Lordship had not sent assistance. A message has been sent now by this king, in reply to another that Mayadunne sent here with his men. These king’s men have not yet returned. In the message which the king sent to me from here, he told him, besides other matters, to return the money and everything else which he had caused to be spent without reason and, if he was not willing to do this, to send him without delay a cabaya in the Portuguese style and a cap, and with these he would be satisfied. There are other matters that should be reported to Your Lordship, since they refer to the spread of the Christian faith that many people of this island are anxious to embrace. But as I am unable to express them in a few words, I pass them over. Yet I wish to remind Your Lordship that it is necessary for you to come here, taking into consideration the various matters I have mentioned. The king is writing to Your Lordship a brief ola of credit, which comes with this and which refers to this letter. Similarly, the prince is also writing a personal letter that comes with this. He commands me on his behalf to tell Your Lordship that he desires you to come and give him this immense honour, which I have assured him Your Lordship is reserving for him. And it truly seems to me that he will become endowed with any virtue they teach him. I have spoken with Frei António and have recommended to him that he place his affairs in the hands of Your Lordship, a thing the queen and the princess also recommended. 18 This would approximate to 240,000 pardaus. It is possible that Pereira was misinformed and gives ten times the actual amount. Another contemporary source notes that the payment was in excess of 20,000 pardaus.

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The king is sending to Your Lordship as ambassador a member of his household, who is held in esteem and trusted by him. He has instructed him to convey to you what he has seen and to request Your Lordship or Don Álvaro to come here. The king has also ordered that his man António Collaco, who is bringing one set of letters, should come with him, so that if Frei António is not able to go across, this António Collaco will come with the letters. If the Father goes, this man accompanies him. He is a good man, to judge from what I have seen of him. I think that he will tell Your Lordship the truth of what he has seen, and this is in case the Father is not able to come there. The king has also ordered that there should come there a servant of mine, as he is the godfather of the king of Trincomalee and was at Trincomalee with the people I have mentioned before, if indeed they are there. He was the topaz19 and the godfather, and in order to take to Kotte the information that he had become a Christian, he went with those soldiers to Trincomalee. This is the one who came with Fra Francisco, of whom I have spoken before. Your Lordship can get more information of what occurs here from Frei António or from António Collaco, in case the Father cannot come there. This is the arrangement made by the king and the prince. Father António is not coming owing to what is happening here. Father Simão is able to come across and he will inform Your Lordship, for the king has requested him to undertake this task.20

(d)

António Padrão’s Letter, June 1546 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 364–5. António Padrão21 to D. João de Castro, Kandy, 7 June 1546. The Portuguese original is published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 371–6 and there are English translations in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp 145–9, and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Pernila (ed.), pp. 167–72. Jayavira’s insistence as illustrated in this and earlier documents that the Portuguese should come through Trincomalee, whose ruler was hostile to him, is very suggestive. As early as October 1545 he was offering Trincomalee, which he did not possess, to the Portuguese and

19

Interpreter. The last paragraph was evidently added later. The king, by inscribing the word Sri, also signs the letter. 21 António Padrão was a Franciscan friar. 20

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he clearly hoped that the Portuguese would take it by force, thus extending his kingdom to the coast. We started from Cochin on 18 February, thirty-five men in a pinnace chartered for thirty pardaus. We reached Mourão22 on the Fishery Coast, where we met the captain,23 and there we inquired as to what was happening in the island. We were told that the king of Kandy had capitulated to Mayadunne, having paid him more than twenty thousand pardaus and given him other objects on condition that he would return the land he had conquered. Mayadunne further demanded from him his daughter and his crown. The daughter was to be given by the end of the year, that is, in March or by the end of April. We started for Colombo in order to obtain better information. While at sea, at midnight, the pinnace ran into a reef in such a way that we thought we were lost, but Our Lady saved us. The pinnace kept the pump working for two days and nights till we reached Colombo, where it remained on the beach. André de Sousa24 began to show himself as captain there, saying that he was taking those men at his expense. He spoke to the king of Ceylon and said that he had given them twenty thousand [fanões]. I do not know what had taken place between him and the soldiers. The king told me that we should be on our guard against Mayadunne and that we should go by Trincomalee, which was outside his territory. Since the king of Kandy said that the advice was good, we set out for Galle in a champana that proved so unsatisfactory that we had to go by land. At Galle, André de Sousa bought a pinnace for seventy pardaus and arranged for the prahu25 of a champana for the sailors at his own expense; then we started again. He loaded the boat with blacks whom he had known in the past. We were not able to sail more than fifteen leagues before having to haul the prahu on land. Since the pinnace could not carry eighty men, we sent her to Trincomalee with our baggage. We took the road in the hope that we might find it shorter and less difficult. We walked forty leagues over mountains and through forests. The road was so rugged that I have never seen, nor do I ever expect to see the like of it. We reached the territory of the king of Kandy without finding anyone to stop us, except that at one pass some soldiers of Mayadunne were waiting. It was a false alarm, for we saw nobody. As we entered the territory of Kandy, we were welcomed and provided with food, elephants, sedan chairs and escorts to accompany us to within two leagues of the place where the king was. The chief people of the 22

Identified by V. Perniola as Murunkan, south of Mannar. Aires Figueiredo, captain of the Fishery Coast. 24 André de Sousa undertook his expedition at the request of the viceroy. See document 5(f). 25 In this instance the word indicates a ship’s boat. 23

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kingdom came there to receive us and lead us to the city. André de Sousa began at once to play the captain and to assume the airs of one. We entered Kandy and waited for five days, lodged and provided for; but we did not meet the king, since he said that the time was not auspicious. He had a talk with me at two in the morning. We went to visit him and offered our services as Your Lordship had directed us. André de Sousa began the conversation by saying that he had brought with him his kinsmen, noble men of great honour. We returned to the palace, and the king was very satisfied and happy. On that occasion the king gave him a sword. At once André de Sousa and his kinsmen began to ask for money with such vehemence that the king saw that we were not going away from the palace, and that our deeds did not correspond to our words. He agreed to give three thousand pardaus, which he had offered to whoever should open the port of Trincomalee for him. André de Sousa began to ask for the expenses of the journey. He said that he had spent a thousand cruzados, ignoring what Your Lordship had given him for fifty men for two months. Besides, we were not so many and we had not taken more than two months. I told him that the expenses could not be so much. He came down to seven hundred pardaus. I spoke to the lascarins, and in conscience we did not find that the expenses exceeded three hundred pardaus. However, we gave him four hundred. So far he has not accepted them. To each of his kinsmen we gave a hundred; but they are not satisfied. I showed Your Lordship’s letter to the king, and he ordered it to be read to the Portuguese. They were annoyed since there was no mention in it of any captaincy. André de Sousa began to say then that he had made more arrangements with Your Lordship than were specified in the letter. He arranged for a prison and appointed a meirinho.26 He carried the flag of our king in such a way that some said that they would go wherever he went. The result was that the documents which Your Lordship gave me and the honour and favours bestowed on me, for which may the Lord reward you, and which were meant to promote the spread of our holy religion, were in reality of little use, since they went so far as to wish to drive me, a poor friar, altogether out of this land. The king kept me back and, seeing their intentions, showed them the letter. He gave me permission to go and look after his interests and then told me not to go away and gave me a house close to his own. I keep in touch with him, admonishing and chiding the Portuguese, warning them, as is my custom, not to set a bad example in a new country, that is, that they should not go to the city at night nor show so much thirst for money, a matter that has scandalized the king. The king has directed me to send my companion to Your Lordship to inform you. It is proper for me to give Your Lordship and the lord bishop a correct statement of how things stand with regard to our religion and to this country. I am doing so, so that you may know what will be profitable to it.

26

An officer empowered to arrest wrongdoers, bailiff.

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We came here on Maundy Thursday.27 We found that only the king had become a Christian and that he had been baptized at night and secretly. He had done so, yielding to the importunity of Nuno Álvares, who insisted that the only safeguard that the king had against Mayadunne was to become a Christian, and thereby obtain Portuguese soldiers to defend him. They then sent to Kotte for a friar, Fra Francisco, an Italian and a good priest. The king was baptized by Fra Francisco. As he became a Christian by night, he still remains in the darkness of night, with all his pagan customs and without professing or learning our doctrine. He does not know how to make the sign of the Cross, nor is he willing that any member of his household should embrace the Faith. He had five of the princes baptized against their wish, so that they might not revolt against him. These formerly visited us, but not now. The king says that it is enough that he is a Christian and that, when the governor or his son comes, then he will make everyone a Christian, since then he will have the power to defend himself against his enemies. He wishes for three things from us, namely, honour, safety for his kingdom and vengeance on his enemies. None of these can be achieved without Your Lordship or without sending a greater number of soldiers. At the moment neither his faith nor the salvation of his soul will have any meaning for him till he gets what he wants. He is already old and a stubborn old man. The prince is the same age as the one who died there, but he is strongly built, skilled in arms, a man of few words and intelligent. He says that he is not going to be a Christian secretly, and that when Your Lordship comes or sends troops to the island,28 then he must meet you and entrust himself to you. At present he wishes to learn. Though he is still a new plant, we can rely on him. The people are well disposed towards him, but they dislike his father, with good cause. Your Lordship must see how important this business is and consequently how conducive to the honour of God and the spread of our holy religion. My poor judgment is that, if Your Lordship is able to come now to Jaffna, you should come and place this prince there. From there you should go to Kotte and treat with the king. As he says, he will come to meet you at any port you wish. With the arrival of Your Lordship on this island, which is now full of unrest, he will see your power, side with you and keep the country quiet. If neither you nor your son, Dom Álvaro, come, we will lose our reputation and will lose even what we have started. If nothing else is possible, send at least a captain, such as Dom Jorge de Castro, with a force of three hundred or more soldiers. The country is very rugged. It is not possible to come here without travelling thirty leagues from the sea, or twenty if one were to come through the territory of 27

22 April: other documents give dates between 23 and 25 April. There is reason to think that the viceroy, D. João de Castro planned in December 1545 to go to Ceylon in September 1546. See letter of Castro to King João III, Goa, 24 December 1545, in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), p. 278. An English translation is published in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, 1, Perniola (ed.), p. 134. 28

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Mayadunne. The people are kindly; the food is bad; and the water is cold. Few care to remain here in this depressing place, hemmed in by mountains. Everything here is in the king’s hand. The inhabitants are poor. It is impossible to write everything. When Your Lordship comes or sends someone, I will say who Nuno Álvares is and what he deserves, as he was the first to start this work, and because of the toil and disappointments he suffers over the Portuguese, for they are anxious to see him lose the confidence of the king. The king is sending Mogudo as ambassador to Your Lordship; he is a man whom he esteems. With him and with the friar there comes my nephew. Treat him well for my sake.

(e)

André de Sousa’s Account, 1546 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 362–3. André de Sousa to D. João de Castro, Kandy, 10 June 1546. The Portuguese original was published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 377–8 and in English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 151–2, and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 172–5. The subtle changes in emphasis in reporting the same events between this letter and documents (d) and (g) indicate the differences in attitude and personal clashes between André de Sousa and Frei António Padrão.

After I wrote to Your Lordship certain incidents occurred here, as a consequence of which we agreed that Frei António should go from here. In fact, he had already decided to go away, owing to his dissatisfaction with the country and with the king. He found that the king had already been baptized, but did not in practice follow the Christian religion. The reasons why and the manner in which he was baptized have already been mentioned to Your Lordship in my previous letter. He cannot change his way of acting so long as Your Lordship does not come yourself or does not increase the number of Portuguese. We could never convince Frei António on this point. So one day he went to the palace of the king and, in public assembly, handed over the papers to him and also to the rest of us. The king took charge of them and entrusted them to me. The Father had to stay, because the king was not willing to give him permission so long as Your Lordship did not give your approval. The rest of us also were of the opinion that he should not go, pending a message from Your Lordship, since you had ordered him to hand over everything to me at Cochin without any restriction. I did everything and brought him and the others, and met all the expenses, as I have already written to Your Lordship. I consider this money well spent, since it

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was for the service of God and of the king of Portugal during Your Lordship’s term of office. Being satisfied with this, I did not accept anything from the king as a recompense for my expenses. I did this so that he might know that I am not ruled by greed. I request Your Lordship to give me the reward of sending me to Bengal in a ship with a cargo of coir29 or in a pinnace, and from there to Hormuz, so that I may be able to reduce my debts. For during the last two years, on account of the princes, whom God now has, and of their journey, I have debts amounting to more than two thousand cruzados. I wish to remind Your Lordship of my services, since for the last twenty-three years I have been serving in these parts without having received a single reward. I most earnestly entreat Your Lordship that, if it is not possible for you to come to this country, you should send a man to take charge of these Portuguese, for I cannot continue any longer. They are getting quite out of control and becoming utterly reckless. It is not sufficient to know how to govern them. There is need of the greater powers of Your Lordship for that purpose, and he who has to govern them must have those powers. I do not venture to govern either them or so evil a land as this. The greatest favour I can obtain is permission to leave the country. I will wait for this till September. Then if no message comes from Your Lordship, I shall hand the men over to the king and go away. It is only unprincipled and unscrupulous men that can be sent to this country to deal with the king and to handle the Portuguese. I am not writing to Your Lordship to complain of Frei António, because you know his character. It is enough to say that he is old and narrow-minded. The king does get on well with him, owing to his attitude and for other reasons that I mean to mention when Your Lordship comes here. But before God and my conscience, I can say that the king is much worse. Nothing else happens in this country. We hear that the king of Kotte and Mayadunne (Madune) are becoming friends in order to fight against us. We are ready for them, though our stock of powder is scanty. We shall do our duty as loyal Portuguese and true Christians.

(f)

Miguel Fernandes’ Letter, 1546 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Collecção de S. Lourenço, III, ff. 358–9. Miguel Fernandes30 to D. João de Castro, Negapatam, 10 June 1546. The Portuguese original was published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 379–81 and in English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 153–5, and

29 30

From the Maldives. A married Portuguese settler (casado) who lived in Kotte.

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The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 175–6. This document tells the story of how a small Portuguese force moving to the aid of Kandy was stopped by the ruler of Trincomalee. Your Lordship learnt how on 9 March the king of Kandy was baptized by a friar of St Francis, who had gone there by land after being summoned by him. When his conversion was announced, Your Lordship sent Frei António and André de Sousa with soldiers for this king.31 These soldiers were few, when we consider the great step the king had taken, and how the king of Kotte and the other kings of the island despised him when they heard of it. As this conversion is for the honour of the Lord, may God grant that the action of this king becomes an inspiration for all the other kings of the island to turn to the truth. Since the king has become a Christian, difficulties have arisen, both from his subjects and from other people who do not approve of his conversion. Therefore, on account of the need in which he stands, he has sent a request for help from the king of Portugal and from Your Lordship. This request was supported by Father Guardian,32 both as a man of God and in keeping with the service of God demanded by his cloth. The Father did it by sermons and appeals, urging the need in which the king stood. Since these were Christians, and their condition was a consequence of their having embraced the Faith, we felt obliged to assist the king. When I reflected that there was a well-founded hope that the whole island would become Christian, I decided to go there with the Fathers, leaving my wife and children and all our property neglected. I took this bold decision to go on the advice of António Ferreira,33 the chief guard. I arrived at this decision in the conviction that here was a matter that would be of service to Your Lordship, as it would be of service to God, since you surpass all men in your fear of God and in your desire to serve God. May it please the Lord that the real treasure you take away from India will be the conversion of the island to Christianity during your term of office. Great will be the work that will be accomplished with the help and support of Your Lordship. I set sail from Ceylon in a pinnace with twenty Portuguese, meeting all their expenses myself. We arrived at Trincomalee where the king had directed them to go. I waited there for André de Sousa, because at the time I started from Colombo it was not possible to go by way of Galle, where André de Sousa was, because the 31 In fact, André de Sousa was sent in February 1546, before the king of Kandy was baptized. 32 João Vila da Conde. 33 Note that André de Sousa and Nuno Álvares Pereira say that Ferreira did not help them.

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weather was unfavourable. From there I sent a message that I was coming to join him and I went by the shallows,34 calculating on waiting for him at Trincomalee, where I remained expecting him. Seventeen days later a pinnace arrived with one man in charge of it. This was the pinnace of André de Sousa, and the man told me that André de Sousa had landed with all the men of his company at Yala, fifty leagues from the port of Trincomalee, and had proceeded from there to Kandy by land. I have no other news of him, because the prince of the port of Trincomalee, who was subject to the king of Kandy, on hearing that the king of Kandy had become a Christian, blocked the road to Kandy, being incited and helped to do this by other princes. He blocked the road in such a way that, though I sent four messengers to the king, not one came back, nor did any Portuguese arrive. This went on for fifty days, during which we received no supplies, though we were ready to pay for them. Then, though I had done them no harm, they began to harass us. So we disembarked and there found more than five hundred men with swords and daggers. Our Lord was pleased that we should beat them, and we were saved only by a miracle. The struggle was such that a friar who was travelling with me had to come to the rescue, and it fell to his share to kill three persons. As I had been surrounded by three men, and as food was running short, and I had received no message, though I had waited many days at this port, and could not expect any message on account of the confusion of the situation, I set sail and made my way to Negapatam. At Negapatam I found that Cristóvão d’Ourea was captain. I reported to him the need in which the king of Kandy stood and informed him that the king was now a Christian. I mentioned the presence of Portuguese there from whom I had received no message. I requested him to give me more men to go there with those who were with me. With them I would go back to the port of Trincomalee to get some information about the Portuguese and to bring help to the king, since at that moment any assistance was of great importance. I assured him that less than one hundred men would be enough to go to Kandy by way of the port of Trincomalee, in spite of the opposition of the prince of the region. I offered to Cristóvão d’Ourea to bring eight hundred pardaus from my home and said that I was willing to supply all the expenses of the ships and of the men on my own account. I made this offer because Your Lordship is too far away to send help in a short time. He told me that he could not take action without the permission of Your Lordship, and so I gave up the idea of returning there. I am giving this account to Your Lordship so that, being aware of what has happened in the past, you may decide what help you should give him.

34

Straits of Mannar.

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(g)

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António Padrão’s Letter, November 1546 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Cartas de Goa, No 43, Frei António Padrão to João de Albuquerque,35 23 November 1546. The Portuguese original was published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), p. 403 and in English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 171–2, and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 187–8. Compare this assessment of the sincerity of the conversion of the ruler of Kandy with documents (c) and (h).

I have not written to Your Lordship until now because I wanted to make sure of the sincerity of the conversion of the king of Kandy, for Your Lordship will agree that in writing I should be sure of what I say. I have watched carefully and have seen that it is all a sham. As soon as he saw himself out of the danger that had led him to become a Christian, and even that at night, he immediately began to dissemble that he had become a Christian. He does not believe in God. He refuses to be instructed. He does not want to see a Cross. He does not want to make the sign of the Cross. He does not want anyone in his territory except slaves to become Christians; and if anyone becomes a Christian secretly, he immediately sells him into slavery. I tried to find out why he was not fulfilling what he had promised the governor in letters and other papers signed by him. First of all, he publicly says that he was not aware of what those letters contained, and that Nuno Álvares had prepared them on his own and brought them for his signature. This is the truth regarding all the letters that come there, for I saw myself that it was so. He says that Nuno Álvares, an ordinary practical soldier, promised him that the governor would crown him and make him emperor of the island, that all would kiss his foot and become his vassals and tributaries, and that he would defeat Mayadunne and oblige him to give back the money he had extorted as the price of peace. He says that nothing of this has been done; that the Portuguese will take his lands from him to make his kingdom Christian; that so long as the governor does not fulfil what has been promised, the rest cannot be done, nor is it reasonable or right. He gave me permission to find him three hundred Portuguese to fight against Mayadunne and to conquer some lands from his neighbours for the sake of the prince, who is poor and who will become a Christian, not for the love of God but to take what belongs to others. The king visits his temples as before. Nuno Álvares and the friar who baptized him know all this, and they would say it if they had the courage. No attempt is ever

35

First bishop of the diocese of Goa, 1537–53.

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made here in Colombo to convert people, while those who have already become Christians relapse because they cannot find anyone to help them. Here everything is greed for money. The Portuguese who were with me clearly showed such greed before the king of Kandy, which gave him a very bad impression.

(h)

The Viceroy’s Counsel, 1546 From Biblioteca da Ajuda, 51–XII–42, ff. 60–1, D. João de Castro, viceroy of India, to King João III, 16 December, 1546. Another part of this letter is published above as document 3 (e). The Portuguese viceroy, faced with contradictory reports from Kandy, seeks to evaluate the situation.

On 10 September there came to this city a friar of St Francis bringing to me a letter from the king of Kandy and another from the prince, his son, requesting me very earnestly that I should go there to make them Christians. As this message came when Diu was being besieged, and when I was preparing a fleet to go to its relief, it was not possible for me to do more than write a letter, pointing out the difficulties in which I found myself, since I was going to take part in the war of Gujarat. But I assured him that on my return from the war, if the weather was favourable, I would go to meet him personally or, if I were unavoidably prevented from undertaking such a journey, I would send my son D. Álvaro. The matter of the king of Kandy is not clear. Regarding his practice of our religion, from the friars who are in Ceylon and from other persons I have received letters that differ so much that I cannot find out the real truth, nor can I properly represent the king’s case to Your Highness as I ought. The king was baptized by night and secretly. Many think that he did it because he needs my help, since he is pressed hard by the neighbouring king, who is called Mayadunne. I have sent forty musketeers to help him. With them I sent Frei António, a man of learning and of exemplary life, so that he might baptize him and instruct him. This Father, on arriving there, did not find things to his liking and wrote to me, showing his great disappointment with the king and with his practice of the Christian religion. The Portuguese who were with the king did their best to convince me through their letters and to make me believe that the disappointment of Frei António arose from the fact that, when he reached Kandy, the king had already been baptized by another friar, and thus he could not take the credit for this conversion. They tried to assure me that the king is truly a Christian and that he [the king] is ready to make the Father baptize his son and all his subjects. Among the Portuguese who are there, several wrote to the contrary, assuring me that everything was a sham and that the king was only bent on securing his intent.

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Such a divergence of attitude seems to have arisen from the fact that the king gave three thousand cruzados to those Portuguese, and that the Portuguese started quarrelling and disputing among themselves when it came to divide the money, and the disagreement reached such a stage that they nearly killed one another. Thus, Sire, as long as the affairs of the king of Kandy are in such a state, I do not know what to say to Your Highness, except that, if there are roses, they will bloom. Yet, I have decided to send my son D. Álvaro there, if the war does not allow me to go. He will do whatever is possible for our religion in the kingdom of Kandy and in the whole country, since I am convinced that in this world there is no more glorious triumph. The friars and the secular priests, in their great zeal and desire to convert those people, earnestly urge me, and each one tries to influence me to his side, not paying attention if the weather is favourable or not, nor taking into consideration the innumerable engagements I have. God, who judges justly, knows only too well how I desire to do this work as much as they do, though I am a great sinner and they are virtuous and holy. However, it is very clearly greedy to go and spend time looking for possible Christians, while neglecting those who really are Christians, and thereby to put in danger the honour and the authority of Your Highness. I am postponing everything for a better occasion, which I hope the Lord will give me, since it is an affair that will render him a great service.

(i)

Frei Simão de Coimbra’s Report, 1546 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo Chancellerias, Corpo Chronológico, 1–78–109, Simão de Coimbra36 to King João III, 25 December 1546. The Portuguese original was published in Ceylon sur Zeit, Schurhammer and Voretsch (eds), pp. 420–34, and in English translation in Ceylon and Portugal, Pieris and Fitzler (eds), pp. 174–90 and The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 199–213. This document provides an excellent illustration of the complexity of the forces that had an impact on the Portuguese missionaries and influenced their decision-making. This letter also reveals that Jayavira of Kandy had handed over a major Buddhist temple to the missionaries.

A king, called the king of Kandy, who lives in the island of Ceylon sent an ambassador to the governor37 to inform him that he was anxious to embrace

36 37

A Franciscan friar who went to Kandy with André de Sousa in 1546. Martim Afonso de Sousa.

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Christianity with all his people, to become a vassal of Your Highness and to have a factory [feitoria]38 in his kingdom. This king lives inland and renders obedience to no one, not even to the king of Kotte, who was formerly emperor, being a stronger ruler and of a higher caste.39 When he sent to say he wished to become a Christian, he was at war with Mayadunne, brother of the king of Kotte, an enemy of Your Highness and a great persecutor of our holy Christian Faith, for he orders all the Christians he can catch to sacrifice to his false gods. For this reason also the king of Kandy asked for some help to be sent to protect him. As the governor was favourably disposed, he granted what he was asked and sent forty Portuguese. He requested our Father Custodian to send also two friars: the Portuguese to assist him, the friars to baptize and instruct him. I was one of the two friars.40 The governor requested the king of Kotte to allow us to go to the king of Kandy, passing through some lands that are not those where he is, and that entail a journey of two days and more. He earnestly asked him not to give any help or assistance to his brother. The second request was due to the fact that the two of them were waging war on the king of Kandy. In his request the governor mentioned, together with other reasons, how his brother was opposed to the service of Your Highness and was a persecutor of our holy Faith. But the king of Kotte did not think fit to comply with the request and consequently forced us to go by way of Trincomalee, which is one hundred leagues from there. At Galle we received letters from the king of Kandy, in which he stated that he had already become a Christian, taking the name of Dom Manuel; that he had been baptized by a friar whom he had invited from Kotte for the purpose; and that the fact was being kept a secret till we arrived lest his people killed him. He informed us also that he had already made peace with Mayadunne and given him twenty-five thousand pardaus, and that Mayadunne further demanded his daughter and his crown. So he begged that we should go in all haste to the port of Trincomalee, where he would have people to lead us. When we saw this, we made way with all speed, proceeding from there for some days as far as the bay of Oupalão, beyond which we could not sail. From there to Kandy it was a distance of thirty leagues by land, and the way passed over half the territory of Mayadunne. Paying no attention to him, we passed through his lands, though he was against it. We endured much trouble till we reached the territory of the king of Kandy. As soon as we got there, which was on Good Friday, we went to where the king was. When the king learnt of our arrival, he sent all his chief men to meet us on our way and at once gave orders to hand over to us one of his chief temples, so that we

38

Trincomalee, the proposed site of the factory, was not under the control of Kandy. This is incorrect. The two royal families intermarried. 40 The other was António Padrão. 39

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might make a church of it. Here, on the day of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we had a procession with all possible solemnity; we had Mass with a sermon, which was something that had never before taken place in such remote regions full of paganism. Both in his own kingdom and out of it, the king professed himself a Christian. On Sunday after Easter, five captains, the chief people of his kingdom, were baptized, with some other people. We were anxious to baptize the prince and the heir [Infante] with the queen and the wives of the captains, but rioting and an uproar broke out among the people of the country, both because they were restless and half in revolt owing to the recent wars, and also because of slanders and blasphemies against the Portuguese conveyed by the king of Kotte and by Mayadunne to this king, and also because the Portuguese who had come here were few in number. It did not occur to the king of Kotte that, if he is still king, he owes it to Your Highness. About this I shall say more in its proper place. Coming back to this king, I say that he rewarded the Portuguese with three thousand pardaus, beside giving them houses for their lodgings and supplying all they needed, even giving them blacks, men and women, to wait on them. He further paid them four pardaus each month and rice for themselves and their blacks, as much as was necessary, adding many other honours and rewards. But the Portuguese are ill satisfied, for they are not anxious for honour or the Faith of God or the service of Your Highness, but only for money. Finally, he has placed himself in the hands of Your Highness, with his whole kingdom, his treasure, his wife and children. He is ready to follow your wishes in everything, even to come to Portugal, if you were to bid him, or to do anything else asked of him. Of all this he spoke to the lascarins when they went to see him. Let not Your Highness think that this king made this peace or gave what I mention above because he could do nothing else; for he alone has as many men as Mayadunne and the king of Kotte. He did it because his captains proved traitors to him and abandoned him on account of the many bribes Mayadunne sent them. For this reason the king gave him everything. Likewise, his people were pressing him to give his daughter and his crown, and he would have given his daughter if we had not come at the time we did, since as soon as Mayadunne learnt we were with him, he sent word that he did not want her that year, because it was not an auspicious year. Since matters stood thus, it was necessary to give an account to the governor so that he might sanction both what had already been accomplished and what remained to be done. It was impossible to do this except by travelling overland, because a message could not be sent by the cinnamon ship as the rainy season was too advanced. Then, this king sent me to the governor with letters and olas. Here is a copy of the ola.

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The ola of the king of Kandy to the governor of India: Sir, God give you much health. In this month of June I am in good health. I told Nuno Álvares everything that is in my heart and ordered him to write it to Your Lordship, and all that he writes are my words, and it is certain that they are true. For that reason I do not write at great length. The king of Kotte sent to ask for friars from the king of Portugal so that he might become a Christian, and, after they came, he did not wish to be baptized or to see anyone becoming a Christian, and if anyone did become a Christian, he immediately persecuted him and took away his property. The king of Portugal has granted him many benefits and good things, but he has never been grateful to him. I never knew anything about the Portuguese, but Nuno Álvares has told me a great deal these three years. I was very pleased to learn this and I greatly desired to become their friend, and for that purpose I sent to ask for a factor for my country and for some Fathers to make me a Christian. As soon as one came here, I became a Christian at once, together with my son and the whole of my household.41 The rest of my subjects will become Christians as soon as Your Lordship comes to my country. If one Portuguese has done all this, what great things will the Lord be able to achieve if Your Lordship comes here, for the whole of this island will embrace the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. I earnestly request your Lordship to remember me and come quickly or send your son. You may believe this Father as a servant of mine, for whatever he says are my own words. May God give you much health. Such are the form and the content of the ola, and it is certain that everything that the king writes is the truth, and Your Highness ought to raise him above all the other kings of Ceylon and show to him greater honour than to the king of Kotte. He deserves such honour because he is the first heathen king in these regions to become a Christian of his own accord. Furthermore, on his own initiative he has done all that I have stated above and he wishes to do much more, for he says that he wishes to be a vassal of Your Highness. He will supply iron, which is abundant and good in this country, pitch and tar, and beechwood for oars, which Your Highness needs for the galleys. He will also supply elephants. I cannot specify the quantity that he will give of each of these because so far the governor has not decided about the factory, but I am writing as the king has told me to say that of all these he will give as much as the governor wishes. If I were to give Your Highness a detailed account, it would mean writing at great length, a matter of which kings and great people highly disapprove, for it is the wordy who write lengthy narratives. When one has to say something, one must say

41 This is contradicted by the letter of Nuno Álvares Pereira dated 29 May 1546 and that of André de Sousa dated 27 May 1546.

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it briefly, unless this is impossible. Though I see how necessary it is to give you a full account of everything that the king has in his country and of what happens there, I shall not do so now except briefly, as I do not know how acceptable this will be to Your Highness and for fear lest I become wearisome in writing to you at length. I can confidently assert that, if Your Highness were to have Ceylon as your own, and its kings as your vassals, as this king of Kandy is about to become, you would certainly hold India secure in your power, for if any harm were to happen to India (may God in his mercy forbid), it would not be possible to set it right from any spot other than Ceylon, and especially from this kingdom of Kandy. For it is a place so strong that, even if one had all the power of the Turk, it could not be conquered, since it has so great an abundance of provisions and meat that a cow does not cost more than a tanga and a hen costs five reis. It is very fertile. It produces much pepper and ginger. It has many forests of cinnamon. It yields as much sugar as you want and it can produce wheat as well. I mention nothing more, as it seems to me to be superfluous. This king is greatly feared by his people, for he knows how to bide his time and achieve what he wants at the right moment, as he hopes to do in the case of those who betray him. He is a man of sixty years. He does not take opium; he does not drink arrack and does not want it to be manufactured anywhere in his kingdom, a very great thing in those parts, while the king of Kotte is greatly addicted to both. The king of Kandy has a son, the heir to his kingdom, aged twenty years, of whom great things are expected and with whose favour and help our holy Faith will greatly increase. I shall speak more about him at the end of an ola that will soon be mentioned. I say nothing more of this king, since this is sufficient to make Your Highness deal kindly with him and do for him what you have done and are doing for the king of Kotte, who does not deserve such treatment, since he is so opposed to the spread of our holy Faith. I am certain that, if the king of Kotte had not interfered by his warning, by now the whole kingdom of Kandy would have embraced our holy Faith, for he does so many things and has so many evil reports and calumnies about the Portuguese conveyed to the king of Kandy as to confuse him. In fact, as soon as he heard that the king of Kandy had become a Christian, he sent to tell him what follows: That he could not believe that a king so great and of such exalted caste and so discerning should wish to dishonour himself and commit so serious a mistake as to become a Christian; that from being a king, he would become an outcaste;42 that he requested him earnestly to send and inform him definitely if it was true; that he further strongly urged him to be careful not to dishonour himself; that he well knew that it was all a pretence due to the war which he was carrying on with his brother.

42

Parea.

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He told him to act as he had done, for he had also asked for friars from Your Highness so that he might become a Christian, but after they had come to his country, he had not wished to become a Christian lest he bring dishonour on himself, nor was he willing that any of his subjects should become Christians. He had only sent to ask for friars so that Your Highness might confirm and grant him what he wanted. For that reason he earnestly begged the king of Kandy not to trouble about the Portuguese, for they were a set of thieves and were not coming to his country for any other reason than to destroy and plunder. He said that he could not even put a collar of gold round his neck, because they at once tried to snatch it from him, that no confidence could be placed in them, as they were good for nothing, and various other matters so foul that I cannot possibly write them down. The result was that, having never seen any Portuguese, and being even less familiar with us and with our way of life, this king was in great confusion and did not place as much confidence in us as was needed. Our Christian religion made no progress in consequence of all the obstacles I have mentioned and similar ones that I omit. As matters were in this state, I shouldered this burden for the honour of God and for the service of Your Highness. At the bidding of the king I travelled through two hundred leagues of country inhabited by enemies of our Faith, for I came through Vijayanagar. When I arrived here, the governor43 was preoccupied with other things of which he has written. For this reason he did not show the interest demanded by a matter so important as converting a king to Christianity, nor did he wish to know anything from me or do more than take the letters which I brought. Yet, I lay no blame on him, because the time did not give him more opportunity, since he set out immediately for the siege of Diu, and I do not know what he may do later. Among various other matters, the king wrote to him to make him come to Ceylon or to send his son, promising him that he would make the whole island Christian. The king made this request because the governor, in a letter that he wrote to him through us, promised him that he would go to Ceylon last September or that he would send his son. And I am certain that, if the governor had gone himself or sent his son, the whole island of Ceylon would have become Christian, including the king of Kotte, in spite of himself, and consequently his brother as well, since they would have had no alternative. For, on seeing that Your Highness favoured the king of Kandy, immediately all the others would have desired to have the same favour and thus the Faith of our Lord would have been exalted. Let not Your Highness think that it would not be good if this were obtained by force, for we do not expect anything from these first Christians, who are the parents and are old; we place all our hope in their children and in those who will come afterwards. For the children, being themselves instructed in our holy Faith, will teach their parents

43

D. João de Castro, governor of India.

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first, and later their own children, when they themselves become parents. Your Highness should know that, as a result of the reports spread by the king of Kotte, this work is now at a standstill. This king does not seem to remember that it was Your Highness who made him king when he was not, for he and his brother killed their uncle who was the king in order to get the kingdom for themselves. He has razed our crosses to the ground; he does all the harm he can to anyone who becomes Christian. When a member of his household became a Christian, the king took from him all that he had, even his female black slaves. This man went to India to complain to Martim Afonso, the governor, who gave him a written order that the king should return to him what he had confiscated. The king made a mockery of that and did nothing about it; rather he told that person that he would like to see what the Portuguese would do to him when he had chosen to dishonour himself. The reason for all this is money. All this account that I am giving Your Highness is for no other reason than that you may know what has been done and what remains to be done, taking into consideration the present difficulties. In spite of these, I can assure Your Highness in all truthfulness, before God and my conscience, that as soon as this king becomes a Christian, the entire island will immediately follow his example, and there will be no further delay than that needed for the governor to decide whether to go personally or send his son or a captain. For as soon as they arrive, everything will be accomplished, as all are waiting for this. Leaving this matter, I come back to the prince of Kandy, son of this king, who has written to the governor a letter and an ola, of which this is a copy: The ola of the prince of Kandy to the governor: Sir, God give you good health. In this month of June I myself enjoy good health. I request you, Sir, not to doubt the veracity of the letters I have sent you. I do not say things to please as other kings do. Your Lordship should know that, while my father became a Christian secretly, I would never receive baptism in that way. I shall be a sun that shines over the whole of my people and the whole of this island, for I mean to become a Christian openly. I am not able to write in an ola what I have in my heart, so I directed Nuno Álvares to do that in a letter. This Father44 is going there and you can question him about the whole of my mind and heart, since I have manifested everything to him. When the whole island comes to know that I am a Christian, I shall be to all like a flag, and everyone will be delighted to become Christian. Then I shall be like a sun to all my people. For the love of God and of Holy Mary, come and make me a Christian, as I greatly desire to become one, and it gives me much pleasure to write this.

44

Frei Simão de Coimbra.

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Your Highness must certainly know that the mother of Jugo45 and my mother were sisters. Everything you did and desired to do to those princes who died there you did to me, for they were my cousins. As you looked after them, look after me. Again I beg you earnestly to come and make me a Christian to save my own soul and the souls of many others. God give you health. Such are the contents of the ola that this prince sent to the governor, and I am certain that everything he says is true. For, though he has not yet received baptism, he is as much a Christian at heart and mind as any other who has received it. He wished to become a Christian even before his father, who was baptized without the knowledge of the son. When he saw that his father had been baptized before the arrival of the Portuguese in their kingdom, he then waited till they came; and if one hundred of them had come, he would immediately have joined them and become a Christian. But when he came and he saw that we were so few and could not defend him if he joined us, he delayed. However, he was unwilling to be like his father, for just as he desired his own salvation, he also desired the salvation of his own people. Therefore he did not become Christian at the time. He wrote the ola to the governor, as I have already mentioned. I am certain, Sir, that he is a young man of whom all cherish the hope that he will be a great man, both in the religion of the Lord God and in other matters; for his thoughts are not those of a black, but of a man who greatly desires to imitate Christian kings, both in his manner of life and in all else. He says that, when he becomes a Christian, he will not have any but Portuguese officials in his house, and that he is going to be waited upon in the same way as Your Highness. He asked me what was the name of the first king of Portugal. I replied to him that he was called Dom Afonso Henriques. Then he said that they must call him by the same name. He is a man greatly beloved by his people, very gentle, inclined to good, not mean but liberal, a man of few words but decisive; in his bearing he is a gallant gentleman. However much I say, there always remains something more to be said. He is strongly inclined to our holy Faith and is anxious to spread it. He is already greatly opposed to the temples, which he formerly worshipped. He is a nephew of the king of Kotte, being the son of one of his sisters who married his father. His mother is already dead. The princes, who were here, were his cousins. The governor had sworn Dom João, the elder of the two who died here, as king of Jaffna. In ancient times Jaffna was subject to the crown of the king of Kotte, but now for a long time it has not rendered obedience but has made itself independent. With reference to this island, the king of Kotte said that the princes could take it, if they liked, for it is on the seacoast. The one who took possession of

45

Son of Bhuvanekabahu.

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it and rules over it is a brigand.46 He has killed and robbed many Portuguese who happened to land on the coast in storms. He also has some of Your Highness’s money. He is strongly opposed to our Faith. So for these reasons he ought to be ousted. The governor had therefore sworn in this prince as king of that territory and was going to take him this past September, and for this reason he wrote to the king of Kandy, as I have already mentioned. When the prince died, the governor sent word to Miguel Ferreira to go and tell a certain brahmin,47 now an old man, that if he became a Christian, he would make him king of Jaffna. If this had been carried out, it would have been greatly against the service of God. For the prince who died has someone to succeed him, and that is this prince of Kandy, who is his cousin and the nephew of the king of Kotte. Since they cannot now give the kingdom to the one to whom it belongs, let them give it to the one who should inherit it, rather than to someone who does not deserve it, as is the case with the brahmin, who would become Christian merely in order to be made king. Your Highness should know that, if this island is given to this prince of Kandy, our holy Faith will be greatly exalted and the honour and dominions of Your Highness increased. For this island is very large and there are in it many inhabitants who are lost through want. Five hundred households are asking for baptism, but they cannot become Christians, unless they drive away this tyrant from the country. On this same coast there are two other kingdoms: one is called Yala, which adjoins the kingdom of Mayadunne on one side, and the other is Batticaloa, which borders on Yala and Trincomalee. The kingdom of Yala is subject to the prince of Batticaloa, for he is the nephew of the queen of Yala and, according to their custom, he is the heir to Batticaloa, since he is the son of the king. I happened to go to this kingdom of Batticaloa when I was on my way to India, in order to take ship there for São Tomé, as Batticaloa is a seaport, and as its king is friendly with the king of Kandy, and the two kingdoms adjoin each other. As soon as this king saw me, he rendered me great honour and entertained me. I was carrying a cross in my hand; he asked me what that object was. Regarding that, I replied to him as the Lord inspired me, and I also told him that it was the device of the coat of arms of Your Highness, while relating to him the magnificence and power of Your Highness, with various other matters at which he was much astonished. Then he told me that, since the king of Kandy had become a Christian, he also wished to embrace the Faith, together with his son, the heir to the kingdom. I told him what was necessary. Finally, as he was just about to become a Christian, a war, which an aunt of his began to wage against him at that time, broke out. He told me that I saw clearly how matters stood, and that consequently he was not able to become a Christian then, but that he wished this for his son, who was the heir to the

46 47

Sankili. Sankili’s elder brother.

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kingdom, and that, when the governor came himself or sent someone, then he would be baptized, together with the people whom he ruled. I then told him what seemed to be necessary and made the son a Christian, together with his teacher. Then he told me that he wished to write to the governor. Here is a copy of what he wrote. The ola which the king of Batticaloa wrote to the governor: Sir, Your Lordship will know how Frei Simão de Coimbra came here to cross over to India in order to give you an account of what has taken place here. He opened my mind to the truth and spoke to me about your holy Catholic Faith, a matter I had much desired for a long time, both to save my soul and also to make myself a brother in arms and religion with the king of Portugal. Nevertheless, I remain much disappointed, as I did not receive the water of baptism so as to be able to call myself a Christian, although I am already a Christian at heart. Therefore, if I am not yet a Christian, it is not through lack of will, but through not knowing the conditions of my kingdom. However, the prince my son, the heir to my kingdom, has become a Christian and has taken the name Dom Luís. I am waiting for Your Lordship or your son to come in order that I may become a Christian, together with the whole of my household and the rest of the people over whom I rule. I hope in Holy Mary that, when you come, your holy Faith will spread. Therefore, in the name of God and of Holy Mary, I beg you, Sir, to come or to send your son to make the prince of Kandy and me Christians. From this time forward my son, who is already a Christian, and I, who hope to be, place ourselves in the hands and under the protection of the king of Portugal. I beg Your Lordship to help me and protect me, as a Christian, a vassal and a comrade in arms of the king of Portugal. From now on you can make use of me and of my kingdom as if we were your own property. You can give orders to build boats and ships and galleons and catures in my port. For I will give you as much timber as is needed. If you wish to know more about me, you can ask this Father, for he will say all that I told him he should say. God give you good health. This king does not ask or wish for anything, but only to be a friend and vassal of Your Highness, both to serve you and also to do everything that you order him, for he says that he has no war with anyone. He has only asked me for two dogs of a good breed to go hunting with him, for he is a great hunter. He is a man of seventy years of age and is very just. The prince is about twelve years old; he is of the right age to be made a good Christian. He did not ask me for anything more than a wooden cross which I was carrying in my hand and which I gave him; and I told him what he had to do. I am giving all this account to Your Highness, as it is a matter that affects our holy Faith, for which Your Highness is so zealous, being so deeply Christian yourself. When the task is accomplished, you will receive the reward which St Paul

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said stands prepared for him who carries out the will of the Lord God and honours Him, that is ‘what the eye has never seen, etc.’ For the love of Our Lord and of His Passion and Death, since we cost Him so dear when He redeemed us with His Precious Blood on the tree of the True Cross, Your Highness should take care of this his Faith, and order the governor, both the present one and his successors, to show great concern for the spread of the Christian religion and greatly favour the Christians, because if they do not do so, the Faith cannot progress. For in the work of the Lord God our enemy is always hard at work to hinder it, since, as punishment for our sins, those who hinder it are many more than those who favour and assist it. Your Highness should remember Nuno Álvares Pereira, who is with this king and who has laboured much over this matter. For this and because he has served Your Highness in these parts, he deserves whatever favour you can do to him. For he is a man of great worth. The king does nothing except as he tells him, and he is his controller of revenue and, if he knew the language, he would rule the kingdom.

Chapter 5

Jaffna: Conquest, Resistance and Governance

The collection of documents in this chapter spans a century: the first document deals with the first invasion of Jaffna by the Portuguese in 1560 and the last with an inquiry held by the Portuguese administration in Jaffna in 1645. Together, they illustrate a number of facets of the interaction between the people of Jaffna and the Portuguese. The kingdom of Jaffna, which had shaken off the suzerainty of the rulers of Kotte soon after 1467, was a small kingdom with limited resources. Seventeenthcentury evidence suggests that the Jaffna ruler’s income was, at best, one fourth that of the Kotte king.1 Both Travancore and Vijayanagar seem to have claimed overlordship over Jaffna at this time, though the evidence on this is fragmentary.2 On the other hand, Jaffna was strategically located to command the waterway through the Palk Strait between the eastern and western coasts of South India. Moreover, it was located close to the pearl fishery on the Gulf of Mannar, which at this time, was one of the two major pearl fisheries in the world. The Portuguese established a presence in the Gulf of Mannar in the 1520s3 and, with the conversion of the parava fishermen on the Indian coast in the late 1530s, they began to dominate the fishery. Sankili I (r. 1519–60), ruler of Jaffna, had laid claim to all wrecks on his coast. In August 1543, a Portuguese fleet led by Governor Martim Afonso de Melo came to Jaffna and demanded compensation for the seizure of cargoes of Portuguese vessels. Sankili settled with the Portuguese by promising to pay compensation and agreeing to pay an annual tribute of two elephants and five thousand pardaus. However, he began to perceive the Portuguese as a threat to his power. Parava converts to Christianity had begun to regard the king of Portugal rather than the local ruler as their sovereign. Accordingly in 1544, when he learnt that some of his

1 C. R. de Silva, ‘Sri Lanka in the Early Sixteenth Century: Economic and Social Conditions’, in University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka, K. M. de Silva (ed.) (Peradeniya, 1995), p. 60. 2 C. R de Silva, and S. Pathmanathan, ‘The Kingdom of Jaffna up to 1620,’ in K. M. de Silva (ed.), University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka (Peradeniya, 1995), p. 106. 3 Flores, Os Portugueses e o Mar de Ceilão, pp. 35–53.

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parava subjects in Mannar had converted to Christianity, he marched there and put to death all those who refused to give up the new religion. The missionaries agitated for an expedition against Sankili, but he continued to hand over what was recovered from Portuguese ships wrecked on his shores, and so nothing was done. By 1558, however, the situation had changed. The parava Christians in India had come under increasing attack from Hindu rulers, and the fortification of Punnaikayal, the new Portuguese headquarters there, had proved not to be a solution. The Portuguese viceroy of India, D. Constantino de Bragança, had come to India in 1558 with instructions to conquer Jaffna and to settle the parava Christians there.4 Sankili had few supporters among the Portuguese. The Jesuit missionaries remembered his actions in 1544. He had also given refuge to Vidiye Bandara in 1556 after he had fled to Jaffna following his defeat at the hands of the combined forces of Sitawaka and the Portuguese.5 The viceroy’s fleet reached Jaffna in October 1560; and a Portuguese account of the attack is given in document (a). The forces of Jaffna resisted, the lead being taken by the crown prince according to the Portuguese account, and by the king himself according to the Yalpanavaipava-malai (document (c)). In the end, however, Sankili, though defeated, was able to retreat, and the Portuguese viceroy, who was running out of time and supplies, agreed to a peace treaty under which the Jaffna ruler retained his kingdom but ceded the coast and the islands to the Portuguese, paid an indemnity, promised to pay a tribute of ten elephants a year and handed over the treasures left by Vidiye Bandara. Conversion was to be permitted, but converts were to continue to pay taxes to the ruler of Jaffna. Sankili’s son, the crown prince, was handed over as one of the hostages. By this stage, the Portuguese were short of food and had begun slaughtering local cows for food, which outraged the S´aivites of Jaffna, to whom the cow was sacred. The people of Jaffna also found that those who were reluctant to convert were thrown in prison and that the Portuguese violated the local women (see document (b)). An effort to demolish a Hindu temple led to an uprising. The viceroy was forced to retreat and sailed off to the island of Mannar, where he built a fort. In time, Mannar became an important centre of Portuguese power in the area and the administrative centre of the pearl fishery. It also provided a base from which the Portuguese tried to expand their influence within the kingdom of Jaffna. By 1570, a Portuguese nominee had been installed on the throne of Jaffna and from at least 1582 the ruler of Jaffna, paid regular tribute to the Portuguese. When the ruler tried to shake off Portuguese

4

The expedition became more urgent when in August 1560 the Portuguese fort at Punnaikayal fell to attacks by hostile local forces. 5 Vidiye Bandara was father of D. João Dharmapala, puppet king of Kotte (r. 1551–97) under the Portuguese. He rebelled against the Portuguese in 1553.

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suzerainty, a new Portuguese expedition in 1591 replaced the ruler with a more pliant one.6 Twenty-eight years later, the Portuguese moved in to occupy the kingdom directly. Complaints by missionaries that the ruler of Jaffna was not favourable to Christians reached Portugal. There were also reports that the ruler of Kandy had recruited mercenary forces from India through Jaffna. As a result, as early as 1614 the Portuguese king had issued orders to conquer the kingdom. In early 1619 some five ships from Calicut attacked Portuguese shipping, and the Portuguese captaingeneral of Ceylon, Constantino de Sá de Noronha sent a force to conquer Jaffna. It is possible that the Portuguese in Ceylon took this step because they had secured their flank with a peace treaty with Kandy (see Chapter 6). It is also possible that the captain-general was motivated by a desire to extend his jurisdiction over the whole of Ceylon, because hitherto the captain of Mannar had not been directly under him. However, it is also true that the ruler of Jaffna at this time was in a vulnerable position. In 1617, on the death of the previous ruler, his nephew, Sankili II, had seized the throne. Sankili killed most of his potential rivals, but one, Sinna Migapulle Arachchi, escaped into exile. Sankili did not have the support of many in Jaffna, and Sinna Migapulle Arachchi, who took refuge with the Portuguese and converted to Christianity, taking the name of Dom Luís, returned in September 1618 to lead a revolt supported by the growing Christian minority in Jaffna. Finding no support from the Portuguese, Sankili requested and received military aid from Ragunatha Nayak, the ruler of Tanjore (r. 1600–34). The Portuguese took eight days to ferry their forces across the Jaffna lagoon, but Sankili, still hoping for a settlement, did not attack. The Portuguese commander then attacked, and Sankili’s forces were defeated after they had gained some early successes (see document (c)). Sankili was captured, sent to Goa and executed there. Portuguese rule over Jaffna was challenged several times in the next decade. Document (d) describes one such threat that emerged in 1628. By the 1630s, however, Portuguese rule over Jaffna had become more secure. The main concerns in the instructions sent to the collector of revenue relating to Jaffna therefore deal with finding ways of maximizing royal revenue (see document (e)). The last two documents in this chapter date from the last period of Portuguese rule in Sri Lanka. In 1638 the Dutch captured the Portuguese forts of Batticaloa and Trincomalee on the east coast and held them thereafter, and in 1640 they occupied the fort of Galle and with it part of the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. The 1630s and 1640s, however, were a period in which conversion to Christianity progressed in Jaffna, as seen in document (f). Incidentally, this document also reveals that, although historians assume that Jaffna accepted Portuguese rule after 1628, resistance and revolts continued in that area well into the 1640s.

6

C. R de Silva and S. Pathmanathan, ‘The Kingdom of Jaffna’, pp. 111–4.

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Document (g) gives us some clues as to why resistance continued. It contains part of the proceedings of an inquiry held in 1546 in response to complaints by the people of Jaffna. We know little about the background to the inquiry, except that it was used to discredit the Jesuit mission in Jaffna; as such it highlights a very different perspective of the mission from that given in the previous document. A close reading of the extract published below, however, indicates that discontent had also arisen from abuses by local (Tamil) officials, and as V. Perniola has remarked,7 the total absence of complaints against Portuguese landowners and civil officials is suggestive of motivations behind the inquiry.

(a)

Diogo do Couto’s Account of the 1560 Invasion of Jaffna, early seventeenth century From Diogo de Couto, Década VII, Book IX. This Década was probably written in the first decade of the seventeenth century, half a century after the events described. There is no definitive edition, but the one most frequently cited is Décadas da Asia (Lisbon, 1777–88). The translation is adapted from that of Donald Ferguson, The History of Ceylon from the Earliest Times to 1600 AD as related by João de Barros and Diogo de Couto, pp. 182–203. This excerpt illustrates Diogo do Couto’s glorification of the Portuguese invasion of Jaffna in 1560. Except for the prince, the people of Jaffna are included simply as a foil to show the bravery and skill of the Portuguese. Contrast, for example, the depiction of the ruler of Jaffna in this document with that given in document (c).

Chapter 1 Of the great armada with which the viceroy, Dom Constantino set out for Jaffna [Jafanapatão]; and of what took place until he arrived there. … And on the eve of the feast of Our Lady, the 7th of September, he set sail with a fine fleet of twelve galleys and ten galliots and seventy rowing vessels,8 including 7 The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, Perniola (ed.), III, pp. 315, 334. This work also gives on pages 315–34 a list of questions asked and translations of several other extracts of the proceedings. 8 Fernão de Queirós, Conquista Temporal e Espiritual de Ceylão (Colombo, 1916), p. 351 states that there were seventy ships in all, including twenty galleys and ten galliots and seven other ships that joined the fleet at Cochin.

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foists and catures … they arrived at Cochin, where the viceroy landed to give orders about various matters, and the city gave him a very grand reception. However, he would not take up his lodging there, but remained in his galley attending to much business. He dispatched Fernão Gomes Cordovil to go to the town of São Tomé and get the inhabitants to cross over to Jaffna. He wrote very flattering letters, in which he urged them to do this, because it was neither to their credit nor to that of the Portuguese that they remain in that town, exposed to the affronts and insults that the Canaris9 could put upon them whenever they wished. He said that the kingdom of Jaffna had many and good ports, where they could carry on their traffic and merchandise by sea, that the country was very fertile and abounding in everything and that he would settle them in such a manner that they would live more comfortably and with less alarm, and that they were to be ready when he sent vessels to bring them over … Having arranged everything, the viceroy set out, and in his company in a galliot went the bishop of Cochin, Dom Jorge Temudo, who wished to accompany him on that expedition, as that island belonged to his jurisdiction, and five or six other vessels that were equipped in that city. With the whole of this fleet he passed Cape Comorin and went as far as the shoals of Chilaw, and as the galleys could not cross them, he sent them back to Cochin in charge of Vicente Correia, the navy surveyor of India. The viceroy went on board the galliot of Inofre do Soveral, and the captains of the other galleys on to other rowing vessels; and Aires Falcão alone crossed in his galliot. When they had all reached the middle of the shoals, he alone struck on them with his sails set; and a very big sea that came rolling up struck his vessel on the poop and lifted it off again, and with that violence he got over the shoals to the other side without perishing, and from there went with all the fleet and anchored over against Jaffna. Chapter 2 Of the council that the viceroy, Dom Constantino held regarding the method of disembarkation; and of how he went on shore and captured the city; and of the incidents that occurred during the entry. The viceroy, having cast anchor over against the city of Jaffna, spent two days taking counsel as to the manner in which the disembarkation should be made, regarding which there were differences of opinion amongst the captains, and all voted according to the information they had received from men that knew the country, who affirmed that the city had only two places where one could disembark: the first and most usual, called the Elephants’ Quay,10 lay at the entrance to 9

Term used by the Portuguese to describe the people of Vijayanagar. O cais dos elefantes, so called because elephants were shipped from it. Later in the seventeenth century the same term was given to a place on the island of Karaittivu, as can be 10

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the city, just as does the stone quay at Lisbon or the customs house quay at Goa, and that king had strongly fortified it with battlements11 and artillery; the other was half a league from there at some distance from the city,12 and, although it might be more troublesome, would involve less risk, because that king had no fear regarding it. The majority of the council therefore voted that it was at this place that they should disembark. It having been settled that it was to be at this place, the viceroy arranged the order of disembarkation and mustered all the troops, and found no more than one thousand two hundred men, although in Goa more than four thousand had been paid (it being the custom when viceroys embarked to make a general payment to all, even to the Portuguese officials and the casados,13 and to any who wished to embark, because by means of this bounty and liberality this state was always increased and sustained). From all these soldiers the viceroy, Dom Constantino, formed five companies of two hundred men each, and appointed as their captains Luís de Melo da Silva, to whom he had given the leadership of that expedition, Dom António de Noronha Catarras, Martim Afonso de Miranda, Gonçalo Falcão and Fernão de Sousa de Castelobranco, while the viceroy remained to bring up the rearguard with the banner of the Order of Christ, with all the noble adventurers and people of his retinue, who formed a very considerable body. All having been arranged, the viceroy ordered an altar to be set up on an islet14 that was there, and a very devout Mass to Our Lady was said, at which he and the greater part of the nobles and men of the fleet took Communion with much devoutness, and the bishop of Cochin gave them a general absolution and conceded the great and plenary jubilees that the supreme pontiffs had granted at the instance of the king, Dom Manuel, for all those that might be killed in battle in India fighting for the Faith of Christ.15 This holy and divine act being ended, they dined and from two o’clock onward set about the disembarkation: and on their setting foot on land, there came to meet them the hereditary prince of the kingdom with two thousand men, he being conspicuous in the front with an entirely white shield, while his men uttered their battle-cries and shouts of defiance as if they intended to seen from the maps in Baldaeus’s Ceylon. On the little islet opposite, between Karaittivu and Velanai, the Portuguese built a fort, which they named ‘Fortaleza do Cais’. The term ‘cais’ as a proper name was later transferred to a place in Velanai, which became Kayts. 11 tranqueiras. 12 Donald Ferguson identifies this place as Nivanturai to the west of Jaffna, or (more likely) Karaiyur or Pasaiyur to the east. Queirós, Conquista, pp. 353 calls it Patanão. 13 Married Portuguese settler. 14 Probably Siritivu, between Mandaitivu and Jaffna. 15 On 12 July 1506 Pope Julius II had granted ‘plenary indulgence for all sins to the faithful of both sexes who by order of the king [Dom Manuel] shall go out to India, or shall reside there, or die there.’ Pope Leo X later extended this indulgence to all Portuguese serving in the East on land and sea.

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prevent the disembarkation. But by running the prows of the vessels ashore they played upon them with the falcons in such a fashion that they quit the field and betook themselves to the jungles, without a single one reappearing, and our people had the opportunity of landing entirely at their ease. The first captain to leap on shore was Gonçalo Falcão, on account of a suspicion that attached to him as a result of certain words that he had had with the viceroy at the council regarding the disembarkation. All our people having landed, they formed their companies, and in front of all rose in the air the banner of Christ Crucified, which a Dominican Father bore on a long staff, so that it might be seen by all those that were to fight under its protection, and there it was adored by all and acclaimed with a general voice. Luís de Melo da Silva, who led the van, thereupon began to march towards the city, guided by men that knew the way, and just behind him Dom António de Noronha Catarras, who took a short cut through some jungle, so that, when he came again into the open, he found himself in front of Luís de Melo da Silva and so halted and sent word to him to pass in advance, because he was waiting to accompany him. So they went on until they came in sight of the city, which had at that part a fine street, and in the middle of it were two large pieces of artillery covered with palm leaves, so that our people should not see them. As Luís de Melo da Silva advanced along this street, Dom Fernando de Meneses, the Nose (who was up in front) told him to look out how he went, because what they saw was artillery. He had not even finished speaking when one of the pieces was discharged, and it pleased Our Lord that it overshot because they had sighted it too high, and it passed overhead without doing any damage. When he saw this, Luís de Melo da Silva sent word to all to take to the shelter of the houses on each side, all of which had large porches projecting outward. They hastened beneath these for refuge, which could not be managed quickly enough before the other ball came down the street with a great roar and shaking of the earth; and as it came lower down, it struck the ensign of Luís de Melo da Silva’s company (who was a certain Sardinha) in the legs and broke them, so that he straightway fell dead; and in its flight it caught two other persons, among whom was a Castilian; and apparently a small piece of iron reached Luís de Melo da Silva and caused a light wound on the ball of his cheek, from which a good deal of blood ran down his fine long beard, which made him look even more handsome and noble. At the same time that the ensign fell with the banner, João Pessoa, son of António Pessoa, who was following nearby, ran and quickly raised the banner aloft, and began to march forward along the street, until he had placed it over those pieces of artillery, not however before there came another ball, which struck down four or five men of the company of Aires de Saldanha, which was with that of Luís de Melo da Silva. The artillery having been captured, Luís de Melo da Silva sent word to the viceroy, and he passed forward, breaking through clouds of arrows and bullets, which slightly wounded several men. A bullet struck Dom Felipe de Meneses on

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his Adam’s apple, but fortunately for him it glanced off, without doing him more harm than leaving on the point of the apple a very red and beautiful mark. The prince of Jaffna hastened to the street along which our people were going and had an encounter with them, which lasted a short time, because they drove him back at the points of their spears to the top of the street. He then went by another street that led into that one, and thereby came upon Gonçalo Falcão with his company, who attacked the prince’s forces and fought a stiff battle with them at great risk, because they shot arrows at their pleasure at our people from the tops of the roofs and from the gardens of the houses. The viceroy was already entering the great street, riding on a beautiful horse, with long stirrups and armed with good arms, with the guidon of Christ in front, and surrounded by many nobles and knights. When he heard that Gonçalo Falcão was in danger, he told those nobles and captains to aid him, and it was just at this time that Dom António de Noronha Catarras met him with his company. When he heard this, he said: ‘I, Sir, am equal to this,’ and turned and went forward along the street until he reached the part where Gonçalo Falcão was in difficulties. On his arrival the street was soon cleared. There was a piece of artillery there, which our people turned about down the street that led to the Elephants’ Quay, where the king was with all his army; and firing upon them, they caused great destruction among them. The king, seeing how badly things had fallen out and that the city had been entered by our people, retired with all his army to his palace (which was a fairsized fortress) with the intention of defending himself there. Luís de Melo da Silva entered a very wide street that led to the parade ground of the palace, and at the top of it halted and sent a message to the viceroy to find out what he wished him to do. The latter galloped off on his horse until he reached Luís de Melo da Silva, to whom he spoke in very flattering terms. As it was already near nightfall he agreed with the captains that they should pass that night there and on the following day attack the houses of the king, where he already knew that he had fortified himself. He then arranged the manner in which the guard should be kept on the street and at night, and divided the streets that led to the parade ground amongst the captains of the companies for them to fortify the entrances to them themselves. This they set to work to do, pulling down several houses for that purpose. All the rest in these streets that were covered with thatch they ordered to be unroofed, so that the enemy should not set fire to them in order to cause embarrassment. The viceroy remained at the entrance to the main street in a gallery, where they laid a carpet down for him with some pillows. Here he passed the whole night armed, and from here he dispatched a captain to the armada to bring them food and munitions. This was done with great speed, without anyone being encountered to hinder it. There our people passed the whole night with great vigilance and with their weapons constantly in their hands, while the viceroy sent out some spies to learn what the king was doing and if there were any stir where he was.

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The prince did not care to go with his father into the fortress, but remained outside with all his troops and, as soon as he saw our people fortified at the entrances to the streets, determined forthwith to attack them in the rear during the daylight watch. To this end he also sent out some spies to see the manner in which our people were disposed. One of these went along a street where Dom António de Noronha was with his company. He went very secretly along the walls approaching the encampments, and it pleased God that in the same street and walking at some distance from the troops a soldier named Francisco da Costa (who still lives, married in this city of Goa, rich and honoured) was watching. He chanced to descry a person and went to approach him. The spy, when he saw him, for greater pretence, squatted on his hams as if he were easing himself, in order that he might think from the confidence that he displayed that he was a servant of the company. Francisco da Costa approached him and asked him who he was, and also put his hand on his arm, whereupon the black tried to sneak away, but could not, because Francisco da Costa seized him in his arms and carried him to Dom António de Noronha, and gave him an account of the circumstances under which he had found him. Noronha told him to take him to the viceroy, since he had captured him, that he might thank him for it: and so he did. The viceroy ordered the captive to be bound and put to the torture, and at once he confessed that the prince had sent him to spy out the manner in which he lay, because he had determined to attack him during the daylight watch, that he had sent out eight or ten other spies, that the king was fortified in his palace and that the prince was waiting with two or three thousand men for word from the spies to attack our people. The viceroy, after obtaining the information that he desired, sent to warn all the captains to hold themselves in readiness and to allow no negligence. Whereupon all got up and stood with their weapons in their hands waiting for the hour. Thus they remained until dawn without there being any alarm, because it seems that, on the return of the spies whom the prince had sent out, this one was missing. So, surmising that he might have been captured and that our people would be on the alert, he abandoned his intention and went to the king, who, on hearing the news that he gave him, resolved not to await the viceroy there. Therefore, having ordered the most important things to be taken from there, as soon as the daylight watch came, he set fire to the palace and retired to a fortress16 that lay a league and a half from there, built entirely of unburnt bricks, with bastions and round turrets, very well made and pretty strong. The viceroy, on seeing that fire, at once guessed what it might be, but he did not wish any steps to be taken until it was full daylight, when he saw that the palace was on fire, and then, when he had been informed of all that had happened and,

16

later.

This may have been at Nallur, a few miles north-east of where Jaffna fort was built

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arranging his companies in the form they had hitherto had, which was a large one, he found it abandoned because its inhabitants had retired to the neighbouring villages. So our people were left masters of it and of the Elephants’ Quay, where the greater part of their artillery was, and of various things that our soldiers found there. From their principal temple they brought to the viceroy an enchased tooth, which was commonly said to be that of an ape and was held amongst all those heathens to be the most sacred object of all that they worship, of which the viceroy was immediately advised, and they assured him that it was the greatest treasure that he could have got, because they must needs give him a large sum of gold for it … Chapter 3 Of how the viceroy, Dom Constantino marched against the fortress where the king was and found it abandoned, and sent some captains in pursuit of the king; and of the extremity in which they placed him, until they came to join battle. The viceroy, Dom Constantino, seeing himself master of the city and learning from spies that the king had betaken himself to a fortress a league and a half from there, determined to go and attack him. But first he arranged various matters. Among these was to send to the neighbouring villages royal safeguards and to issue proclamations that the natives should bring him the provisions they had, for which he would pay them very well, and that the inhabitants of the city should return to live in their houses, and he would do them all the favours and give them all the liberties they desired. Whereupon they began to come in, and the villagers brought fowls, chickens, butter, plantains and many other things in great abundance. Because there was a lack of rice, he immediately dispatched a vessel with letters to João Fernandes Correia, captain of Nagapattinam, in which he begged him to help him with all the rice he could. He also gave orders to collect all the vessels that there were in the country and on that coast, which were a very great number, and sent them to São Tomé for the inhabitants of that town to embark in them. And he once more wrote very flattering letters to them begging and praying them to come over to that kingdom, where they would be well fed, rich and free from the alarms that they suffered every day there, and where he would divide amongst all of them the lands and villages, those that he wished to grant to them being very prosperous and abundant. These matters and others having been disposed of, the viceroy arranged to go in person against that king and to make an end of destroying him once and for all for the greater security of those territories, because he was so wicked and cruel that at the gate of his palace our people found an enormous block on which every day he ordered many of his vassals to be beheaded, and for this it was not necessary to have many trials or proofs of crimes, since a very little story, and even a suspicion, imagination or a dream would suffice. After having made ready everything that he

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needed for the expedition, he left some captains of vessels to guard the city, and the bishop of Cochin, who remained there with the deputy provincial of St Francis and some friars of his Order, who with that zeal that they always had for the things of our religion and increase of our holy Catholic Faith began to convert some natives and to baptize them with great love and charity. The viceroy went marching towards the fortress in the same order as that in which he had entered the city, Luís de Melo da Silva leading the van and in the middle all the baggage and artillery with which the fortress was to be assailed. When he arrived in sight of it, there came to him the spies that he had sent out, who told him that in that hour the king had departed from there, as he did not dare await him, and that the fortress was abandoned. Upon this good news the viceroy, Dom Constantino, entered the fortress amid great rejoicings and salvos of gunshots and ordered the banner with the arms of Portugal to be hoisted on the battlements, taking possession of it peacefully, as his father the duke Dom Jaime had formerly done with the famous city of Azamor in Africa. That day he lodged in the fortress and on the next he ordered through a general council that the king should be pursued, since he was fleeing in disorder, until they had him in their hands, and that for this purpose there should go four captains, Luís de Melo da Silva, Martim Afonso de Miranda, Gonçalo Falcão and Fernão de Sousa do Castelobranco. And because there began to be doubts and differences amongst them regarding the command and rule, the viceroy delivered to them three dice and told them that each day they were to cast lots, and he that cast most was to command that day. They were appeased by this, and that first day Luís de Melo da Silva led the van and had the command without lot, since all consented to this. Thus they marched off, guided by some spies, who from pure malice led them away from the road that the king had taken and by one turning after another made them lose three days, until they reached a river that divides the territories of Jaffna from the kingdom of Trincomalee, which would be an eight leagues’ march from the fortress. There they heard that the king had crossed to the other side, so they immediately did likewise, and on the other side they found some forty headless men, who seemed to be Sinhalas17 killed that day, from which it appeared that the king was near. It was not known what that could betoken; but as he was cruel and wicked, it was presumed that he had entertained some suspicion of them and for this cause had ordered that carnage to be wrought amongst them. On the other side of the river they came upon a broad road, along which they marched until they encountered some narrow ones, which they found obstructed with large trees that the enemy kept on cutting down in one place after another in order to hinder our

17 Here, Couto is probably using ‘Chingalas’ as a generic term to indicate local inhabitants, who might in fact have been Tamils.

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people, and they passed through these with great trouble. As soon as night fell, they pitched their camp in the spot that seemed to them best, and there they passed the night with great vigilance. In this manner they marched for five days, coming upon many villages along that road, where they bought cows, milk, fowls, and other things. At the end of these days at the hour of dinner they came in sight of the king’s camp, which was at the top of some fields, with a large and dense jungle behind it. They came upon him so suddenly that he only had time to mount an elephant and set off with all his people after him, leaving the pots with the food where they were on the fire. Our captains, who were filled with a desire to encounter him as soon as they saw the camp, thinking that the king would wait for them, advanced to attack him in form of battle and, on reaching that place, they found all that they needed for dinner, and the rice still hot, which our people much appreciated. As the sun was then at its height, they lay down there and rested from the fatigue of the march and, taking counsel as to what they should do, they resolved that they would fortify themselves very strongly there and remain, and would send word to the viceroy of all that had occurred, and that whatever he determined should be done, because there they were safe, and in the villages nearby were cows and other things with which they could sustain themselves until the viceroy sent them supplies. This they did, dispatching the message in haste forthwith. As soon as the viceroy received it, he immediately sent much rice, munitions and other things by all the sailors of the armada and instructed them to remain there until they got his reply, which they did. That king, seeing his kingdom lost and himself pursued by our people so far that they had driven him out of his territories, thought it wisest to send and sue for peace with the viceroy and to offer him what he asked for, lest he lose everything. He therefore at once dispatched his ambassadors, whom the viceroy heard. Having come to terms, they concluded peace with the following conditions and articles: that the king should remain in his kingdom as before and should after his own fashion swear vassalage to the king of Portugal, with payment of a certain tribute, of which we can find no record;18 that he should deliver up to him at once all the treasure that he had taken from Vidiye Bandara and his daughter-in-law, the wife of the king of Kotte; and that, in pledge of fulfilling this, he should hand over the hereditary prince. The terms having been agreed and signed, he at once handed over the prince, whom the viceroy sent to the fleet safely guarded. While this was being negotiated, which took more than a fortnight, our captains who had gone in pursuit of the king suffered such hunger and want as a result of the rice that had 18

Queirós, Conquista, p. 371 states that the annual tribute was twelve tusked elephants and twelve hundred patacas, and that in addition the king had to give up claims to shipwrecks on the coast, which would henceforth belong to the owners, and would have to pay a third of any treasures salvaged to Christian churches.

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been sent to them being finished and the villages depopulated from fear, that it was necessary for the captains to disperse the soldiers to go to the villages in bands to look for food, and the greater part of them fell sick from both hunger and fatigue, while those who remained in the city did not escape these troubles either, nor did those of the company of the viceroy, who in this emergency arranged matters as best he could and ordered all the invalids to be brought into the fortress, where, owing to the lack of remedies many died, and the rest convalesced very slowly. The viceroy, having obtained possession of the prince, proceeded to the river at the extremity of the territories and ordered the recall of the captains who were on the other side. There he waited more than a fortnight, during which the things that the king had promised him by the treaty of peace were delivered to him. These may have amounted to some eighty thousand cruzados. He also handed over some olas in which were entered descriptions of the places in Kotte where the treasures of Vidiye Bandara had been buried. At this time João Fernandes Correia, captain of Nagapattinam, came to see the viceroy. When he had received the viceroy’s letters there, Correia had immediately sent him many vessels laden with rice, with which the fleet was provided. He had then set out with some vessels in order to take part in that expedition. The viceroy received him very cordially and bestowed upon him honours and favours. At about the same time there arrived three of the most respected and oldest inhabitants of the town of São Tomé with the reply to the letter that the viceroy had written to them regarding the transference to the kingdom of Jaffna. These all sent him great excuses for not doing what he had sent to ask them to do, because when they finally set about embarking, they all found it very hard to leave their houses, coconut orchards, lands and gardens, which had belonged to their ancestors and which they had cultivated for so many years. Moreover, it was not proper to depopulate the country where lay the body of the blessed apostle Saint Thomas, which every day was made resplendent with new miracles, whereby they lived contented and consoled. They humbly begged his pardon for this. As the viceroy had already been informed of everything by letters from Fernão Gomes Cordovil, he would neither see nor speak to these men, and at the end of many days he gave them an ill dispatch. Chapter 4 Of the rising that took place against our people in Jaffna; and of the siege that they laid to the fortress; and of how the viceroy escaped from the conspiracy and retired by sea to the armada; and of the aid that he sent to the fortress, the captain of which was Dom António de Noronha; and of what happened to him on the expedition. This being the state of affairs, and while the viceroy waited for that king to complete the delivery to him of the treasures of Vidiye (because, from the informa-

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tion that he had, he hoped to get more than three hundred thousand cruzados), the natives of the whole of that kingdom hatched a general conspiracy against our people. Neither the cause nor the author of it was ever known,19 but it happened in this way. Everyone being quite unsuspicious, suddenly on the same day and at the same time they attacked the places where our people were, and all those that they found were put to the sword, without anyone being spared. The bishop, Dom Jorge Temudo, who was in the city, miraculously escaped falling into their hands and with great trouble and risk to his person escaped to the vessels. However, several of our people (for the most part Christians of the country, servants of Portuguese and compradores) were killed in the neighbouring villages. Those that attacked the fortress and the villages thereabouts found the deputy provincial of the Franciscans and some of his fellow friars, who were engaged in making Christians, and all were put to the sword, suffering a glorious martyrdom for the Faith of Christ our Lord. For so zealous was the bishop in this work of conversion that he would not allow his catechumens to be meddled with, and if anyone caused them an annoyance or injury, he flew into a great rage and fulminated, saying that they were not to meddle with his little angels. This they took in such ill part that they strove hard to get him into their power. After these conspirators had attacked every place and done the evils that we have mentioned, they all united and proceeded to lay siege to the fortress. Fernão de Sousa de Castelobranco, whom the viceroy Dom Constantino had sent as captain of it, was already there, but he was ill, and they began to make many assaults on it. Those that remained to attack the place where the viceroy, Dom Constantino was20 were so cunning as to send into his camp some blacks, who a few days before had taken on the guise of domestic servants. As they knew that the viceroy, Dom Constantino, was devoted to the chase, because on several days he had gone hunting in the neighbourhood, on the day of the general conspiracy they led him to believe that in a jungle nearby there were some deer, in order to bring him to that place where they intended to ambush him. As the viceroy was much interested in this, he went with a few people to look for the deer. This occupied him for the greater part of the day, and he returned towards evening, without any disaster happening to him, and after the general conspiracy became known, it was surmised that he had escaped in the expedition that he had made, either because nobody dared to set upon him through fear, or because the spies had mistaken the day. But the most probable explanation is that our Lord God blinded them and rescued the viceroy, for if they had attacked him, all would have been lost, and not one of our people of as many as were in that kingdom would have escaped, just as the three inhabitants of São Tomé, of whom, as we have related above, the viceroy, Dom

19 20

See document (b) for the possible causes of this. Elephant Pass.

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Constantino, gave such ill dispatch, did not escape, for the same day that they left him they were murdered on the road with all their servants. Of all this the viceroy was quite unaware, when on the morning of the following day he learnt the truth and certainty of the calamity that had occurred. Fearing other treacheries, he dispatched the company captains to go along the river by a road deviating from the ordinary one, and he embarked in some cargo boats21 that he always kept there for service, to make communication with the armada quicker for him, because at that point the land curved inland and formed a bay, so that it was shorter for him to go by sea than by land. After reaching the city, when he learnt what had happened and how the fortress was besieged and in great straits, he immediately dispatched Dom António de Noronha Catarras with four hundred men divided into companies, the captains of which were João Fernandes Correia, captain of Nagapattinam, and André de Vilalobos, to go to the aid of the fortress, giving them orders to remove all that was in it and to abandon it, because it was resolved in council that, since the inhabitants of São Tomé did not wish to come and occupy that city, they should not saddle themselves with a thing that might afterwards give trouble to the state. To remove everything that was in the fortress Dom António de Noronha took all the sailors, servants and slaves of the armada (because there were in the fortress more than two hundred sick, who could not retire on foot), and while Dom António is on the march, we shall give an account of the events that took place in the fortress during this time. It having been besieged by all the insurgents, they determined to take it by storm, because they knew that the viceroy was sure to send help to it. But before they did so, they wished to make certain of this business. So they prepared very long ladders of areca wood, and while they were making them, some of them came by night to speak with our people and told them that the viceroy was dead and all who were with him, that therefore they must not expect help and that, if they surrendered, they would be spared their lives, but if not, they must know that they would all be impaled. Our people answered them from above that they had lied like the dogs and curs that they were, that they had already received news of the viceroy (which was not the case, nor did they know how things had gone there), and that they were the ones who would have to pay for that impudence very soon. Because these who spoke with our people were the same as those who were working on the ladders which were being made at a little distance from where the encampment was, one night Fernão de Sousa got ready sixty men, dressed so that they could recognize each other, who sallied forth in dead silence in the daybreak watch and falling upon them suddenly, cut them down at their will. This was done so swiftly that they tasted death before they perceived our people, who took away the ladders and returned safely carrying them.

21

manchuas.

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Dom António de Noronha, who was going to their aid, marched on, João Fernandes Correia leading the van, and all along the road they kept fighting with the enemy, who rushed upon them from ambushes. He kept such order that he did not allow a single soldier to fall out until they came in sight of the fortress (which was on the day following their daylight victory with the ladders). The enemy, seeing this aid, took themselves off. That day and the next night Dom António de Noronha spent in arranging for the abandonment of the fortress and the removal of the things that had to be carried away, which were many, and the manner in which the servants that were there should divide them. On the morning of the following day he entrusted the sick to the sailors whom he had selected for that purpose and dragged out all the artillery there was, excepting only one large iron piece, which it was not possible to take away. This he ordered to be loaded with powder to the mouth and fire set to it, and as it did not burst, he ordered it to be thrown into a deep well, so that the enemy should not make use of it. Amongst the things that Dom António de Noronha found in the fortress was an imperial dais, that was used by those kings at their most solemn feasts. It had many steps, all carved and inlaid with ivory, and of such costly and curious workmanship that the viceroy had ordered it to be guarded very carefully, in order to convey it to the king, Dom Sebastião, for the day when he should take the sceptre, it being an imperial seat and of great majesty. As such he commended it greatly to Dom António de Noronha, who strove all he could to carry it away entire, but it was not possible, on account of its being a very large structure. So, in order to bring away some part of it as an example of its grandeur, he ordered the top to be taken off (which was the most costly part) and entrusted to persons of confidence to carry. These things having been divided amongst the servants, Dom António de Noronha began to march in this order: Fernão de Sousa de Castelobranco in the vanguard with his company, Dom António do Noronha in the rearguard, in the middle the baggage and the sick, and further back João Fernandes Correia, captain of Nagapattinam, who had with him Aires Falcão, and on the outside the chief justice Henrique Jaques, with a number of slaves to aid those that got tired. Thus they went marching, and the enemy behind yapping and discharging many fire-bombs and musket shots, and great flights of arrows, our people not slackening their pace, although some of the soldiers wanted to get at them. Having crossed a beautiful meadow, through which the enemy continued to pursue them, at the end of it, where some embankments were being made, thirty or forty soldiers remained on the other side hidden by them. As the enemy saw the companies pass on in the order that they observed, they went after them, not fearing the embankments, and on their arrival at these and as they began to pass them, those who lay in ambush rushed out upon them so suddenly that, without their being able to turn, more than fifty of them were killed. Aires Falcão, who came limping along almost at the rear, on seeing our people remaining, hastened to the fray, attacked them and succeeded in putting them to flight, and thereafter they

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appeared no more. The viceroy received Dom António de Noronha and all the rest very warmly and forthwith set about the embarkation, ordering certain handsome fetters lined with crimson velvet to be put on the prince of Jaffna, who was a hostage, in order to hold him more securely, and placed him in the custody of the captain of one of the vessels. Chapter 5 Of how the viceroy, Dom Constantino erected a fortress in the island of Mannar (Manar) and left for Cochin. [The viceroy,] when he had no more to do in Jaffna, crossed over to the island of Mannar, which is near that coast. There he disembarked and observed the situation, and he resolved with the nobles in his council to erect a fort there and to transfer to it the captain of the Fishery Coast, with all the inhabitants of Palayakayal, so that the nayak (ruler) should offer them no more insults. He then ordered the work to be continued, and on receiving the message of the viceroy, Dom Constantino, Manuel Rodrigues Coutinho, with all the inhabitants of Palayakayal, crossed over to that place with much satisfaction and joy.

(b)

A Jesuit View of the 1560 Invasion of Jaffna, 1561 Letter of Anrique Anriques22 to Diego Lainez, superior-general of the Jesuits in Rome, Mannar, 8 January 1561. The Portuguese original is in the Biblioteca da Ajuda, 49–IV–50, ff. 274–5 and has been published in Josef Wicki (ed.), Documenta Índica, V, pp. 6–12, and in English translation in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, Volume 1, Perniola (ed.), pp. 376–82. Translation adapted from that by V. Perniola. This contemporary document gives us a better understanding of why the Portuguese alienated the people of Jaffna.

The viceroy was hoping to conquer the kingdom of Jaffna and to settle the new Christians there, and they themselves were keen on going there. In accordance with the orders of the viceroy, the captain settled the Christians on the island called Mannar, which belonged to the same king.23 22 Anrique Anriques was a Jesuit who had served on the Fishery Coast in India. He accompanied the viceroy on the expedition to Jaffna. 23 Sankili or Chekarasa Sekaran.

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Some days later the viceroy came with a fleet and, although he met with many misfortunes during the journey, and although the presumption was that the weather would not permit him to arrive, yet he arrived quite safely. On the first day that he entered the capital city he captured it with the loss of about ten Portuguese, while the king fled. They went after him. Most of the subjects of the king came and paid homage to the viceroy and gave thanks to God that he had conquered the kingdom, since the king was a cruel tyrant and they had been suffering greatly from him. But for want of supplies and because the Portuguese were ill, as it was winter time in that kingdom, and because the viceroy had other matters that demanded his attention, he decided in council that it would be good to make an agreement with a son of that king, who had been sent by his father as hostage, asking for mercy from the viceroy. The agreement was that the son of the king would become king of the hinterland and that we should be masters of the coast and of the islands belonging to that kingdom; that he should pay immediately one hundred thousand gold pardaus; that, besides other things, the king and his son would be obliged to give ten elephants every year; further, that they should not build any fort nor have firearms nor keep foreigners in their kingdom again; and that a Portuguese captain should remain with them with a certain number of men. There were also some other similar conditions. It looked as if the land were now at peace, chiefly because the inhabitants were averse to the king and his son, while they were well disposed towards us. One article of the treaty stated that no impediment should be placed in the way of those who wished to be baptized, and that those who received baptism should pass under our jurisdiction, though they would be obliged to pay the royal taxes. The people began to be baptized. The bishop of Cochin, a very virtuous prelate, administered baptism to the people of a village on the coast. He baptized four hundred or more persons. Father Misquita and I were with the viceroy. We baptized some leading persons of some villages, together with their kinsmen, about one hundred and twenty in all. It was hoped that before long all the inhabitants of the island would become Christians. In the meantime the king was paying the money he had promised. Then, all of a sudden, the whole country rose against us. They killed the custodian of the Franciscans and some Portuguese who were going with him to destroy a temple, which, however, was not destroyed at that time, as the people were ready to start a war. On the day they killed the custodian they rushed to the coast where the bishop was with some Portuguese. As they were caught unawares, eight or nine of them were killed. A few were able to board the boats, and so did the bishop. A message was sent to the viceroy, who might have been seven or eight leagues from the coast. The viceroy broke camp and came to the coast, where the people handed him an ola. In it the chiefs stated that during the absence of the viceroy the people had revolted, because the Portuguese with their servants and the sailors of the ships had harassed them, robbed them of their goods and had killed their cows or had

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used them to ride. The native soldiers had entered their houses by force and violated their wives and daughters. For all this there had been no correction and no punishment. They also alleged that, if they delayed in coming to be baptized, they were put in prison, which was a great humiliation for them. These and similar reasons were brought forward to justify the revolt of the people. They said that, when at last they got rid of their king and came over to our side, they had never expected that they would be harassed thus by us. Though the people of the country had assembled in great numbers and had declared themselves our enemies, whenever the Portuguese faced them, they fled. So if there had been enough power and our men had not been exhausted and ill, and if the viceroy had not had other important matters in India, he could have gone back to conquer the kingdom, and the conquest could have been completed, as it is a small kingdom with little revenue. But the viceroy went away with the idea of returning later or of sending someone else. And as our captain, Manuel Rodrigues Coutinho was old and in bad health, it seemed good to leave here another captain24 with ten ships and one hundred and fifty Portuguese, both to defend the Christians on the island of Mannar and to wage war, whenever possible, on the villages of Jaffna. The Christians began to regret having come to this island, for, besides other hardships, some sickness seemed to prevail during certain months of the year. They began to long for their own villages, as the Jews longed for Egypt. Even though we were masters of this land, yet many yearned to go back. I request you to recommend them to God our Lord. They are weak and inconstant; they are more used to fishing for oysters and chank and catching fish than to waging war. In Jaffna up to thirty25 of them were killed.

(c)

A Tamil Account of Conflicts with the Portuguese, late eighteenthcentury Excerpts from Yalpana-vaipava-malai. This work was complied in the late eighteenth century by Matakal Mayilvakanap Pulavar (1779–1816). However, it is clearly based on older oral traditions. The translation is adapted from that made by C. Brito with assistance from Ravindran Sriramachandran. This Tamil account gives a fascinating glimpse of how the Tamils of Jaffna construed the Portuguese intrusion. The Portuguese are depicted as having established a foothold in Jaffna by stealth and deceit.

24 25

Jorge de Melo de Castro. Fr Perniola reports that another manuscript gives the figure as three hundred.

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The account clearly conflates Sankili I (r. 1519–61) with Sankili II (r. 1616–19). In the actual conduct of the war, the composite Sankili is shown as a warlike and heroic, but flawed figure. The kingdom of Jaffna is lost only through treachery. The story of the Portuguese obtaining a foothold in Jaffna by trickery can be compared with that in document (g) in Chapter 1. The final part of the document dealing with the capture of Sankili probably refers to Sankili II and should be compared with the Portuguese account in document (d) in Chapter I. The Portuguese (Parankis) For some time past the Portuguese had frequented Mannar for purposes of trade. They first came to Lanka in the year Parithapi, corresponding with the S´aka year 1428, in the reign of king Parakramabahu (Parak-kirama-vaku) of Kotte, and having obtained his permission, they commenced to trade in his territories and by degrees extended their trade to this kingdom also. Their religion It was a sworn duty among the Portuguese to try to spread their religion wherever they went. Owing to the force of their preaching a number of families embraced Catholicism26 at Mannar. The massacre of the converts As soon as Sankili heard of this conversion, he put six hundred persons to the sword without any distinction of age or sex.27 The expulsion of the Buddhists His [Sankili’s] insane fury longed for more victims, and he fell upon the Buddhists. The followers of Buddhism were all Sinhalas, and there were many of them in this kingdom. By an order that he issued he expelled them beyond his frontiers and destroyed all their numerous places of worship. They betook themselves to the Vanni and the Kandyan territories, and not one Sinhala remained behind nor ever after returned hither.

26

saththiya vetham. The Brito translation has this sentence, not found in the Tamil text: ‘This took place in the month of Adi of the year Kara.’ 27

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Conspiracy against the king … The cruelty of Sankili increased with his power. His subjects were not able to endure it any longer, and all eyes were turned to Paranirupasinkan. This prince felt himself too weak to be able to wrest the kingdom from the usurper. But as he did not care who possessed his patrimony if he himself could not possess it, he thought of the Portuguese, whose feelings Sankili had outraged by his massacre of their six hundred converts in Mannar. St Francis Xavier After that massacre the eloquent Xavier had made several fruitless attempts to establish the Faith again but went away in disappointment. His calculating successors, however, who never abandoned the hope of being able some day to insinuate themselves and their religion into this kingdom, long cultivated a friendly but secret correspondence with Paranirupasinkan, as they knew that the state of relations between the king and his minister was such that it would not be long before an opportunity would present itself to enable them to carry out their designs. Outrage on Appa’s daughter At this juncture of affairs the conduct of Sankili brought about that opportunity, together with a train of events which ultimately led to the ruin of himself and his kingdom. Having entertained an unlawful passion for the beautiful daughter of Appa, who was one of his ministers, Sankili attempted to force the reluctant maiden to submit to his wishes. Appa sought the protection of Paranirupasinkan, which was readily granted. The girl was received into Paranirupasinkan’s family, and her father was sent with a letter to Kakkaivanniyan, a considerable personage, who had recently landed at Urkavatturai. Appa returned with a reply from Kakkaivanniyan, which he delivered to Paranirupasinkan, and, acting on the advice of the latter, went back to his usual business as if nothing had happened. The landing of the Portuguese disguised as traders Kakkaivanniyan, without a moment’s delay, went to Tharankampadi and assured the Portuguese that he would put Jaffna28 into their hands. They hesitated at first but, persuaded by his oaths and entreaties, they fell in with his proposal and soon after landed at Pannaiththurai disguised as traders. This took place in the month of Vaikasi of the year Manmatha. Sankili was at first disposed to refuse them permis-

28

Yalpanam.

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sion to land or trade, but after the great advantages of foreign trade were pointed out by Paranirupasinkan and others, he was persuaded to grant them qualified permission, which gave them liberty to land during the day for purposes of trade but which strictly enjoined that they should return to and remain in their vessels at night. When the fictitious trade had gone on for some time, the strangers were encouraged to approach the king, which they did with silks and other rare and valuable presents. The king received them graciously and, on hearing from them that they suffered extreme inconvenience as to their meals and other comforts of life from having daily to go to and return from their vessels, he gave them permission to build a house on the seashore for their wares, with liberty to remain in it at night. This happened in the year Supakiruthu, corresponding with the S´aka year of 1503. They build a fort Using this as an excuse, the Portuguese finished building a fort made out of earth. They filled it with troops and arms. That spot had the sea to the south and forests on the other three sides and, as it was a place without much human traffic, the king never heard of this fort until one day he went hunting and came upon a fort and ramparts with a foreign flag waving over them. At first he could not believe his own eyes. His astonishment, however, was soon changed into rage when, on blaming the Portuguese for having built the fort without his permission and on ordering them to pull it down, he was derisively told that they had his royal word for constructing a building and that, if he now changed his mind, they were not prepared to humour him. The war They began the war on the appointed day and conducted it for eleven days. The Portuguese had guns with them and lined up against the Tamils.29 The Tamils stood with weapons like swords. As the mode of conducting warfare differed so much between them, there was no proper war. Mode of fight On one side were the Portuguese soldiers drawn up in battle array and armed with matchlocks. But the soldier’s duty was merely to point his matchlock at an enemy whom he was required to single out for the purpose, while it was the duty of an 29 Brito’s translation has the following additional sentence: ‘The plain that lies on the west of the fort of Nallur opposite to the temple of Viramakaliamman was selected as the battlefield.’

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assistant to apply the fire to the priming of the musket. It frequently happened that no explosion followed the application of the fire. But whenever there was an explosion it was followed by deaths and wounds among the enemy. On the other side were the Tamils with their swords and other weapons, which were of no use to them until they came to close quarters with the enemy but if they once succeeded in coming to close quarters, they became irresistible. In the fight on the eleventh day the king and four hundred of his chosen warriors made such havoc in the ranks of the Portuguese that the latter considered surrendering. But the arrival of unexpected reinforcements from Tharangampadi raised their drooping spirits and enabled them to continue the war. Perceiving the disadvantage of their usual mode of warfare, the Portuguese made a change in it. They threw their troublesome muskets aside and fought like the Tamils with swords. But they still retained a number of musketeers, whom they placed behind the shelter of a wood from the cover of which they kept up a deadly fire. To counteract this, Sankili placed trained men in proper places to send forth stones from slings and other missiles upon the enemy. In these battles the king noticed the indifference shown by Paranirupasinkan and the other ministers and expressed his displeasure at it, but they excused themselves by saying that their men were new to the Portuguese mode of warfare. The king derided their cowardice and, taking with him a chosen band of heroes, he rushed into the very thick of the enemy and slew more than seventeen hundred of them in the battle on the tenth day and two thousand four hundred30 on the eleventh. The defeat of the Portuguese In the fight on the eleventh day the Portuguese lost their general and fled in confusion from the battlefield. Sankili pursued them closely until they reached the forest, when pursuit became impossible. Sankili entered their fort and slew everyone he found there, sparing neither the sick and wounded nor the women and children. He removed all the treasures he found in it to his own palace and razed the ramparts to the ground. Sankili’s hasty act On returning to the city the soldiers celebrated their victory with a feast. In the midst of their revelry some of them, who were flushed with wine, became violent and caused a huge disturbance. Their commander was at his evening prayers in the temple of Viramakaliamman, and they would not obey the king’s messengers. The king felt himself insulted and rushed out in person into their midst, but could not bring them to their senses. Blinded with rage, he ordered all the food prepared for

30

The Tamil edition has the figure of 1 400.

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the feast to be thrown into a deep pit and covered over with earth. This was accordingly done. The hasty act disgusted the soldiers and completely estranged their affections from the king. The Portuguese who had fled from the battlefield reached Urkavatturai and were determined to sacrifice Kakkaivanniyan to their fury. They believed that he had played them false and they told him that but for him they would not have suffered the loss, which they had, of sixteen thousand of their men in the war with Sankili. The Portuguese take the field again Fortunately for Kakkaivanniyan a messenger arrived just then with a letter from Paranirupasinkan addressed to Kakkaivanniyan, expressing regret that the strangers had been defeated and that no open assistance had been given them by the natives. It also pointed out the necessity of joint action and invited the vanniyan to join his forces to those of Paranirupasinkan and openly assist the strangers against the tyrant. Being assured by the tenor of this letter of the sincerity of the natives, the Portuguese determined to renew the fight on the morrow. The vanniyan preceded them by night to Nallur and arranged with Paranirupasinkan the part which each should play. Strategem Very early in the morning a messenger dispatched by Paranirupasinkan whispered into the ears of the commander of Sankili’s army that a spy was waiting for him outside the walls of the city with some information of vital importance. The commander fell into the snare and followed the messenger through the eastern gate. He was introduced to the supposed spy, whose artful eloquence so completely engrossed his attention that he forgot the army for the moment. Meanwhile, the Portuguese, who were believed to have been vanquished, besieged the western gate of the city. Sankili heard the news with some surprise, but with his usual intrepidity rushed to the scene with whatever men he could collect on the instant. Kakkaivanniyan’s treachery He saw Kakkkaivanniyan already on the spot among his soldiers, and believing him to have come to his aid, he accosted him with these words: ‘Friend, you have been slow hitherto, but great is your kindness today in bringing me this timely aid.’ To testify to his joy the king fell on the vanniyan’s neck and embraced him. The traitor pretended to return the compliment but held the king fast in his arms. The Portuguese rushed on the king as he stood struggling for liberty. The king’s soldiers drew their swords, but Paranirupasinkan forbade them to use their weapons without the order of their commander. The king fell into the enemy’s hands

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without a single word being uttered in his defence, and his soldiers fled in dismay and disorder. Sankili was thrown into prison and loaded with chains, and the commander of his army was soon after taken and put to death. Seeing that the white men had become masters of the kingdom, the old king, Sankili’s father, fled into the wilds of Vanni, carrying with him nothing but his trusty sword. The Portuguese having proclaimed a reward of twenty-five thousand rix dollars for his capture, a greedy brahmin, formerly one of his ministers, went in search of him with a lime fruit and a tender coconut in hand. His search would have been fruitless, had not the king espied him at a great distance and come forward to meet him, relying on the villain’s sense of gratitude for favours which he had received from the king when he was his minister. Death of the old king After the usual salutations and enquiries on both sides, the brahmin presented the coconut to the king, cut it open with the king’s sword, which the king handed to him for the purpose, and squeezed the juice of the lime into it. As the king bent forward to drink the water from the coconut, the other severed his head from his body with a single stroke of the king’s own sword and in great exultation brought the head to the Portuguese. The Portuguese, horrified at the bloody act, assured the ungrateful minister that, although they had set no price on the king’s head but had only proclaimed a reward for the king’s apprehension, yet he, the minister, should undoubtedly have the price of his act. They accordingly caused him to be executed on the very spot on which he was standing. Death of Sankili31 The Portuguese next brought Sankili to trial. He was placed before the seat of justice and charged first with having exercised regal powers without having been duly crowned, secondly, with having usurped the throne from his father, thirdly, with having murdered the princes of the realm, and fourthly, with having oppressed the people and massacred many of them. He was convicted of all the charges and sentenced to be beheaded. The sentence was immediately carried into effect on the threshold of the nearest temple. On hearing this, Sankili’s wife committed suicide, and the Portuguese sent away his children to Tharankampadi.32

31 From here the Yalapana-vaipava-malai conflates Sankili I (r. 1519–61), who was never captured by the Portuguese, with Sankili II (1616–19), who was taken to Goa and tried for treason and executed there. See C.R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon (Colombo, 1972), p. 47. 32 Compare with the account of Trindade in document (d) below.

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Reward to the traitors Kakkaivanniyan received all the marks of honour due to his services and retired to Urkavatturai. As a reward for the services of Paranirupasinkan, the Portuguese added the two districts of Nallur and Mathakal to the seven that he owned before. They confirmed him in his post of chief minister, presented him with a large sum of money, appointed his son governor over his nine districts and distinguished him and his family with special marks of favour and respect. Having by these means succeeded in establishing their rule firmly on the land, the Portuguese now began to interfere in matters of religion. They broke down all the S´ivalayams [shrines to S´ iva] and spread the saththiyavetham [true faith], but out of respect for Paranirupasinkan they spared the temple of Nallur and those in the neighbourhood of Kirimalai, and allowed public worship to be continued in them as before. The Portuguese destroy the fort of Nallur Thus the reign of the Parangkis commenced in the month of Ani of the S´aka year of Kalavuththi. The Portuguese took up their residence at Nallur, but they pulled down its walls and fortifications and pulled down other forts in the area, and with the materials rebuilt their old fort, which Sankili had razed to the ground. To the south of it they built residences and offices and asked people to move into the neighbourhood.33 Paranirupasinkan’s death Paranirupasinkan died in the ninth year of Portuguese rule. Not only did the Portuguese allow his corpse the rites of cremation, but they secured for it the performance of all the customary ceremonies and decreed public mourning in honour of his memory. They afterwards raised his son to the office of counsellor but applied to him the titles of muthali and madappali, as they found them entered in the public registry of Sankili’s reign. Like his father, Pararasasinkan enjoyed the favour and confidence of the Portuguese and was highly respected by the people. When his death approached, he sent for his children, seven sons and one daughter, and distributed his districts among them. He gave Nallur and Kalliyankadu to Alakanmaivallamuthali and placed him in his palace of Nallur. He gave Mallakam to Thanapalasinkamuthali, Sandiruppai to Vettivelayuthamuthali, Arali to Visaya Theyventhiramuthali, Achchuveli to Thidavirasinkamuthali, Uduppiddi to Santhirasekaramappanamuthali, Kachchai to 33 The Brito translation of the last part of the sentence reads as follows: ‘… built a new fort, several offices and dwelling houses for their officers. They cleared the neighbourhood of the forest and made it habitable for humans.’

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Irayarednamuthali, and Mathakal to his daughter Vetha-valliyar, whom he bestowed in marriage on a vellalan of that district. Persecution of S´aivites When Pararasasinkan was dead, the Portuguese began to destroy all the remaining temples. A pious brahmin named Parasupaniayyar anticipated the emissaries of the Portuguese and threw all the images and furniture of the Kirimalai temples into a deep well for safety and covered them over with earth. Sankili, a pandaram employed as a servant in Kanthasuvamy temple, ran away to Batticaloa, carrying with him the copper inscription relating to the origin and formation of the temples of Nallur and the rules and directions for their management. The descendants of the brahmin Kangkatharar left Nallur and went to live in Nirveli and Vadamiradchi. Mathakkar appointed The office of prime minister or chief counsellor was abolished and four mathakkar were appointed instead: Irayarednamuthali’s son Solasinkachchenathirasamuthali for the east, Visaya Theyventhiramuthali for the west, Alakanmaivallamuthali’s son, Rasavallapamuthali for the south, and Thidavirasinkamuthali’s son, Kumarasuriyamuthali for the north. About this time a number of families came from Karaikkal and other places and settled in Vaddukkoddai and Karathivu and other islands. The Portuguese began to visit Ceylon in the reign of King Parakkiramavaku of Kotte, who in the S´aka year 1428, gave them permission to trade with his subjects. The Portuguese carried on their trade not only within that king’s districts, but in those of this kingdom also.34 In the year Subakirutha in the month of Adi the massacre by Sankili of the six hundred converted by Xavier took place. In the year Manmatha, in the month of Vaikari35 a Catholic priest called Xavier became friendly with Sankili through the intercession of Paranirupasinkan. In the S´aka year of 1503, they obtained permission to build a house/fort.

34 Instead of the sentence in the text following this endnote, Brito’s translation has the following: ‘They had an establishment at Mannar where, by means of their preaching, they converted to Catholicism numbers of families, of whom King Sankili massacred six hundred in the year Kara. At the news of this massacre, Xavier, a powerful preacher from Portugal made strenuous but fruitless efforts to establish Catholicism again in Mannar.’ 35 Vaikari is May–June, Adi is around July.

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(d)

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Paulo da Trindade on the 1619 Portuguese Conquest of Jaffna, 1630s Extract from Paulo da Trindade’s Conquista Espiritual do Oriente in the Vatican Library, Codex Lateran 7746, ff. 874–7. This work has been published as Paulo da Trindade, Conquista Espiritual do Oriente, Felix Lopes (ed.), 3 vols (Lisbon, 1962–7). The translation is adapted from that of Edmund Pieris and Achilles Meersman, Chapters on the Introduction of Christianity to Ceylon taken from the Conquista Espiritual do Oriente (Colombo, 1972), pp. 209–12. Paulo da Trindade (1571–1651) was born in Macau and was educated in India, where he joined the Franciscan Order. He taught theology in Franciscan colleges at Bassein and Goa from 1609 until his retirement in the late 1630s and was commissary-general of all Franciscans in India from 1630 to 1636. His account is a defence of the Franciscan Order, which had come under attack in his time. This extract briefly describes the Portuguese conquest of Jaffna in 1619.

Chapter 43 How the general of Ceylon sent help to Jaffna; Sankili captured and His Majesty proclaimed king of that realm. Rightly does the prophet and king in one of his psalms compare the glory of the wicked to a reed, which the first passer-by plucks, for, though at times with divine assent they realize their pretensions, it lasts so briefly that it seems they rose more to experience confusion than to possess glory. A proof of this truth we find in the case of Sankili, whom God allowed after he had killed so many princes to assume the sovereignty. But this served only for his confusion, for what he ultimately gained was a trip in irons to Goa, where he was beheaded. However, in a way he was fortunate as well, for though he lost his kingdom and his life, he did not lose his soul, as we piously believe, for finding himself at the gates of death and being enlightened by Him who can lead men along diverse ways to salvation, he asked for baptism and died a Christian, and in death edified the world as much as he had scandalized it in life. As we have said, this tyrant remained only a few months36 in the possession of his kingdom, enjoying peace and acknowledged as king. It seems as if the deceitful world only allowed him to enjoy it for a brief period, just to take it away again, for

36

Sankili actually ruled for three years from 1616 to 1619.

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Constantino de Sá,37 the general of Ceylon, having been informed of all these disorders, wanted to put things right, as that kingdom belonged to his jurisdiction. For this purpose he sent Felipe de Oliveira (who at the time was the captain-major of the field) with two hundred soldiers and many lascarins to the kingdom of Jaffna, with instructions as to what had to be done. Having arrived, not however without many troubles, as it was the dry season, he presented himself to the Friars Minor at the church of Our Lady of the Miracles and from that hour chose Our Lady as his advocate for the enterprise. He then set himself to the task for which he had come and asked the rector of that house, Frei Manuel de S. Maria,38 whose aim was to serve both God and His Majesty, to approach Sankili and tell him that he had come to make three demands. Firstly, he demanded that the badagas39 who were there be handed over; secondly, he should surrender the king of the karaiyars (careas) whom he brought from the other coasts to gain the kingdom, for he knew very well that both the badagas and that king were enemies of the Portuguese; and thirdly, he should pay to the treasury of His Majesty the money that he owed for the elephants he had purchased.40 The friar acceded to the request and went to Sankili. He told him what Felipe de Oliveira demanded. The king replied that, as far as the badagas and the king of the karaiyars were concerned, he would never surrender them, as they had come at his request. The only thing he would do was to tell them to return to their territories. As far as the money for the elephants was concerned, he would immediately pay five thousand pardaus and another five thousand three months hence. Having given this reply, he did not feel secure where he was, namely in some of his houses, since the aratchi41 Dom Luís42 had burnt down the royal palaces and moved to a temple where he seemed to be more secure. There he ordered his men, fully armed, to be deployed and, allowing his old hatred for the Portuguese to surge up in him, he ordered the rector to be called, as being also a Portuguese gentleman from the Island of the Cows, by the name of António Rebelo, a man highly respected in those parts. Then, holding an unsheathed sword in his hands, he said: Gentlemen, tell the captain-major to embark for Ceylon when he comes to Malanuale,43 a 37

Constantino de Sá de Noronha, captain-general of Ceylon (1618–20, 1622–30). Queirós, Conquista, p. 630 states that the envoy was Frei António de S. Bernadino. 39 This term is used here to indicate South Indian mercenaries, and it refers to the five thousand troops sent by Ragunatha Nayak, ruler of Tanjore (r. 1600–34), under the leadership of Varuna Kulattan to aid Sankili to suppress a revolt led by two Christian mudaliyars, Dom Pedro and Dom Luís, in August–September 1618. 40 This refers to elephants sent to Jaffna in 1615 and left unsold in the care of the ruler of Jaffna owing to the prohibition on the sale of elephants that year by the viceroy. See C.R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon, p. 44. 41 aratchi: commander of an armed unit. 42 Queirós, Conquista, p. 635 identifies him as Migapule Arache. 43 Queirós, Conquista, p. 631 states that Punarim was ‘two days march beyond the river’. 38

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journey lasting three days from this kingdom. I will make the badagas and the king of the karaiyars also embark for their countries. Then too, I will send the five thousand pardaus for the elephants. Felipe de Oliveira understood that this message was nothing else but a trap and realized that he would not be able to accomplish his aim unless by force of arms. Therefore, on the following day, having attended a Mass in honour of Our Lady, to whom he had recommended his enterprise, he ordered the drums to be beaten and the men to be placed in order by their captains. Then they marched out to the town, the dissava [captain of the native troops] in front. They had gone less than a quarter of a league when they met the troops of Sankili face to face, who, on seeing them, discharged their guns not once but twice. Thereupon, the dissava, Luís Cabral, attacked just when the captain-major was hurrying to their aid. But already they were weakening to such an extent that, when they saw him, they fled, leaving their arms on the field. After they had pursued them a certain distance and had killed many of them, the captain-major ordered the signal to retreat to be sounded. While they were retreating with the spoils, the king of the karaiyars followed them with his men. Thereupon our men turned and attacked fiercely, so that they too were repulsed, leaving their arms behind. And if it had not been that there were many thorns on the ground and our men without shoes, on that day they would have gained a stupendous victory. They would have finished all of them. But even then they cut off more than a hundred heads, which the captain-major presented to Our Lady of the Miracles, to whom he had recommended the enterprise. They remained on the battlefield to see whether they would return. On seeing that they did not come back, he marched his men to Nallur, where it seemed there was a better place to lodge his men in a temple that was there. Sankili, from the encounter he had with the Portuguese, which was the first he had had, understood what powerful enemies they were. Therefore, to reinforce his army, which had been badly demoralized, he secretly fled to the other coast. However, the captain-major was informed of his flight and hurriedly sent two boats in pursuit. Halfway in the gulf [of Mannar] they caught him and brought him to the captain-major. With heavy irons on his feet he was secured in his own quarters. From there he was sent to Ceylon, to the general, Constantino de Sá, who, in order to finish the matter, sent him as a prisoner to Goa, to the governor of India, Fernão de Albuquerque.44 The matter was placed before the court, and he was condemned to be beheaded. During the whole period he was in prison, our friars from the convent of St Francis in Goa went to visit him. Seeing that this was a good opportunity, they persuaded him

44 Sankili was captured in June 1619, but by the time he was sent to Goa, there was a new Portuguese governor, Fernão de Albuquerque (1619–22), as D. João Coutinho, conde de Redondo, had died in December 1619.

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that, although he would lose his life, he need not lose his soul and should therefore accept the doctrine and receive baptism, the only means of salvation. Being favoured by God, he said that he wanted to become a Christian. The same friars baptized him and gave him the name of Dom Felipe. The same they did to his wife, to whom they gave the name of Margarida de Austria. The archbishop, Dom Frei Cristóvão was their godfather. They were robed for the occasion according to their status. His desire to become a Christian was so great that in a very short time he learned the doctrine and confessed that from his childhood he had had the desire to receive our Faith, since he understood (as Frei Pedro de Betancor, of whom he was a good friend, had often told him) that it was the only true religion, but that, owing to his being amongst his own, he had not been disposed to accept it. He therefore thanked God because He had brought him to the truth and the sanctity of His Law. He admitted too that he did not mind dying, since he was dying a Christian, and it was better to be a Christian coolie than a pagan king, and that it pleased him more to have received the Law of Christ than to have possessed many kingdoms. After the death sentence had been read out to him, which he courageously heard, they placed a devout crucifix on his table, with which he often conversed, so that those who understood were amazed. On the day he was to be beheaded, a stage was built on the Quay of the Viceroy, decorated with a black cloth, and a carpet with a red velvet cushion was placed on it. Accompanied by many friars, who never left his side, he arrived at the place. He did not allow his hands to be tied, as is the custom, saying that it was not necessary and that he gladly underwent death. With the sweet name of Jesus on his lips, he was beheaded. After his death he was vested in the habit of our Order, which he had asked for before execution, and accompanied by our friars, he was taken in procession to our church of St Francis and there honourably buried in the chapter-hall. His wife was placed in the convent of the converts, where she still lives, to the edification of all.

(e)

A Jesuit Account of the Kandyan Invasion, 1628 Letter of Fr I. Bruno, SJ45 to Fr M. Vitelleschi, SJ, Jaffna, 31 October 1628 in Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Goa 18, ff. 102. English translations by S. G. Perera were published in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, vol. III, 1620–1658, Perniola (ed.) pp. 118–21, and in the Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, vol. IV, 1918–19, pp. 96–8. Translation adapted from that by S. G. Perera.

45 Fr Bruno worked in Jaffna 1625–33, in Mannar in 1638 and again in Jaffna 1644–6 when he became Jesuit provincial of the Province of Cochin. By that time he was fluent in Tamil. He had earlier served in Colombo in 1608 and 1610–11, and at Kalpitiya in 1609.

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In 1628 the Portuguese constructed a fort in Batticaloa, and Senerat of Kandy, viewing this as one violation too many of the peace treaty he had signed with the Portuguese (see Chapter 3), went to war. One of the measures he took was to send a small force to Jaffna to provoke an uprising against the Portuguese. There was evident discontent against the Portuguese, who had systematically destroyed all the Hindu temples in Jaffna, and a new revenue register compiled in 1624–6 had resulted in an increase in taxes and dues.46 Therefore, there was support in Jaffna for the Kandyan forces, and the Portuguese were forced to retreat to their fort. However, the Portuguese soon realized that their opponents were only just over a thousand strong and not very well armed. So they made a surprise attack, which broke the siege and sent the Kandyans in retreat from Jaffna. A second attack in the following year with a larger force of some four thousand men found the people of Jaffna less ready to risk their lives, and the Kandyans were defeated once more.47 … The pagan king of Kandy, who has his kingdom on the island of Ceylon, adjoining the kingdom of Jaffna, either at the instigation of some inhabitants of this kingdom who were intent on restoring the former state of affairs, or because he wished to divert the general of Ceylon, who was building a fort at Batticaloa, a port of Kandy, which fort was against the interests of that king and his kingdom, sent into this kingdom a large force of soldiers, who on the night of the sixteenth of the same month48 entered the province of Pacchilaipalli,49 and the same night killed and beheaded Fr Bernadino di Sena and Fr Matheus Fernandes. Fr Jerónimo Frois, who was with Fr Bernadino di Sena, escaped. They burnt all the churches of the province. If they had come as fast as they had started to the province in which our Fathers were, I and the other Fathers in the neighbourhood would have been in great danger. On Sunday at noon I received a letter from Father Rector ordering me to withdraw at once. Thereupon, leaving almost everything that was in the house, I retired and finally arrived in the city in which the Portuguese live. The enemy, who were joined by the whole kingdom, then entered the other provinces, burnt all the churches and finally entrenched themselves near our city. Only my church and that of Father Pietro Nocita, which is near mine, and the church on the island of Cardiva, where the enemy did not enter, were left undestroyed, 46

C. R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon, p. 94. C. R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon, pp. 97–8. 48 September. Queirós, Conquista, pp. 655–6 also reports the death of two Franciscans, Frei Amador Rangel and Frei André. 49 On this invasion see C. R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon, pp. 93–8. 47

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owing to the diligence of the natives, who obtained from the enemy a promise that they would not be destroyed. Such in brief was the rebellion which took place in this kingdom and which is not yet put down. When the enemy saw, thirteen days after their entry, that they were not able to enter the town, they retired from the kingdom, where the governor of this kingdom won a victory over them and put them to rout. When the enemy retired, the natives of this kingdom came to make their submission to the governor. On account of all this we did not return to our churches, and I do not know when we shall return, for the rebels even now talk of insurrection. The governor of this kingdom is trying to settle it. When this is done, we will return, but we shall find everything changed, and the Christian community will have become an uncultivated desert. I do not know what they did when they joined the enemy, although I know that they did it out of fear. God help us.

(f)

Revenue Collection in Portuguese Jaffna, 1639 Regimento issued to Diogo Mendes de Brito, superintendent of revenue of Ceylon, by Pero da Silva, viceroy of India, 8 February 1639. The Portuguese document is found in ff. 12v–144v of Codex 1420 of the Regimentos e Instrucções in the Goa Historical Archives and in ff 352– 65 of Livro 45, Livros das Monções in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. This translation is an adaptation of that published by Tikiri Abeyasinghe in Portuguese Regimentos on Sri Lanka (Colombo, n.d.), p. 78–80. This is the most detailed of the instructions issued to the superintendent or comptroller of revenue in Ceylon. It is useful in giving us some idea of the economic objectives and administrative problems as perceived by the Portuguese viceroy in Goa. In terms of policy implementation it was of minimal significance because the post of superintendent was suspended in November 1640 and its powers delegated to the captaingeneral of Ceylon. Captains-general had continually complained for over twenty years that the independent authority granted to the comptroller was a hindrance to effective administration, and in the end the coming of Dutch forces to Ceylon in 1638 seems to have convinced the Portuguese viceroy in Goa of the validity of that argument.50

50 C. R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon, pp. 163–7; Abeyasinghe, Portuguese Regimentos, pp. 12–13, 20.

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… It is certain that, while the affairs of Ceylon are still not settled, you will not be able to absent yourself from them for any length of time, and since it seems to me that the kingdom of Jaffna should be visited, owing to the numerous complaints that have been made to me and because the captains-major demand more than is due to them, it is necessary that the lands and dues registers on which the superintendent of revenue, Amaro Ruiz, was engaged should be completed.51 On this question I sent you special orders with the necessary proclamations in September. Meanwhile I order you to pass your own order to the accountant of the customs house in Jaffna, whose name is Manuel Godinho, to proceed with recording in a register the revenue of each village individually by way of fields, properties, gardens, trees and palms, so as to bring together in a single total the number of heads [of households] who are tributary in each of the villages, and so to set out everything in the dues register, of which he is to send you a copy, and also with some kanakapulles to proceed with the collection of Tamil pat olas,52 village by village, on the lines of what has been done since this work was taken in hand. You will also notify the captain-major not to regard as valid [the grant of] a single inch of territory which he may have given in writing or in a palm-leaf document, since that could upset the purpose of the said tombo by such fields or lands being set down in the names of certain persons and then passing to others. The same should apply to his predecessor, Lopo Gomes de Abreu; you will also note that, before the lands register is approved, it will have to be reviewed and examined for any imperfections it may contain. You will also inform the factor of that kingdom, Manuel de Sousa do Lacerda, to keep note of any elephants and alias 53 that are brought in to Jaffna during his tenure of office, and [will tell him] that no one can claim ownership over any of them, whether by capture or by way of gift, so long as the tributes due to His Majesty from the Vanni chiefs and the contract with Pooneryn remain unpaid in full; nor will you grant permission to any person to capture them in contravention of these conditions, without what is due to the king having first been satisfied. The captains of the kingdom of Jaffna have always sought to fence off the lands of Vanni, making them a preserve into which no one might enter save those who had their permission, teaming up with the generals of Ceylon in peace time to enter

51

The Portuguese had made several efforts to compile a land registry of Jaffna. Ambrósio de Freitas da Câmara, comptroller of revenue of Ceylon, visited Jaffna in 1623–5 for a preliminary survey and worked on it from June to November 1630. Felipe de Oliveira worked on it in the years 1625–7. Amaro Ruiz (also comptroller) worked on it from 1636 to 1637, and Dom Felipe Mascarenhas in 1645. See Tikiri Abeyasinghe, Jaffna Under the Portuguese (Colombo, 1986), pp. 43–50. 52 Palm-leaf manuscripts. 53 Tuskless elephants.

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Kandy,54 and as these prejudicial actions had become so notorious, a provision was passed during the preceding regime to the effect that the collectorship and the post of adigar of those lands should be filled by the viceroys or the superintendents of revenue, and that by their instructions, unalterably, not only should the tribute of the vanniyars be administered, but also all the other customary cash payments and aretane55 that the inhabitants there are obliged to pay, according to a particular regimento to be based on the dues register of those territories. So long as this has not been done, you will appoint to that post the most suitable and the most experienced person available and someone who has also to engage himself in organizing the hunting for cash of as many elephants and alias as possible, after the tribute of the vanni [chiefs] is paid, because I have reached the conclusion that this is the greatest source of revenue in that kingdom and one to which the captainsmajor cannot be indifferent. As the elephants and alias are brought into Jaffna, so each one is entered in the books to the charge of the factor, with such necessary particulars as its size and distinguishing marks and the name of the vanni chief who delivered it as tribute or captured it for money. This has already been introduced by the superintendent of revenue, Amaro Ruiz, and you will find it from the receipt books of past factors. The export of these elephants will also be recorded with their registration in another book to be kept for the same purpose, in which is to be set down the price for which they were sold, as well as to whom, in the account of the same factor, and the same officials shall report this to you to prevent fraud. The captains of Jaffna and Mannar shall not be present at the sale of the elephants and alias, nor shall they bid themselves or through a third party at the auctions; this is a point on which they have to be questioned at the inquiries into their conduct at the conclusion of their terms of office, because of the serious frauds which I am told have been seen to take place in this way. Whenever you can, you will be present at the Elephant Quay at the time of their sale and shipment out of the kingdom, because the lower officers, on account of their fear of the captains-major, dare not [stop these abuses], of which complaints and affidavits have been received. You will also bear in mind that, of the price for which such elephants and alias are sold, seven per cent is paid as a royal due on their export, like any other merchandise, as you will find was introduced by the superintendent of revenue, Amaro Ruiz, when he saw this was necessary in the interests of His Majesty’s treasury, and this prevented the private arrangements that the captains used to make with the Jaffna merchants dealing in these animals.

54 This refers to Portuguese efforts to impose a trade embargo on Kandy, an embargo that was occasionally violated by Portuguese captains-general of Ceylon. 55 A tax of a tenth on paddy, See Queirós, Conquista, p. 40.

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I have also been informed that the captains of the kingdom of Jaffna habitually take upon themselves the farming out of [the revenues] of that kingdom and that as a result the revenues do not increase, on account of the fear among the bidders, all this being greatly prejudicial to His Majesty’s revenues and quite contrary to his standing orders; and that the captains quite openly and freely proceed to demand a share from the renters for their enjoyment of the revenue farms, so that they dare not make bids for them without paying this share; and that the offers they make at the auctions are with the deduction of the share that has to be paid to the captains. Because of this, if you have the time to attend to the farming-out, you will arrange to have it done in your presence, although it may be a few months in advance, on account of the benefits that can result from that to the royal treasury. On these matters you will hold an inquiry about the persons who by these malpractices have caused losses to the treasury, in order to recover the whole of such losses from them and to condemn them for the offences they have committed according to the laws of the said lord. You will also find out whether these captains or any other persons in their name have demanded or received a rake-off from the merchants who buy or make payments in the customs house in order to be allowed to ship the elephants and alias, and also whether they are compelled or have been compelled to freight vessels of inferior quality in which to ship them. To the collector of Trincomalee you will issue orders to hunt as many elephants and alias as he can with the Väddas at the price that was agreed upon in that fort by the superintendent of revenue, Amaro Ruiz, and also that he should try to collect the tribute of elephants that the inhabitants of Tambalagama are obliged to pay, with the stipulation that they receive a share, as has been agreed, so that by all possible means these hunts can be increased, and the revenues improved; you will bear in mind that for tusked elephants a contract is open with the nawab of Bengal, who resides in the port of Orissa, and with the nayak (naik) of Madurai, all in exchange for saltpetre, which commodity has been earnestly recommended to my attention by His Majesty in many letters that he has written to me, and so I order you in the name of the same lord to take all possible interest in these hunts and the fulfilment of the contracts. All the adigars, who are the same as collectors, have to be appointed by you when they are not appointed by the viceroys, because in Jaffna they are the same as the vidanas in Ceylon, all adigars being, with regard to their revenue collection duties, accountable to the factor. By means of this declaration you will remove the wrong notion among the captains of Mannar and Jaffna that to make appointments to this type of office is within their competence. Nor can they make appointments to posts of patangatin,56 in so far as these are charged with any responsibility for the collection of revenue or tribute …

56

Headman.

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Jesuit Annual Letter on Conversions to Christianity, 1644 Jesuit Annual Letter 13 December 1644,57 in Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Goa 56, ff. 523–5. This letter was translated into English by S. G. Perera in the Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, IV (1918– 19) p. 155 and V (1919–20) 85, pp. 200–201, and in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, vol. III, 1620–1658, Perniola (ed.), pp. 302–307. Translation adapted from that by V. Perniola. Annual letters were designed to inform the Jesuit Order in Europe about progress in the missions. This document provides a glimpse of how the Jesuits represented their achievements. The picture it presents should be compared with that in document (h).

The Island of Mannar In this island the Society has five Residences in which five Fathers are stationed. One of them is the Father of Christians, who protects the interests of the Christians in the courts and elsewhere. In the chief Residence, eleven persons were baptized. In another Residence, lately established, the Father is thinking of building a church in stone, which the Christians have undertaken to do with great fervour. In this Residence there was an old Muslim woman, whose daughter was a Christian. She never thought of following her daughter’s example, but, when death approached, she sent for the Father and asked for baptism, saying that she wished to be saved. She was so well instructed that the Father baptized her at once. Two Christian women who had great difficulty in childbirth asked the Father for some relics of saints. The Father sent them a relic which he had of our Brother Alfonsus Rodrigues. One of these was delivered of her child as soon as they put the relic round her neck; the other had the same good fortune when the relic reached the house. In another Residence a pagan woman of high caste came to the church and, sending for the Father, asked for baptism, as she already knew all the prayers and the necessary truths that she had learnt from other Christian women. Surprised at her resolution, the Father questioned her closely and found that she was indeed well instructed. He baptized her and sent her away, and the happy woman went away rejoicing. The church of this Residence was for a long time without tiles for want of wood, which could only be found in forests full of elephants, tigers, bears, and thieves. The Christians nevertheless resolved to go a six days’ journey into this

57 Perniola in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, III, p. 302 points out that Fr André Lopez, SJ wrote this letter.

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forest. While they were there, robbers attacked another party, plundering them of all they had, but the fervent Christians escaped. Though they were within gunshot of the robbers, they were not seen by them. They attributed this to the favour of Our Lady, in whose service they had gone. Among these Christians was a kanakapulle of the church, who had gone on this journey in spite of the wife’s illness. Even when he was informed that she was getting worse, he did not think of abandoning the work undertaken for Our Lady. Returning with the rest, he found his wife completely cured. Also among them was the teacher of the school, who had left his wife nearly blind. When he returned he found her quite well. They attributed all these favours to Our Lady, whom they were serving. As the patron of this church is Our Lady of the Pietà, she had taken pity on her devout Christians. If Our Lady takes pity on her clients in matters temporal, she will do it all the more in spiritual matters, as one may well think she did in the case of a certain woman of high caste, who, having for a long time given scandal to the whole country, now leads an exemplary life, frequenting the church of Our Lady of the Pietà, confessing and communicating often, shedding many tears, not only during Holy Communion, but even at other times, taking the discipline and wearing a hair shirt, and persuading others to do the same. In the Residence of St Peter, the Christians celebrated the Holy Jubilee with great devotion. Nearly all made their confession and two hundred received First Communion. They communicate on all the feasts of the year and fast on Fridays and Saturdays, especially the women. Up to that time the church of this residence was built of mud, but the Christians determined to build it of stone. The Father is still engaged in collecting the materials necessary for the work, for it is not becoming that the house of the apostle who is a stone should be made of mud.58 … College of Jaffna and its Residences In the College of Jaffna there are two Fathers and a lay brother. One of the Fathers is rector and the other is schoolmaster and teaches grammar. The Brother is in charge of the estates that are attached to the college. In the mission where the rector is also superior, there are twelve Fathers residing in twelve churches. One of them had to keep away from his church for some time, for the place was too near the rebels who are attacking and disturbing the country. As some of these Christians have been baptized in a hurry and within a few years, their faith even now is sometimes found to be faulty.

58 An account of the College of Colombo and its residencies follows the account of Mannar.

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The Fathers, seeing this, were very solicitous about them and determined above all to teach the children well, as they were persuaded that those children could be expected to become good Christians. It is a matter for giving thanks to God our Lord to see how well the children are taught, and how well they know the prayers of the Catechism and many other things which the Fathers have done into their language. It cannot be said that the children of any particular Residence know better than the children of another, for it seems that they are all masters and are able to teach Christian doctrine even to men advanced in age. In one Residence there were some houses which gave great scandal to the people, houses of dissolute women, both married and unmarried, the husbands of the former having being absent from their homes for years. The Father took no small pains in this matter and with God’s help put an end to the disorders, marrying those who were not married and bringing back to their home the absent husbands, so that all now live in peace, repairing their past scandal to the great satisfaction of the people of the country. In the Residence of Mugamale there is a shrine called the Holy Cross of S. Diego. In this place God works some miracles by means of this Holy Cross.

(h) An Inquiry into Abuses, 1645 Results of an Inquiry held in Jaffna, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Livros das Monções, 56, ff. 294v–296v, Jaffna, 18 July 1645. An English translation was published in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, vol. III, 1620–1658, Perniola (ed.), pp. 321–5. Translation adapted from that by V. Perniola. Dom Felipe Mascarenhas visited Jaffna in 1645 and, hearing of complaints from the people of Jaffna, ordered an inquiry to be held.59 Sixtyone pages of testimony from thirty-eight witnesses, six Portuguese and thirty-two Tamils, were recorded. Most of the complaints were identical. The final report was sent to Lisbon, with a recommendation that the parishes of Jaffna should be handed over to native clergy,60 a recommendation that does not seem to have arisen from the evidence recorded by the witnesses. 59 The questions to be asked of witnesses and the mode of inquiry were laid out by the viceroy in a decree of 17 July 1645. The original of this is in Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Livros das Monções, 56, ff. 283–4; English translation in Perniola, The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, III, pp. 314–6. 60 Letter of viceroy to king of Portugal, 12 January 1646, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Livros das Monções, f. 273.

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Dom Felipe Chembugua Mapane, chief61 and headman62 of the district63 of Vadamarachchi, married and living in the village of Alway, about fifty-two years of age, placed his right hand on the Holy Gospels and took an oath administered to him by the captain-major and explained to him by the interpreter. As a witness, he promised to speak the truth of what he knew and of what he would be questioned about. He was questioned on the points which form part of this inquiry according to the decree of the viceroy and which were read to him. The witness says that great loss is suffered on account of the adigars of the district of Vadamarachchi, because while it was customary to give six measures of rice per day, at present the adigars, on their own initiative and decision, take from them three marcas of rice and half a fanão for curry per day, which amounts every year to nine hundred marcas and one hundred and fifty fanões, with the exception of the days when there is nobody to pay them. Furthermore, on taking office as adigars, they levy twenty fanões, saying that it is customary for their formal dress. But since they know that there never was such a custom, they use force and violence and cause many other vexations. Of all this the inhabitants have drawn up a memorial, which is the one presented by Marcos Tandava Addear, and the one to which he refers and in which he expresses the hope that the viceroy will give them relief from those coercions and vexations, as he has done on many other occasions when he has taken measures worthy of a most Christian prince, with which all were pleased. So they were hoping that now also he would favour them and help them. This would also bring an increase in the royal revenue, for all of them are anxious to fulfil the obligations binding on them, but they cannot pay on account of the many burdens imposed on them both by the adigars and by the Fathers, who are their vicars. The inhabitants cannot enumerate all the insults and the acts of injustice they suffer from their vicar and the new tributes they are obliged to pay. Thus, on the pretext that they have a meirinho, they claim from each farmhouse a palm tree, the best that the poor man has in that year in his garden or palm grove, neither caring whether the poor man has many palm trees or not, nor for the fact that it is from the fruits of those trees that the vellalas64 have to pay rent to His Majesty. They go there merely to mark the palm tree they choose, even doing so without the knowledge of the owner, who would gather the fruit to pay the paravenia,65 while now he will certainly be ruined. Again, on the same pretext, from each farmhouse they take two lachas of provisions, whether they have sown or not and whether they have land for this or not. No 61

Majhoral (Portuguese: mayoral): person of authority. Talear (Tamil: Talayari). 63 Pattu. 64 Farmer caste. 65 Paraveniya is usually land granted in lieu of dues or service. Here the word is used to mean dues for land held. 62

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less detrimental are their other actions, such as charging for each wedding two fanões, two hens, one marca of rice and sixty areca nuts, all this being a new levy that has never been paid before. Formerly, in the time of their pagan kings, they paid to the king or to his adigar two fanões, while now, on their becoming vassals of the king of Portugal, more tributes are being imposed by the reverend Fathers, vicars of their parish, and this new tribute is not only imposed on and collected from the vellalas, but also from the pullas, the nalavas, the smiths, the carpenters, the washermen and the barbers. It is quite certain that none of these people ever at any time paid anything of what has just been mentioned, and it is by dint of blows and by imprisonment that they are forced by the rector to make new payments, for these people are so miserable and poor that only with great difficulty can they pay the dues which they owe to His Majesty. And since so many are so wretched, they go to the vanni for shelter, as they cannot bear this heavy yoke. Again it happens that, when a vellala dies, the vicar compels them to pay eighteen fanões for the grave, forcing them to bury the deceased in the church, when they cannot even pay for the burial in the cemetery. And when they assert that they have nobody able to pay, the relations of the deceased are confined to a cell that the Father has in his house, and they are so harassed and beaten that, unable to endure all that, they sell their cows which they have for tilling the land. Finding themselves deeply in debt and unable to pay the dues they owe to His Majesty, they quit the place and go to the vanni, not paying any attention, still less respecting their duties to their wives and children. They abandon everything solely in order to free themselves from the heavy yoke and the new tributes imposed by the vicars. Again, in the case of boys and girls and young women often aged twelve years and more, the vicars oblige them to come on the pretext of learning the Christian doctrine, and then keep them occupied with carrying earth and manure, with digging and weeding the rector’s garden, and oblige them to watch very carefully the fruits of the garden. Woe to the person who says that the crows have carried away a fruit, for such a person will be ill-treated and beaten mercilessly. And they do all this, though they are quite aware that in this way they keep boys and girls from helping their parents to cultivate and till the land for which they pay rent to His Majesty. Again, they find out if on any day they have not come to Mass owing to the pressure of work during the sowing season. Then the vicar immediately sends for them, both the men and their wives, and they are beaten and placed in a cell that the vicar has in his house. Each person is obliged to pay a large sum equal to a fanão. If by chance they arrive when the Father is already at the altar, the door is shut against them and they are not allowed to enter or to look at God, which is the humiliation they resent most. Their only aim is that they should not lose the large sums they take from them. Over and above this, they give them many blows and confine them to cells. All this means that much time is taken away from the cultivation of their fields, and they suffer great loss.

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Again, it was only a few days ago that the Father rector and vicar of the village Castaneda, returning after hearing a confession, met a married woman of the vellala caste, well-behaved and well-connected. For some personal reasons he gave her a blow with a cane and cut her ear, which for them is a great humiliation. Again, a meirinho of the same Father, called Caturao Meyringi, went to the house of a man of the vellala caste and forcibly took away a kid that they were rearing. That vellala asked him why he was taking his kid in that way. The meirinho replied with many blows and, not satisfied with that, also caused a cut in his ear. The blows were such that the man remained unconscious for twelve hours, and in that state they carried him in a palanquin to the captain-major, who sent him to show himself to his commissary so that he might punish both the meirinho and the rector. But the commissary boldly defended them to such an extent that even now the meirinho, instead of mending his ways, continues to persecute that vellala. Further, the Father commissary seized the husband of the woman whose ear the rector had cut and kept him in the convent chained to a small bed and gave him many blows, asking him why he had been complaining against the Father. In this way he frightens those vellalas so much that, however great are the wrongs and the vexations caused to them by the rectors and vicars, they dare not speak and would never speak, owing to the fear they have of them, except that they see that the viceroy is so good to the inhabitants that they are already partially free from the yoke they have suffered both from the Fathers and the adigars and they hope that soon they will be completely free. In that way they will be more encouraged and more ready to pay the rents they owe to His Majesty, which so far they have paid in spite of the heavy yoke they bear. Again, the vicars obliged them to come every night to watch over them, though there was no war and the land was at peace. They did so in order to make use of those vellalas to carry water and firewood and also to water the garden of the vicars until midday, thus causing them great loss as a result of the time they had to spend in their work. Not satisfied with this, they even obliged four persons from each village to come to continue watching without a break. If anyone absents himself, even for one day, he is severely punished. Although they are excused when they cannot take their turn to watch at the fort, the vicars show them no pity or compassion if they absent themselves. Hence, it follows that they often absent themselves from watching at the fort, since they cannot possibly do many things at the same time. Again, those by whom the natives are harassed the most are the meirinhos of the vicars and the kanakapulles and their domestic servants, since they enter their houses whenever they want, without any consideration, and take from them the fruits of their gardens for which they pay duty to His Majesty. They take also their chickens and kids, and all by force and often without any payments. If by good fortune they pay, they pay only half the real value. Not satisfied with this, they also take the sura [toddy] from their palm trees and do so by force and without any

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payment, as if the trees were their own, while all the time the people pay duty on those palm trees and on the sura. Even then they are not satisfied and they go still further. Only a few days ago there died a poor vellala who had nothing and who maintained himself from alms. The Father, I mean the meirinho of the Father, either on his own or on the order of the Father, seized three cows of a brother of the deceased and sold them, and compensated himself from their cost, though this man did not possess anything but the three cows and so was certainly not obliged to pay. If by chance the meirinho asks for anything and they do not give it, immediately he accuses them of being concubines; and if they do not come to an agreement with the meirinho and go before the Father, they are immediately seized and harassed and in the end are fined three or four fanões. There are many other things that take place, and they hope that the viceroy will find a solution as he has found for some other things. It is for this reason that they have decided to speak under oath, however poor and wretched they are, since if the vicar comes to know that they have complained, they will not be able to live in the country, because the Fathers forcibly assert themselves over them.

Chapter 6

The Peace Treaty of 1617

The documents in this chapter form a unique series, detailing negotiations that eventually led to a treaty between the Portuguese and the ruler of the highland kingdom of Kandy in 1617. Although the documents all come from Portuguese sources, they give us a glimpse of the positions taken during the negotiations by the two sides and provide clues on some of the assumptions made by the two parties. We need to look at the historical background to place the documents in context. After the death of the warrior king, Rajasinha of Sitawaka (r.1581–93), the Portuguese gradually gained dominance over the south-west lowlands that had formed the heart of the kingdom of Kotte. In 1594, on the basis of a deed of gift signed by Dharmapala (r. 1551–94), the last king of Kotte, the Portuguese assumed possession over all the lands of the old kingdom of Kotte. It took almost ten more years for the Portuguese to subjugate the lands they claimed, and they knew that one reason for this was the encouragement of rebellions in their territories by Vimaladharmasuriya (r. 1592–1604), ruler of Kandy.1 Vimaladharmasuriya’s brother, Senerat (r.1604–35) succeeded him as ruler. Senerat, who had been commander-in-chief under his brother, was not unchallenged at the outset, but he secured the succession by marrying his brother’s widow. Senerat was harrassed by constant Portuguese military incursions,2 and in 1612, both his queen and the heir to the throne (Vimaladharmasuriya’s son) died. The sudden death of the heir left the path to the throne open for one of Senerat’s three sons, but it also led to suspicions of foul play and might have weakened 1 It was particularly galling to the Portuguese that Vimaladharmasuriya himself had gained his position with Portuguese assistance. His father, Weerasundara Bandara, was a Kandyan noble who had assisted Rajasinha to conquer Kandy. However, Rajasinha had become suspicious of Weerasundara’s loyalty and had had him killed. The son, then called Konnappu Bandara, fled to the Portuguese and accepted conversion to Christianity. He was trusted enough to be placed in charge of the Sinhala forces sent to expel Rajasinha from Kandy. However, after success in battle, the Portuguese nominee to the throne died suddenly, and Konappu Bandara, returning to Buddhism, declared himself king and expelled the Portuguese forces from Kandy. He subsequently married Dona Catarina (Kusumasana Devi), whom the Portuguese recognized as the surviving legitimate heir and who fell into his power with the defeat of a new invading Portuguese force. Few Portuguese ever forgave Vimaladharmasuriya, and he was often referred to in Portuguese documents as the ‘apostate’. 2 For details see T. B. H. Abeyasinghe, Portuguese Rule in Ceylon (Colombo, 1966), pp. 42–68.

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Senerat’s position. Nevertheless, Kandy and the Portuguese remained locked in struggle. When in 1616 rebellions against the Portuguese broke out in the Two Korales located to the south-west of Kandy3 and in the Seven Korales on its western border, Senerat sent forces to aid the rebels in both areas. The more formidable of the two uprisings began in December 1616 in the Seven Korales, where a pretender who claimed to be Nikapitiye Bandara, son and heir of Rajasinha of Sitawaka, led the rebellion. Nikapitiye’s forces compelled the Portuguese to retreat to within 30 miles of Colombo. In the south, Senerat’s forces, led by Kuruwita Rala, seized the Portuguese fort of Sabaragamuwa.4 It was at this stage that there was a break between the rebels and Senerat. Elated by his victories, Nikapitiye asked for the hand of one of the daughters of the Kandyan queen.5 Senerat, who had seen his role as being Nikapitiye’s patron and protector, suddenly saw the possibility that he would become a rival. Not only did he refuse the request, he also withdrew Kandyan support from Nikapitiye. This in turn enraged Kuruwita Rala. While Senerat was intent on preserving his dynasty and the realm of Kandy, Kuruwita Rala, who had been born in Kotte and had fled to Kandy after rebelling against the Portuguese. He had risen in the Kandyan administration to become the governor of the province of Uva, but for him expulsion of the Portuguese was the key priority. When Senerat withdrew from the struggle, Kuruwita Rala rebelled against him and soon became master of much of southern Sri Lanka from Batticaloa, Wellassa and Uva to parts of Sabaragamuwa and Matara. Kuruwita Rala also invited Mayadunne of Denawaka, a prince of the Sitawaka line, to come back from exile in India and take over the succession as king of Sri Lanka.6 Senerat realized that he now faced a formidable threat and by early 1617 had decided to make overtures to the Portuguese. The Portuguese, hard-pressed though they were, remained distrustful of the Kandyans. The first messenger sent by Senerat to the Portuguese fort at Balana was executed. It was only after Senerat had attacked and seized Balana fort that he was able to convince the Portuguese there of his peaceful intentions and begin negotiations.7 However, when Kandyan envoys arrived at the Portuguese captain-general’s headquarters at Malvana on 15 March, Captain-General Nuno Álvares Pereira refused to negotiate until the Portuguese held captive in Kandy had been released, and so talks

3

The rising in the Two Korales began in September 1616. See C. R. de Silva, The Portuguese in Ceylon (Colombo, 1972), pp. 22–4. 5 This was probably the daughter of Vimaladharmasuriya and Kusumasana Devi. 6 Kuruwita Rala might have believed Nikapitiye to be an imposter or simply wanted a figurehead he could control. He himself was probably from the karava caste and made no claims to the throne. 7 See letter of Manuel Ruiz, SJ, to António Mascarenhas, SJ, dated Colombo, 15 October 1617, published in an English translation by S.G. Perera in ‘The First Treaty of Peace, 1617’, S. G. Perera (trans.), Ceylon Literary Register, Third Series, II, 12 (December 1932), pp. 531–2. 4

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did not begin until early May (see document (a)). He also made sure that the commencement of negotiations was approved at a meeting to which the chief Portuguese officers, settlers and religious dignitaries were invited. There followed three months of negotiations, which eventually led to the first treaty of peace between the Portuguese and the ruler of Kandy. We do not have the opening offer of the Portuguese made in May or of the Kandyan counter-offer, but the documents given below include the second Portuguese offer drafted on 30 June (document (c)) and approved on 2 July (see document (b)) and Senerat’s response (document (d)) discussed by the Portuguese advisory council on 18 July (document (e)). Finally, after further negotiations, largely on a Portuguese claim to the port of Batticaloa, on 17 August 1617 the Portuguese ratified the conditions proposed on 10 August by the ruler of Kandy. The king of Kandy signed the document on 24 August, thus inaugurating a decade of peace between the two powers. The Portuguese chronicler, Faria de Sousa, alleges that the delay in the negotiations was due to the need to contact and get approval from the Portuguese viceroy in Goa,8 but there is no evidence that this was a factor. On the Portuguese side, Captain-General Pereira handled the negotiations with the concurrence of all the Portuguese elements in Kotte. It is, however, quite likely that he obtained agreement to negotiate from the viceroy, Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo, who had been captain-general of Ceylon from 1594 to 1612 and thus knew the country well. The delay was partly due to the reluctance of both parties to give much authority to their envoys to negotiate. Several drafts therefore had to be sent to and fro until a compromise was reached. However, perhaps equally important was the fact that, despite their desire for peace and military cooperation, the two parties had significant differences. Senerat was willing to pay tribute and release all Portuguese prisoners of war in return for an alliance with the Portuguese and their recognition of his claim to the Kandyan throne. After all, sixteenth-century rulers of Kandy had routinely acknowledged the suzerainty of the rulers of lowland Kotte by means of nothing more than an annual gift to the Kotte ruler. Thus, his conception of tribute was a token gift ‘to do honour to the king of Portugal, for the king of Portugal had no need of money but only honour.’ This was why he initially offered one elephant a year. The Portuguese were thinking of a more substantial tribute of four elephants and some cinnamon and areca-nut, and they eventually compromised on two elephants a year. The differences over Balana fort were as wide. The Portuguese wanted Senerat to rebuild the fort he had razed, stock it with provisions and return all arms and ammunition. But Balana fort, built by the Portuguese within a dozen miles of Senerat’s capital city, was not something that Senerat wanted to resurrect, and the Portuguese had to be content with the return of all prisoners and arms.

8

Faria de Sousa, Manuel de, Asia Portuguesa, 3 vols (Porto, 1947), book VI, p. 132.

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There was also the question of the repatriation of rebels against the Portuguese who had fled to Kandy. The Portuguese were concerned with falling revenues resulting from depopulation and wanted all of them sent back. Senerat agreed to send back those who wished to return on condition that the captain-general pardoned them and restored their lands to them. He also agreed to send back any Portuguese and other fugitives who fled to Kandy in the future, provided the Portuguese returned any who fled from Kandy. Then there was the Portuguese demand that Kandy should cease to have any contact with all Muslims and other Europeans. Senerat’s concern here was perhaps with the Muslim traders who supplied some of Kandy’s needs from India. He therefore made an ingenious counter-proposal that Kandy ‘would be a friend of our friends and an enemy of our enemies.’ He also promised to refuse admittance to enemies of the Portuguese, and this assuaged Portuguese concerns about the English and the Dutch. The Portuguese also wanted not merely a site for a church in Kandy but also a pledge that Senerat would ‘favour and help’ Christianity. Senerat had allowed his queen, Kusumasana Devi, who had been brought up as a Roman Catholic by the Portuguese, access to Franciscan friars and had also entrusted the friars with the education of his sons. However, Senerat’s support in Kandy also depended on his patronage of Buddhism. Therefore, he made sure that the final version of the treaty merely had a clause safeguarding the right of Kandyans to become Christians should they wish to do so. Finally, the Portuguese asked for one of Senerat’s sons and four Kandyan nobles as hostages during the first three years. Senerat refused, stating that his word was more important than two hundred hostages, but eventually agreed to send some nobles as hostages on condition that they could take turns to visit their families. All the above matters were resolved by 18 July, but the treaty was further delayed by Portuguese efforts to gain control over the eastern seaboard. On 30 June, Captain-General Pereira had asked the king of Kandy to aid the Portuguese in building forts on the eastern coast of Ceylon. The Portuguese were predictably anxious to prevent the Dutch and the English from establishing a foothold there. Senerat refused this request because such an action would isolate Kandy. The Portuguese then laid claim to Batticaloa, but Senerat held firm, despite a compromise offer in early August that would have acknowledged that Batticaloa was in Kandyan territory but permitted the Portuguese to build a fort there. The Portuguese eventually gave up their claims on Batticaloa. There are indications that, while the Portuguese throughout the negotiations sought an agreement that would make Kandy into a vassal state, the Kandyan ruler, despite his agreement to pay tribute, was seeking an agreement by which he would gain reciprocal rights. Therefore, when he agreed to send hostages, he specified that the friar he invited to Kandy would be his hostage. Return of fugitives was to be mutual. Senerat also specified that, though it was the captain-general who signed the treaty, he was to do so on behalf of the king of Portugal.

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(a)

157

Initial Overtures for Peace Letter of Manuel Roiz, SJ,9 to Nuno Mascarenhas at Rome, Colombo, 15 October 1617, in Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Goa 48, ff. 18lv.–182. Translation adapted from that of Fr Perniola in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese Period, vol. II (Dehiwala, 1989– 91), pp. 415–8. Another copy of this letter is found in Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Goa, 32, ff. 509–14. A translation of this document by S.G. Perera was printed in the Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, vol. II (1916–17), pp. 130–6 and vol. III (1917–18), pp. 49–52. It illustrates the suspicion with which the Portuguese continued to view the ruler of Kandy. Clearly, peace with Kandy and the recognition of its ruler was a major change from the policy of unremitting hostility that had been pursued since 1593.

On the 15th of March there came to Malvana two Portuguese,10 with two blacks sent by the king of Kandy, to our captain-general, bringing two letters, one to the same captain-general and the other to the prelates of the religious Orders. In these he asked for peace, saying that he would be a brother in arms of the king of Portugal, and that, if the peace were made, it would be to His Majesty’s service and the honour of his general. The captain-general replied to them that making peace was an ordinary matter between princes, when the conditions were just and satisfactory, and if he also gave satisfactory conditions to His Majesty, peace would be made between him and the king of Portugal. For this purpose the king of Kandy should send persons of greater credit and standing than those who had come to negotiate it, that such a peace could not be granted so long as he had in his power the Portuguese whom he had taken, since he was not in need of them, and that such was the custom among princes. This was the substance of his reply … On the 6th of May there came to Malvana two ambassadors of the king of Kandy with a retinue of a hundred lascarins, and in their company came also thirty Portuguese with letters, in which the king said that he would have sent them much earlier had not the rebels prevented it and forced them to go back to 9 The documents below indicate that Fr Roiz (Rodrigues), rector of the Society of Jesus was an active participant in the discussions on peace. 10 Bocarro identifies them as Domingues Rodrigues and Baltazar Ribeiro. António Bocarro, Livro das Plantas de Todas as Fortalezas, Cidadese Povoaçoes do Estado da India Oriental, A. B. de Bragança Pereira (ed.), Arquiro Português Oriental, Nova Edição, Tomo IV, vol. II (1937–8), p. 509.

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Kandy. What the king of Kandy sought by this embassy was to make friends with the Portuguese on condition that he was acknowledged as king and his son as prince, and to say that he would pay tribute to the king of Portugal and do all that we required of him. On the 12th of May the captain-general came to Colombo with these ambassadors, who were received by the city with great festivity and pomp and gathering of people. The captain-general forthwith summoned to a meeting (junta) on the following day some of the chief persons and regular clergy, namely two Franciscans and two Jesuits, to state in writing whether it was good to make peace with the king of Kandy by acknowledging him as king and his son as prince. When the replies of all of them had been given, it was decided to send the ambassadors back with the answer, and along with them went two Franciscans11 and a layman who was a casado here, called Diogo de Sousa, to state the conditions which had to be observed towards us if he wished for peace. The motive that the king of Kandy had in seeking peace and reconciliation with the Portuguese was, presumably, the fear he had of that rebel,12 as many of the principal men of Kandy had gone over to his side. For this reason, up to now he has always treated well the Portuguese captives he has there, and from the very beginning he has given them monthly payments as we do here. He ordered that they should be given provisions and those in need should be supplied with shirts, breeches and doublets, and ordered them all to live in a certain place at a distance of three leagues from where he himself lives, and that they should be subject as formerly to their captains, who could even punish them. The king, wishing to show the prince to the Portuguese, sent for them, but he had their arms removed, since he was advised by his people not to let them carry arms on that occasion. They came and saw the three sons of the king;13 one would be about twelve years of age, one seven and the other five. He told the Portuguese that the eldest prince and not he himself was the king of Kandy, and that in the name of the prince he proposed peace to us, since it was the Portuguese who gave him the kingdom by bringing his mother14 from Mannar at such great cost. When the Portuguese were returning to their lodgings unarmed, the rebel assaulted them, and had the Portuguese not been warned of it by some mudaliyars who were guarding them, and had it not been for the obstacle of the river that was

11

According to Fernão de Queirós, The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, S. G. Perera (trans.), 3 vols (Colombo, 1930), p. 615, one of them was Frei Gaspar de Madalena. 12 Kuruwita Rala. 13 Kumarasinha, Vijayapala and Rajasinha. 14 Dona Catarina or Kusumasana Devi, daugher of former King Karaliyadde Bandara, who was brought by the Portuguese to be enthroned in Kandy in 1594 and captured by Vimaladharmasuriya. Vimaladharmasuriya made her his queen and on his death his brother, Senerat, married her.

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in the rebel’s way, they would all have fallen there. But they betook themselves to where the king was, all but two of them, who on account of ill health were unable to go with the necessary speed and who were killed by the rebel. The king, hearing of the matter, went after them with some men and drove them away, killing some of the rearguard. Thereafter he ordered the arms to be restored to the Portuguese and kept them about him, giving them all that was necessary. In the same month of May the king of Kandy, knowing that the rebel sought by many means to get the princess of Kandy15 for himself, sent him a letter in the name of the said princess in which he asked him to come to such and such a place on a certain day and that she would come over to him. When the rebel came to the appointed place on the appointed day, the king fell upon him and put him to flight, killing many of his people. As the rebel was fleeing, he encountered our men at the extremity of the Seven Korales, and our rearguard also attacked him, killing many and capturing some goods and money that he was taking. Our men also seized three or four Christian Sinhala women of good birth whom he was taking from the Seven Korales, calling them queens. At the same time in this encounter, our men took a prince of Kandy, a son of Dom João16 the renegade, who joined this rebel. This prince and the queens are under custody in Colombo.

(b)

Peace Negotiations, July 1617 Documents (b) to (h) are in the Goa National Archives in Livro Quatro de Copias de Ordens Regias, ff. 339, and have been printed in C. Judice Biker (ed.), Collecção de Tratados e Concertos, vol. 1, pp. 203–17. The document printed here is an amended version of the translations provided by S. G. Perera in Ceylon Literary Register, Third Series, vol. II (12) (December 1932), pp. 535–8, and vol. III (1933), pp. 155–64. Treaty of Peace made between the king of Kandy and the king of Portugal through D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, captain-general of the Conquest of Ceylon, in the year 1617.

Copy of the acts that were performed in this island of Ceylon regarding the peace, which was made in accordance with them and which the king of Kandy sent to ask by means of his ambassadors from the captain-general of the Conquest, D. Nuno Álvares Pereira.

15 16

Daughter of Dona Catarina and Vimaladharmasuriya. Vimaladharmasuriya.

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Minutes recorded on the orders of the captain-general, D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, of the resolutions of the meeting which was held to consider whether it was to the service of His Majesty and the welfare of this island to grant the peace which the king of Kandy proposed to him by means of his ambassadors. On the second day of the month of July of the year 1617, in this city of Colombo, in the apartments of the captain-general, D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, where at his command were assembled the comptroller of revenue, Manuel de Oliveira de Azevedo, and the captain of this city, Lançarote de Seixas, and the magistrates and aldermen and other officials of the municipal council of the said city, and the prelates of all the religious Orders that are there, and some veteran captains of experience who have served in this Conquest, the captain-general related in the presence of all how, already on receiving the first message and embassy from the king of Kandy, he had assembled them on 10 May as they were on this occasion and had asked them whether they considered it was to the service of His Majesty and the welfare of this island to grant to the king of Kandy the peace which he sent his ambassadors to seek from him. He explained how, after everyone had given him their reasons for it, it was decided that it was convenient to treat for peace and grant it, if the said king accepted the conditions which were for the service of His Majesty; how it seemed good to send some persons of consideration to treat of a matter of such importance; how they were chosen and sent with their instructions and the conditions on which peace would be made on our part; how they had gone to the said kingdom of Kandy and had declared the points to the said king, to all of which the said king had responded by making other [conditions], which he sent to the captain-general. These he then ordered to be read to the meeting, requesting that, after fully considering and discussing them, they should resolve what should be replied to the said king, if he was ready to follow what was agreed upon with regard to the said peace, provided it was to the honour and credit and service of His Majesty and the greater tranquillity of this island, or to carry on the war which was going on at present. The points which the king of Kandy put forward in addition to those that were proposed to him having been considered and discussed, amendments and additions that seemed conducive to the service of His Majesty were made, and it was agreed that, subject to these changes, peace should be granted to the said king, and that, if he did not consent to the amendments, the captain-general should order the persons whom he had sent thither to return and likewise dismiss those of the said king of Kandy who were in this city. In proof that what is contained here was thus ordered and agreed, the captaingeneral and all the other persons that were in the said junta signed here and the points aforementioned with me, Manuel Bocarro, clerk of the Treasury of this island of Ceylon, at Colombo, on the day, month and year aforementioned: Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, Manuel de Oliveira de Azevedo,

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Lançarote de Seixas,17 Padre Manuel Rodrigues, Rector of the Society of Jesus, Frei Sebastião de Lima, Vicar of S. Domingos, Frei Diogo Façanha, Guardian and Commissary of the Island, Frei Luís Gomes Pinto, Bento de Sá Tinoco, Miguel Ferrão de Navaes, Felipe de Oliveira.18 The officials of the Municipal Council: Vitorino de Abreu, Lourenço Ferreira de Macedo, Baltasar Monis, Francisco Carvalho, Tomé Ferreira, Gaspar Ferreira, João Nunes.

(c)

Portuguese Conditions for Peace, June 1617 See introduction to document (b). Adapted from an English translation by S. G. Perera, ‘Historical Records of the Society of Jesus’, in Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, vol. III (1917–18), pp. 49–50. Conditions on which the peace for which the king of Kandy asks will be made in the name of His Majesty:

1

17

Firstly, considering that the said King Sera19 of Kandy was married to the Queen Dona Catarina,20 by whom he has three legitimate sons, the latter will succeed him on the throne according to their customs, His Majesty being obliged to favour the said king should any war or necessity arise and the said

On de Seixas see, C.R. de Silva, ‘Lançarote de Seixas and Madampe: A Portuguese Casado in a Sinhalese Village’, Modern Ceylon Studies, II (1970), pp. 18–34. 18 On de Oliveira see C. R. de Silva and S. Pathmanathan, ‘The Kingdom of Jaffna up to 1620’, University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka, K. M. de Silva (ed.), (Peradeniya, 1995), pp. 118–20. 19 Senerat, king of Kandy (r. 1603–35). 20 Kusumasana Devi, daughter of Karaliyadde Bandara, ruler of Kandy (r. 1551–81).

162

2

3

4

5

6 7

8

9

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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

king and his descendants having the same obligation on all occasions that arise in the realms of the lowlands governed by the generals of His Majesty; That the said king shall be a vassal of His Majesty and of his lawful descendants, paying as tribute each year four elephants of five covados21 in height delivered at Malvana, and one thousand amunões of areca22 and two hundred bahar of cinnamon, which shall be delivered at Ruwanwella; That the fortress of Balana shall be rebuilt and handed over with the artillery and munitions, and the Portuguese that were therein provided with provisions for a year, and that the Portuguese who were in Sabaragamuwa shall be restored with all the arms and munitions they had; That he shall either deliver the head of the rebel23 as he promised to the general of this island, Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, or give every favour and assistance necessary for us to capture him, delivering moreover the rebels who went to his realms during this rebellion, and all others that go there in future for any crime they may commit, and the same shall be understood of the Moors whom the king shall not admit henceforth into his kingdom; That he shall not suffer in his realms any Hollander, French, English or any other nation hostile to us, but shall be a friend of our friends and enemy of our enemies; That he shall give all assistance and favour for the erection of any fortresses that may appear necessary in the seaports; That he shall not prevent any of his lieges from becoming a Christian if he desires to do so, but shall rather give favour and help and a spot on which the religious may build churches; That he shall not permit any Portuguese to come to his realms without the express licence of the captain-general, and should one come without it, he shall be obliged to send him as a prisoner under good custody to the said captain-general; this declaration is made to avoid the disorders which the soldiers are wont to commit in the lands; That he shall hand over all the artillery that has been taken from the Portuguese in any war or at any time whatever, and that likewise he shall set free all the prisoners taken during this rebellion that happen to be in his realms; That he shall give as hostages one of his sons for the first three years, and, since they are young, four principal persons, natives of the kingdom of Kandy, whom we shall select.

D. Nuno Álvares Pereira. Malvana, 30 June 1617 21

The covado was equivalent to three-quarters of a yard. An amuna of areca-nut was usually 25,000 nuts. 23 Nikapitiye Bandara. 22

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(d)

163

The Kandyan Counter-Proposals and Portuguese Reactions See introduction to document (b). The statements in italics and in parenthesis in this document are additions representing the Portuguese response to each of these proposals as given in a letter dated 15 October 1617 by Fr Manuel Roiz as translated by Fr S. G. Perera in ‘Historical Records of the Society of Jesus’, Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, vol. III, pp. 49–52. Conditions on which the king of Kandy shall make the peace for which he has asked, [sent] in answer to those that were sent to him:

1

2

3

4

5

6

Firstly, considering that Sera, king of Kandy, is married to the Queen Dona Catarina, lawful queen of the realms of Kandy, and has by the said queen three sons, the same shall succeed him on the throne according to their customs, His Majesty being obliged to favour the said king and the other kings that lawfully succeed him, and the king of Kandy and his descendants having the same obligation on all occasions that arise in the realms of the lowlands governed by the generals of this island. (The captain-general grants this article on the advice of the junta.) The king of Kandy says also that he will pay as tribute each year two elephants of five covados each, delivered at Malvana to do honour to the king of Portugal, for the king of Portugal has no need of money but only honour. (The king of Kandy will pay a tribute of two elephants of five covados in height each year at Malvana.) The king of Kandy says also that he will be a friend of our friends and an enemy of our enemies and will have no dealings with them, and should one come to speak to him, he will say that he is a friend of the Portuguese and cannot admit them to his realms. (This condition is granted.) The king of Kandy says moreover that he will order all Portuguese that come to his kingdom of Kandy to be handed over to the said generals and that he will likewise deliver all other persons of the country prisoners and culprits if they happen to come to the kingdom of Kandy, and that the captains-general shall likewise be obliged to deliver all his men that come without his licence to the realms of the lowlands. (This condition is agreed to, with the addition that he shall be obliged to hand over the rebels and all other people of the realms of the low country, with the assurance of their lives and property given in the name of His Majesty.) The king says moreover that, when he knows where the rebel is, he shall be obliged to attack him before giving us notice to come to his assistance also. (This condition is granted.) The king of Kandy says moreover that he will order all those of the lowland realms that come to his kingdom during the rebellion to go to inhabit the

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villages, and if any is a culprit, the captain-general will pardon him in the name of His Majesty and will return his paravenias to him.24 7 The king of Kandy says also that he will restore all the Portuguese he took at Balana, with all the munitions, artillery, arms and also the Portuguese of Sabaragamuwa, but the arms which the people of the country took from them may be recovered from them; and likewise he will restore the two boats that were taken from the galeota25 that ran aground at Matara, as it was in his time. (This condition is accepted provided that he will give the rest of the artillery, which he will find to be ours.) 8 Moreover, the king of Kandy says that he will give hostages, who may come and go according to the order he may give, so that they may not be always out of their homes; that they will be persons of credit, though his royal word was better than two hundred hostages; that, as a hostage from the lowlands, a friar of St Francis, whom he will name, will be enough, with a church to look after the Christians that are in this kingdom; and that he will likewise give to every person of his realm liberty to become a Christian when he desires to do so of his own free will, except slaves,26 because of the many inconveniences that can happen between the Fathers and the masters of the slaves, and for this purpose he will admit those religious that he thinks good. (The condition concerning the hostages is accepted in the form proposed by the king. We add that he should not impede anyone in his kingdoms who of his own accord wishes to become a Christian from doing so, and that he will admit such religious as may be necessary for the purpose.) 9 The king of Kandy further says that, when peace is sworn, it will be sworn for ever in the name of the king of Portugal, and of him and the princes his descendants, being kings of Kandy, with all the lands which belong to the said kingdom, and the king of Portugal [being king] of the lands that belong to the realms of the lowlands. (This condition is agreed to. The captain-general reserves to himself the right of giving account to His Majesty and the viceroy of India, who will approve it since it is made for their service.) The above was approved by me and by the persons who were present at the meeting that I summoned, so that the foregoing points which were sent to me might be conceded as and in the manner stated therein. D. Nuno Álvares Pereira

24

The Portuguese rejoinder to this is included in their response to article 5. Small galley. 26 Slaves who had become Christians claimed freedom from all traditional obligations. 25

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(e)

165

Portuguese Discussions, July 1617 See introduction to document (b).

In Colombo, on the 18th of the month of July of 1617, in the apartments of the captain-general, Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, he being present with the religious and other undersigned and undermentioned persons, all of whom the said captaingeneral ordered to be summoned, he addressed them in the presence of me, Manuel Bocarro, clerk of His Majesty’s Treasury, and said that, having sent an ambassador to Kandy with a reply to the king concerning the peace that he offered and asked and containing the points that were declared as the opinion of those who were present on this occasion, the final decision of the said king had now been made, which is what is now contained in the points signed by him. The said captaingeneral took these into his hand and said to the persons there present that he requested and begged them earnestly in the name of His Majesty to consider them and give their opinion on them and to decide what seemed best for the service of God and of His Majesty, for the peace and tranquillity of his vassals and the security of this island; that he would carry into effect what was decided, as he was ever ready to carry on war in person and continue the conquest for which the said lord had sent him to this island. The points were then read by me in a loud voice, and there was discussion of what seemed best on the subject of each article, and it was agreed by all that the said peace should be made on the same terms contained in the said points, seeing that it was to the service of God and of His Majesty to do so; and that, as regards the division of territories that pertained to us, they be determined by persons who shall be named on our side and by the king on his side as arbitrators; and that what they determine should be carried out without any hesitation, both the one and the other being in a free place, so that in the said determination they may do what in truth they think best without fear. The captain-general ordered this minute to be made on these terms, which was signed by the said persons, and by me, the said clerk of the Treasury. This was done on the day and month and year abovementioned. Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira Lançarote de Seixas Manuel de Oliveira de Azevedo Lourenço Caldeira Dom Constantino Barreto Bernardo da Costa Pero de Almeida Cabral Paulo Carvalho Bento de Sá Tinoco,

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João Vaz de Araújo Felipe de Oliveira Frei Diogo Façanha, Guardian and Commissary Frei Sebastião de Lima, Vicar of S. Domingos Frei Manuel Rodrigues, Rector of the College of the Society of Jesus Frei Gaspar de S. Agostinho, Prior of the Convent Members of the Chamber: Baltasar Monis Vitorino de Abreu Gaspar Pereira João Nunes Ferreira Tomé Ferreira

(f)

The Question of Batticaloa, July 1617 See introduction to document (b).

On the 30th day of the month of July of 1617, in the city of Colombo in the apartments of the captain-general, Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, he being present and also the captain of this fortress, Lançarote de Seixas, and the comptroller of revenue of His Majesty, Manuel Oliveira de Azevedo, and the officers of the city and the prelates of the religious Orders that are therein and some experienced captains, the said captain-general stated that he had received a letter from Diego de Sousa da Cunha, the ambassador who was in Kandy for the settlement of the peace which the king had sent to seek and demand. The contents of this were to ask for the matter to be settled definitively or for him to be disabused by refusing to the said king the concession of the said port of Batticaloa, on which he insists, lest, in the division and demarcation of the territories, there be some doubt about the port not belonging to us, in whatever manner it may be, as is explained at length in the said letter. This letter was read in a loud voice to all at the said meeting, as well as the proposal which the said captain-general had declared to them that he had sent to the raja five judges for the division of territories, with an order and commission to determine them according to the points which the said ambassador received, and that, if there should be any doubt whether the said port of Batticaloa belonged to the kingdom of Kandy or to us, it should be given up to the said king, provided that he issue an ola undertaking to give help and favour to build a fortress there. He said moreover that by reason of the said letter of the said ambassador, who begged with great earnestness quick dispatch and accommodation, in case the king did not

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concede the above-mentioned and insist that it be given to him, or refuse and continue the war for which he was quite ready and determined to follow in everything and by every means what they decided and thought better for the service of God and of His Majesty and for the peace and tranquillity of this people, and that with his person and power and authority he would do what they would decide in such a case. With this preamble in the name of the said lord and in his own name, he demanded and begged them earnestly that they give their opinion, as he was ready and prepared and would always be with all his heart and person and duty of his office in the position in which they all were with regard to wars, and on account of the new conspiracy of those of the country against us, as the said ambassador affirmed in his letter that they should consent to make peace and give up the said port to the said king in case he insisted on it, provided that it was in the service of God and of His Majesty, for the tranquillity and relief of all in this island. According to this the others voted, and all were unanimous. I, Manuel Bocarro, clerk of the Treasury of His Majesty in this island of Ceylon wrote these minutes by order of the said captain-general. Done on the same day and month and year. Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira Lançarote de Seixas Manuel de Oliveira de Azevedo Bernardo da Costa Pero de Almeida Cabral Manuel Cabral de Melo Dom Constantino Barreto João Vaz de Araújo Manuel Correia de Brito Paulo Carvalho Miguel Ferraz Felipe de Oliveira Frei Sebastião de Lima, Vicar of S. Domingos Frei Manuel Rodrigues, Rector of the College of the Society of Jesus Frei Diogo Façanha, Guardian and Commissary Members of the Chamber: Baltasar Monis Gaspar Pereira Tomé Ferreira

168

(g)

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Support for the Peace Treaty, August 1617 See introduction to document (b).

In Colombo on the 17th of the month of August of 1617, in the apartments of the captain-general Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, he being present and the captain of this fortress of Colombo, Lançarote de Seixas, and the comptroller of revenue of His Majesty, Manuel de Oliveira de Azevedo, and the aldermen and other officials of the council of this city, and the prelates of the religious Orders that are there and some veteran captains of experience, the captain-general declared that Diego de Sousa da Cunha, the ambassador who was in Kandy, had sent him the articles of peace that the king of Kandy requested, signed by him, on which peace had to be made. The said captain-general represented in council that he had done all that was contained in the resolutions to make peace that had been taken, as shown more clearly therein and now by the said points and by the letter of the king in which be had bound himself and given his royal word to sign and swear [to the peace]. He began to place the matter before them and to show a letter of the dissava and captain of the Seven Korales, Luís Teixeira de Macedo, in which he advised that he had certain information that a large force of rebels had collected and was gathering men on the orders of the king of Jaffna, who was inciting them to raise a fresh rebellion in the country and had given all help and favour to it, providing troops to carry out the said revolt in the country. Likewise, he told them how he had sure intelligence that three Dutch ships were in the port of Batticaloa with many men and goods, in order to gain more easily and attach to themselves the goodwill of [our] enemies building the fortresses they desired, and he begged them to consider this that he manifested and other things mentioned above and to see and point out what seemed best to be done. Upon this he rose and went into another house in order that they might vote with greater freedom and give their opinion, examining closely the matter before them. So he called upon them in the name of His Majesty and in his own name with great earnestness to do as he was quite willing, ready and determined with his person, power and authority and the duties of the office that he held, to do, to follow and carry into effect whatever was best, and to endeavour to fulfil it for the service of God and of His Majesty for the tranquillity of the island. The aforesaid persons, being without the person of the captain-general, discussed the matter stated above and, seeing clearly that from the matter in hand there might result and happen a toilsome war, which might cause great loss and disquiet in the island, and that moreover, as the people of the country had given their word to rise all together, as shown in the above-mentioned terms, and finally for many other reasons and for the restitution of many thousands of souls who were lost in that kingdom, they decided unanimously that the captain-general should swear to the said peace in the form of the articles of which a copy is hereto annexed taken from the originals signed by the king, which are in the archives of the Treasury and

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likewise a copy of the letter of the king, in which he bound himself to swear to them; and at the end and conclusion they all signed it, along with the captaingeneral. Done by me, Manuel Bocarro, clerk of the Treasury of His Majesty, in the island of Ceylon. Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira Lançarote de Seixas Manuel de Oliveira de Azevedo Jerónimo Ferreira João Vaz de Araújo Paulo Carvalho Felipe de Oliveira Dom Constantino Barreto Pero de Almeida Cabral Bento de Sá Tinoco Frei Manuel Rodrigues, Rector of the College of the Society of Jesus Frei Sebastião de Lima, Vicar of S. Domingos Frei Gaspar de S. Agostinho, Prior of the Convent Members of the Council: Lourenço Ferreira Macedo Vitorino de Abreu Baltasar Monis Francisco Carvalho Tomé Ferreira João Nunes Ferreira

(h)

The Peace Agreement, August 1617 See introduction to document (b). Conditions on which the king of Kandy will make the peace he asked for if they are granted in his lifetime:

1

Firstly, considering that Sera, king of Kandy, is married to Queen Dona Catarina, lawful queen of the realms of Kandy, and has by the said queen three sons, the same shall succeed him on the throne, wherefore His Majesty shall be bound to favour the said king of Kandy, and the king of Kandy shall have the same obligation towards the generals who succeed to the realms of the lowlands.

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2

3

4 5

6

7

8

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The king of Kandy says also that he will be a friend of our friends and an enemy of our enemies and will have no dealings with them, and should one come to speak to him he will say that he is a friend of the Portuguese and cannot admit them to his realms. The king of Kandy says also that he will pay as tribute each year two elephants of five covados each, delivered at Malvana to do honour to the king of Portugal, for the king of Portugal has no need of money but only honour. The king says moreover that, when he knows where the rebel is, he will be obliged to attack him before giving us notice of him. The king of Kandy says moreover that he will order all Portuguese that come to his kingdom of Kandy to be handed over to the said generals and that he will likewise deliver all other persons of the country prisoners and culprits if they happen to come to the kingdom of Kandy, and that the captain-general shall likewise be obliged to deliver all his men that come without his licence to the realms of the lowlands. The king of Kandy says moreover that he will order all the people of the lowland realms that come to his kingdom during this rebellion to go to inhabit the villages, and if any is a culprit, the captain-general will pardon him in the name of His Majesty and will return his paravenias to him, and that those who are unwilling to go away may remain. The king of Kandy says also that he will restore all the Portuguese he took at Balana, with all the munitions, artillery, arms, and also the Portuguese of Sabaragamuwa, but the arms which the people of the country took from them may be recovered from them; and likewise he will restore the two boats that were taken from the galeota that ran aground at Mature, as it was in his time. The king of Kandy says moreover that he will give hostages, who may come and go according to the order he may give, so that they may not be always out of their homes; that they will be persons of credit, though his royal word was better than two hundred hostages; and that as a hostage from the lowlands, a friar of St Francis, whom he will name, will be enough with a church to look after the Christians that are in this kingdom; and that he will likewise give liberty to every person of his realm to become a Christian when he desires to do so of his free will, except slaves, because of the many inconveniences that can happen between the Fathers and the masters of those slaves, and for this purpose he will admit those religious whom he thinks good. The king of Kandy says further that, when peace is sworn, it will be sworn forever in the name of His Majesty with the divisions of limits as below, without any difficulties from the captains-general, and there will be no difficulties in the lowland kingdom. The limits of Kandy are as follows: Panama limit, Galhia Balavai(?), Wellawaya, Kosgama limit, Uva limit, Idalgashinna, Bulatgama limit, Bokara

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Bevila,27 Ambuluwa limit, Deigashirai limit,28 Musamgamana limit,29 Galavana Bucalavai limit,30 Balana limit, Milavangarai limit,31 Nuwarakalaviya (Nuara Calavia). These are the limits that extend as far as Kottiyar and Batticaloa and Panama. According to these articles and limits, the peace will be sworn in the name of His Majesty and shall come signed without any fault whatever; and when it shall be so sworn and signed, the king of Kandy will swear and sign it without any fault whatever. Seal of the king

27

A pass between Uda Bulatgama and Atulugam korale. Probably Dehigashinna in Matale. 29 Mudagammana near Teldeniya? 30 Bokkawala? 31 Millawana in Matale? 28

Chapter 7

The Portuguese and the Maldives

At the time the Portuguese arrived in the East, a single sultan ruling from Malé theoretically held sway over all of the Maldive Islands. However, despite Pyrard’s statement that ‘The government of the Maldive state is royal, very ancient and absolute; the king is feared and dreaded and everything depends on him’,1 royal power was neither absolute nor secure. Descendants of former sultans constantly challenged the reigning monarch. There were 15 sultans in the 57 years from 1466 to 1513, and two of them ruled for a combined 28 years, leaving an average of just over two years for the rest.2 This instability rested partly on the fact that all descendants of former sultans could compete for power. Moreover, central control over the numerous islands was weak, and the ability to seize and hold Malé, the capital, seems to have conferred a degree of legitimacy on the victor. Indeed, a great deal of the power of the ruler was symbolic. The sultan had a group of palace officials or ministers, but religious education and the administration of justice was through religious elders, who worked under the direction of the qazi of Malé.3 While the sultan appointed the qazi, once appointed, the qazi held office for life. Nor did the sultan have a standing army but merely some guards for the palace. His authority depended on the collection of revenue from the islands and from visiting ships4 and the wise use of these resources, and of marriage alliances to ensure continued control of the capital city of Malé. By the end of the fifteenth century Maldivian sultans also had to fend off foreign powers such as Cannanore. Kalu Muhammad is a major figure in the early years of Portuguese contact and illustrates the increasingly dominant role that Cannanore had begun to play in 1

François Pyrard, Voyage to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil, Albert Gray and H. C. P. Bell (trans. and eds), vol. 1, (London: Hakluyt Society, 1887), p. 197. 2 Geneviève Bouchon, Regent of the Sea: Cannanore’s Response to Portuguese Expansion, 1507–1528 (Delhi, 1988), p. 43. 3 Pyrard, Voyage to the East, vol. 1, pp. 197–200. According to Pyrard, by the early seventeenth century each province had a naib, who worked under the qazi at Malé. Under each naib there were khatibs or religious leaders and under them the ulamas, who led each mosque. 4 Pyrard, Voyage to the East, vol. 1, pp. 227–31 reports that the king’s revenues were a fifth of all grain sown, a graduated tax paid in coir rope, cowries and dried fish, and the right to the first purchase of goods brought by ships from outside the kingdom.

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Maldivian politics. Muhammad was son of Sultan Umar II (r. 1480–85); he first came to the throne in 1491 and reigned for nine months. His brother, Yusuf III, replaced him but he, in turn, lost his throne after ten weeks to Kalu Muhammad’s cousin, Ali IV (r. 1492–5). At this stage, Kalu Muhammad obtained the support of Mam’Ali (Muhammad Ali), the ’Ali Raja of Cannanore, to regain his throne.5 ’Ali Raja was the traditional title of the chief of the Mappila Muslim traders of Cannanore, who by this time had gained a major share of the trade with Sri Lanka and the Maldives. We do not know what concessions Kalu Muhammad was compelled to grant in return for aid, but Bouchon speculates that it might have involved a monopoly of the export of coir and dried fish.6 It is clear that Kalu Muhammad’s long reign after his second accession (r. 1494–1510) was a result of continuing support from Mam’Ali, the ’Ali Raja, and, at least from this time onwards, Mam’Ali began to play a major role in trade with the Maldives.7 To this extent, Mappila influence over the Maldives foreshadowed the arrival of the Portuguese. The Portuguese knew about the Maldives from about the time of their arrival in the East. As early as 1502–1503 Vicente Sodré’s ships had sailed to the Maldives and seized four gundras.8 Portuguese interest in the Maldives, however, increased towards the middle of the first decade of the sixteenth century. By this time the Maldive Islands were beginning to have strategic importance, because Muslim ships from Southeast Asia replenished their supplies there rather than visit the Malabar coast. D. Francisco de Almeida had ordered his son, D. Lourenço de Almeida to look for Muslim ships in the Maldives in 1506.9 In 1508 the Portuguese king, D. Manuel asked Diogo Lopes de Sequeira to go to the area.10 Governor Afonso de Albuquerque had also recognized the importance of the Maldives.11 It was at this stage that developments in the Maldives led to a complicated struggle for power and influence in which the Portuguese, the kölathiri of Eli (ruler of Cannanore), the ’Ali Raja of Cannanore and different factions of Maldivians all played important roles. In 1510 Hasan VII (r. 1510–11), one of Kalu Muhammad’s 5 Hasan Taj al-Din et al., Tarikh Islam Diba Mahal, Hikoichi Yajima (ed.), (Tokyo, 1982), p. 16; Bouchon, Regent, p. 117. 6 Hasan, Tarikh Islam Diba Mahal, p. 44. 7 Ibid., pp. 113, 117; Duarte Barbosa, The Book of Duarte Barbosa, Mansel Longworth Dames (ed. and trans.), 2 vols (London: Hakluyt Society, 1921), vol. II, p. 104. 8 Gaspar Correia (Corrêa), Lendas da India, Rodrigo José de Lima Felner (ed.), 4 vols (Lisbon, 1858–66), vol. 1, pp. 341–2, 643–58; Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, História do Descobrimento e Conquista da India pelos Portugueses, Manual Lopes de Almeida (ed.), 9 vols (Porto, 1979), vol. I, p. 258; João de Barros, Asia, Décadas (Lisbon, 1973), III–1–10, III–II–3. 9 Castanheda, Descobrimentos, vol. II, p. 256. 10 R. A. de Bulhão Pato (ed.), Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, vol. II, pp. 413–14. 11 Ibid., I, pp. 88–9.

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nephews, deposed Kalu Muhammad and became sultan. After Hasan, Sharif Ahmad (r. 1511–12), an Arab from Mecca, and ’Ali V ruled in succession.12 According to Maldivian legends, ’Ali’s sister, Buraki Rani, had also aspired to the throne and sought to marry Kalu Muhammad to strengthen her claims. Denied permission to marry him, she subsequently went to Aceh and later to Goa, where she promised tribute to the Portuguese. She then sent her retainer to kill the reigning sultan, took over power, married Kalu Muhammad and set him up as sultan.13 Portuguese sources support the theory that Buraki Rani was a key figure in the conflict.14 However, they also suggest that Kalu Muhammad played an active role15 and received aid from Mam’Ali of Cannanore. Clearly, the ’Ali Raja had exacted a high price for whatever assistance he gave, because from then on he received an annual tribute from the Maldives, in addition to his existing control over much of its trade.16 However, the matter was more complicated than that. We do not know whether Kalu Muhammad tried to assert his autonomy after he regained power, but by mid1512 Mam’Ali was trying to make his own brother, ‘Icapocar’ sultan of the Maldives.17 The kölathiri seems to have supported Mam’Ali in this venture. Mam’Ali, as ’Ali Raja of Cannanore, was clearly becoming a powerful figure in the Cannanore court. The Portuguese, for their part, were seeking to expand their political domain18 and economic power. Albuquerque’s conquest of Goa in 1510 had persuaded some rulers, including the kölathiri of Cannanore, to be conciliatory towards the Portuguese, despite provocations. Governor Albuquerque clearly considered curbing Mam’Ali’s power as a prerequisite for gaining Portuguese sovereignty over the Maldives. Thus, when in August 1512 Baba Abdullah went to Cochin to plead for support for Kalu Muhammad, Albuquerque interpreted this as an offer of vassalage.

12

We know very little about these three rulers and, though the Maldivian chronicle records that they ruled for a total of five and a half years from 1510 (Hasan for two years, Ahmad for two years and nine months and ’Ali for nine months), documents (c) and (d) in this chapter imply that Sultan Muhammad had regained power by 1512. Hasan Taj al-Din, Tarikh, p. 16. ’Ali’s family came from Nellaidhu island on S. Thiladhunmathi atoll. 13 H. C. P. Bell, The Maldive Islands. Monograph on the History, Archeology and Epigraphy (Colombo, 1940), p. 25n. 14 Alguns Documentos da Torre do Tombo Ácerca das Navegações e Conquistas Portuguezas, Ramos Coelho (ed.) (Lisbon, 1892), p. 449 (Álvaro Fernandes to D. Manuel, Cannanore, 15 December 1520). 15 Bulhão Pato (ed.), Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, vol. I, p. 87. 16 Bouchon, Regent, pp. 113, 119. 17 Ibid., pp. 122–5. 18 Sanjay Subhramanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700 (London and New York, 1993), p. 78 argues that at this stage the Portuguese state wished to have tribute payments rather than take over and change local administrative systems.

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Coming to Cannanore, he summoned the chief ministers (including Mam’Ali) and put so much pressure on them that Mam’Ali’s project to replace Kalu Muhammad was shelved (see documents (d), (e), and (f) below). According to Correia, he also agreed to make an annual payment of 3 000 quintais of coir rope to the Portuguese. On the other hand, Albuquerque had no resources to divert to help Kalu Muhammad, and so Mam’Ali continued to derive great profit from the Maldives.19 Individual Portuguese ships, however, continued to attack and seize merchant ships in the area. In 1518 the Portuguese governor, Lopo Soares, sent a fleet of four ships under D. João de Silveira to the Maldives.20 Sultan Kalu Muhammad received him and offered to give 750 bahar of coir and half the ambergris he received annually to Portugal, as well as a site for a factory. Lopo Soares seems to have agreed to this at first, but his resources were stretched, and when Mam’Ali offered the same tribute if the islands were left to his management, he agreed. At this time, Mam’Ali enjoyed revenues estimated at 10,000 pardaus from the Maldives.21 Diogo de Sequeira, Lopo Soares’ successor, decided to end the agreement with Mam’Ali. He sent D. João Gomes Cheiradinheiro22 to the Maldive Islands in November 1518 to establish a Portuguese presence there.23 The Portuguese obtained permission to build a fortification and Kalu Muhammad, evidently hoping to use the Portuguese to reduce the power of Mam’Ali, agreed. Once the fort was built, Gomes demanded the right to a fifth of the rice imports at cost price to be paid for with coir that he had collected. As happened in contemporary Colombo, trade in Malé dried up and conditions became worse when Gomes began ransacking ships in the area. Mam’Ali withdrew his agents from Malé and sent them to the southern atolls of Addu and Huvadu to which trade had moved.24 The Portuguese garrison declined from 20 to 14 men. One day in 1521 a group of men attacked the fortification at dawn, seized the stronghold, killed the Portuguese and burnt a caravel as well as a few smaller ships that were there. Although one contemporary source identifies the attackers as Gujaratis, Bouchon points out that the attack on the Portuguese fort in Malé might well have been part of a general assault on the Portuguese that included attacks on the forts at Kollum and Colombo.25 The results in Malé, however, were decisive. Some Portuguese reset-

19 Bouchon, Regent, p. 133; Bulhão Pato (ed.), Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, vol. V, pp. 336–7, 345; Castanheda, Descobrimentos, vol. III, p. 292. 20 Barros, Asia, Décadas, III–2–4, p. 72; Castanheda, Descobrimentos, vol. IV, pp. 433, 435, 438. 21 Coelho (ed.), Alguns Documentos, p. 449. 22 Cheiradinheiro is a nickname meaning literally ‘odour of money’ or ‘money-sniffer’. 23 Bouchon, Regent, p. 158. 24 Ibid., pp. 159–62; Coelho (ed.), Alguns Documentos, p. 450. 25 Bouchon, Regent, pp. 163–4.

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tled in Malé after 1521, but they were often in danger and had little influence over the Maldives, which returned under the protection of Cannanore. Indeed, when in 1525 the Portuguese tried to make an arrangement with the kölathiri by which they would recognize Cannanore’s control over the Maldives, the ruler of Cannanore was so unwilling to give anything substantial in return for this recognition that negotiations failed.26 We need to view these events in the context of the rivalry for control of trade in the Maldives, Sri Lanka and the Palk Straits between the Mappila traders of Cannanore and Calicut and the Maraikkayars of the Coromandel coast on the one hand, and the Portuguese casados of the Malabar coast backed by the Portuguese state on the other. The efforts to set up forts in Colombo and Malé in 1518 were initial moves in a struggle during the 1520s in which fortunes fluctuated. Eventually, the conversion of the parava pearl fishermen to Christianity in 1532 and several naval defeats suffered by the Mappila forces in the 1530s, enabled the Portuguese to gain some advantage until the mid-century. Within the Maldives, Kalu Muhammad continued to rule until he died in 1529, but the contest for power continued. He evidently had differences with his consort Buraki Rani, who was exiled to a remote island. Her brother was imprisoned, and the Portuguese received requests to set him on the throne in return for tribute. We have limited evidence of what happened during the reigns of Kalu Muhammad’s son, Hasan Shirazi VIII (r. 1528–49), and of his grandson, Muhammad (r. 1548– 51), nephew of Hasan Shirazi VIII, except that the Maldives continued to have problems with Portuguese freebooters in 1543 and in 1547. In 1548, after complaints from Kalu Muhammad’s son and successor, Hasan Shirazi VIII (r. 1528– 48), the Portuguese governor forbade private voyages to the Maldives and sent a fleet under Jerónimo Butuqua to enforce this regulation.27 In the mid-century there was another crisis. Hasan IX (r. 1550–52) ascended the throne after killing his brother and sought to legitimize his rule by marrying his brother’s widow, but she fled to the Portuguese at Cochin in February 1550. Hasan followed her to Cochin and tried to gain support among the Portuguese casados there by granting several of them the right to a voyage to the Maldives. A letter of the Portuguese governor of India to the king of Portugal dated 21 February 1550 suggests that the ruler of the Maldives had also agreed to deliver 600 bahar of coir annually to the Portuguese. Hasan returned to Malé but could not keep power for long. Portuguese documents describe him as a young man of 18 or 20 years.28 He was evidently forced to flee after ruling for two years and five months. He went to Cochin, where he sought 26

Barros, Asia, Décadas, III– 9–5; Castanheda, Descobrimentos, vol. VI, p. 289. Georg Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, 4 vols (Rome, 1976–80), vol. IV, p. 426. 28 Documenta Índica, Josef Wicki (ed.), vol. II (Rome, 1949), pp. 286, 292. 27

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Portuguese aid and was converted to Christianity as D. Manuel.29 From there he sent a Portuguese ship to Malé to bring other leaders to Cochin for conversion, but the Maldivians under Abu Bakr and ’Ali seized the ship and killed all on board. Abu Bakr was then proclaimed sultan, but lost his life soon after in a battle against a second Portuguese expedition from Cochin. Meanwhile, D. Manuel continued to plead with the Portuguese for assistance and more financial privileges. (See document (g) below.) A third Portuguese expedition sent to the Maldives led to the death of Abu Bakr’s successor ’Ali, who had reigned only for a few months. Local Maldivian tradition as recorded by Bell recounts that the leader of this successful Portuguese expedition, Adiri Adiri, was a Portuguese who had grown up in the Maldives.30 The story is that a ship in which his pregnant mother was sailing had been captured in one of the atolls during the reign of Kalu Muhammad, and that the young boy was brought up as a Muslim while his widowed mother married a Maldivian chief. Later Adiri Adiri killed his half-brother and fled to Goa. He returned as commander of a Portuguese expedition in 1558 and established himself in power for the next 15 years, ruling on behalf of Hasan IX (D. Manuel). Portuguese accounts record that the fleet itself was commanded by D. Manuel da Silveira de Araújo. Araújo returned with the fleet after the victory and was rewarded by D. Manuel with three voyages to the Maldives.31 The Tarikh (see document (h) below) records this period as one of oppression. Resistance arose after a while and was led by Khatib Muhammad, two of his brothers, and Ali and Hasan, two brothers who had just returned from Mecca. The five leaders organized hit-and-run attacks from an inaccessible base in the Maluku atoll, and although one of Muhammad’s brothers was killed, the other four gradually gained control over all the outlying atolls. The Tarikh tells a dramatic story of the final attack on Malé on the day before all the Muslims were to be forcibly converted.32 The leader of the revolt became sultan and was known as Muhammad Bodu Takurufanu (r. 1573–85). The Tarikh records that he was the first ruler to establish a

29

Pyrard, Voyage to the East, vol. 1, pp. 244–5. Both Pyrard and document (i) below agree that Hasan was baptized in Cochin, but while the document attributes his departure from the Maldives to religious motives, Pyrard states that he was ‘ill-obeyed, and was unable to withstand a formidable rival who wished to depose him and was inspired of God to quit it all’. 30 Bell, The Maldive Islands, p. 26. 31 Arquivo Português Oriental, J. H. Cunha Rivara (ed.), 6 vols (Nova Goa, 1857–77), vol. V, pp. 455–6. 32 Pyrard, Voyage to the East, vol. 1, pp. 247–8 Pyrard’s version of the revolt states that the final assault was with the aid of a Malabar force, but that after the victory the Maldivians turned on the Malabars and destroyed them.

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standing military force with regular allowances.33 While the Tarikh (see document (h) below) records the campaign as a final victory, Pyrard’s early seventeenth century account suggests that the Portuguese sent more forces to regain the Maldives and that the struggle went on for three more years. In the end, there was an agreement in 1576 by which the Maldivians acknowledged the right of Hasan IX to collect specified revenues through his factor in the Maldives. Maldivian vessels agreed to apply for Portuguese cartazes in order to trade and secured complete freedom from interference in internal affairs.34 The Maldivian ruler (Muhammad Bodu Takurufanu) also agreed not to use the title of sultan. There is no record of this agreement in Portuguese archives but, in a letter of King Philip I of Portugal (II of Spain) dated 10 January 1587, there is reference to the payment of 500 bahar of coir by Hasan to the Portuguese as tribute. Thus the mid-sixteenth century crisis in the Maldives was resolved by accepting Portuguese commercial ascendancy, but with the Maldive Islands essentially retaining their political autonomy and their religion. Bodu Takurufanu’s son, Sultan Ibrahim III (r. 1585–1609), reigned until he was killed in a raid by a Bengali force. The Tarikh says Ibrahim was ‘wise, brave, just, peace-loving and learned’ and tried to spread learning and Islam. François de Pyrard gives a more critical account of Ibrahim and reports several revolts against him as well as a time of turmoil after his death.35 Ibrahim’s vazir, Husain II (r. 1609–20), became the next sultan. The reigns of Shuja’I Muhamad ’Imad’-ud-din I (r. 1620–48) and of his son Ibrahim Iskander I (r. 1648–87) illustrate the continuity of the political issues that had dominated Maldivian politics since the sixteenth century. Internally, the sultan’s authority was open to challenge. Shuja’I Muhamad succeeded to the throne partly because he was the closest relative of Sultan Ibrahim, but he strengthened his claims by marrying Ibrahim’s widow, Aisha. Nevertheless, his succession was challenged by two others, and Aisha’s brother, Samiya Kilege rebelled and retained control of part of the northern atolls for some time. With Samiya Kilege’s defeat and imprisonment internal strife ended, and Iskander’s rule does not seem to have been plagued by any more internal uprisings. On the other hand, the threat from the Portuguese and the dominance of Cannanore continued to be key issues. Faced with Dutch threats to their power in South Asia, the Portuguese seem to have conceded a role in the Maldives to the kölathiri of

33 Ibid., pp. 215–17. Pyrard reports that by the seventeenth century the king’s guard consisted of 600 men. 34 Ibid., vol. II, pp. 498–502. If Pyrard is correct in saying that Hasan handed over a third of his revenues as tribute to the Portuguese, his revenues would have been 1,500 bahar of coir. 35 Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 254–6, 309–20.

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Cannanore.36 Descendants of Hasan IX in Goa37 continued to press for intervention, and as document (i) indicates, they painted rosy pictures of the benefits of Portuguese control over the Maldives. In 1631, a fleet of 15 ships under Domingos Ferreira Belliago attacked Malé but failed to make an impression. Shuja’I Muhamad used guns seized from shipwrecks to fight back, and the Tarikh mentions that he also purchased cannon from Aceh. He also did something that is not mentioned in the Tarikh. From December 1645, he sent an annual embassy with gifts to the Dutch in Sri Lanka. With the capture of Galle in Sri Lanka by the Dutch in 1640, the sultans of the Maldives had a new weapon in their diplomatic arsenal. The Portuguese, however, made one last effort. In 1649 they sent an expedition with descendants of the converted sultan in a bid to seize the Maldives. Sultan Iskander’s forces repulsed them and now, secure in their tributary relationship with the Dutch, ceased to make the traditional payments to the ’Ali Raja. The ’Ali Raja was now much weaker but sent several expeditions to plunder the Maldives. All were repulsed and the Maldivian forces took the offensive. They attacked and sacked some of the Laccadive Islands, after which Cannanore ceased to make further efforts to impose tribute. The Dutch were not encouraged to visit the Maldives either.

(a)

Description of the Maldives, c. 1500 A description of the islands and its people by Valentim Fernandes, Códice Valentim Fernandes, with notes by José Pereira da Costa (Lisbon, 1997) pp. 364–70. Translation by Chandra R. de Silva and Manuela Mourão. This is the earliest known Portuguese description of the Maldives. The original of this document is in Codex Hispanus 27 in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich. It was first published as an appendix to M. A. H. Fitzler, ‘Die Maldiven im 16. und 17 Jahrhundert. Ein Kapitel portugiesischer Kolonialgeschichte,’ Zeitschrift für Indologie und Iranistik, X, 1935–6, pp. 249–55. It was subsequently published as Manuscrito Valentim Fernandes (Lisbon: Académia Portuguesa da História, 1940). Fernandes was a German printer from Moravia, who lived in Lisbon from 1495 until his death in 1518. King Manuel named

36 Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livros das Monções, R. A. Bulhão Pato (ed.), 4 vols (Lisbon, 1884–1935), vol. IV, pp. 295–6. 37 D. Manuel (Hasan IX) was succeeded by his son, D. João, and then, by his grandson, D. Felipe, and finally, by D. Felipe’s nephew, D. Luís de Sousa. De Sousa died on his way to Portugal in 1656.

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him a notary public for his German compatriots in Lisbon, and Fernandes is known to have sent news about Portuguese voyages to his German banker friends. There are twelve thousand Maldive Islands38 large and small,39 and almost eight thousand of them are inhabited. The others are deserted. Most of the islands are small, about three leagues and two leagues, and one and a half leagues, and one and a quarter leagues in circumference. And between one and another there is only a short distance, namely, of about five leagues to some, others four, others three, others two, others one and others one half, and others a crossbow shot. Moreover, at low tide it is possible to go on foot from one island to another. Moors of the sect of Mohammed populate these inhabited islands. Two hundred years ago and more40 they were always gentiles and were subject to the king of Ceylon and [since then] their churches have been made [into] mosques. There are no Jews or Christians there, nor do they know what these are. Some of the islands there have a thousand households, others five hundred, others one hundred, others ten, others five. In these islands there are no cities, nor villages, only one house here, another in another place, sometimes two together (that is to say, father and son) sometimes three and so on. The men and women of these islands are all black but not as black as the people of Guinea and tending a little to white, and their hair is straight and not frizzy like the hair of Ethiopians. All these people are rustic and simple and clean-living41 and of good faith. These islands are all low, and the sea appears higher than they are, and if it were not for the palm trees that grow plentifully there, many ships would be lost. These islands lie north–south, eighty leagues from Calicut. The people of these islands have their own language, except the merchants, who speak Arabic. They usually build their houses as temporary structures so that at any moment they can dismantle them. When they do not like one place, they move to another. They drive into the ground wooden poles [which are] covered with palm leaves, and these they have as houses. They do not have any household utensils, and those that they do have are made of tin, namely pots in which they boil their sugar, and their pans and cups are all of tin. Their food is rice, which they bring from abroad because it does not grow in the islands. They eat millet, which grows in small quantities on some islands. They eat coconuts and fish, of which there is much. They do not know what yams and wheat 38

Dyue in the text. The people of the Maldives called the islands Divi. amtre pequenas e grandes. 40 ea diantes (sic). 41 de boom viver. 39

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are, except some who have been outside the islands. Chickens and eggs are very cheap, and their chickens are like ours. Their drink is clean water from freshwater wells. The islands that do not have fresh water take it from other islands or collect rainwater, which they drink from some ponds in the area. The dress of the men is a cotton cloth reaching from the waist to the ankles.42 They cannot wear shoes, or a turban or tied pantaloons without the king’s permission. On their head they can wear caps. The women wear a long shirt of white cotton interspersed with black. The island of Malé is the principal one of all the islands, not because of its size but because the king is always there with his court, and it is called Dyvi Mahal in Arabic, which means ‘treasure island’ because mahal means treasure. This island has a fort, and all the others are subject to the king of this island. So when there is a dispute about who is to be king, the one who becomes king of all the other islands is the one who takes this island and becomes its master. This island must be four leagues in circumference and it must have about two thousand inhabitants living, not in cities or in villages but in small places and scattered houses. Each day the king has thirty-five dishes of different kinds brought before him, and this is because of his rank. The rent that the king gets from the islands is all in mussels and oysters,43 and this only from the natives, for the foreign merchants pay their tribute in merchandise or gold or silver. They pay in these shells, not only because they are found in greater quantity in these islands than anywhere else, but also because each one pays his dues in so many thousand bastões or so many cotas of shells according to how much he earns from his trade. Nobody can wear either turban or shoes or tied pantaloons without the king’s permission except the king and his close relatives, and in the king’s presence they do not dare wear these and they cannot. All this applies to the natives and not to foreigners, because they can wear anything they wish. The reverence that nobles or any other persons show to their king and servants to their masters: there is a custom that commonly everyone on the island wears a cloth around their neck, and when they find themselves near the king or approach him, or some servant is near his master or a simple man near any noble, they immediately pull the cloth down over their shoulders with both hands and lower the head and thus pass or speak. Every man native of the islands, when he goes to the said island where the king has his court, must have the cloth round his loins tied with a strong knot, though in their houses and islands they are accustomed simply to tuck one end into the other,

42 43

gyolhos. Cowries.

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because if some courtier or anyone else in the island finds such a man without a knot so that when the cloth is pulled it falls, he must pay the man that accuses him three bastões of mussels or cowries.44 The men of these islands make themselves slaves of their own free will, that is to say, one of these men goes to a rich man and says to him, give me four cotas and I will be your servant until I give you back the money. Thus it often happens that they remain slaves their whole lives because they cannot save enough to repay, and may even pawn their sons and daughters for such a debt, and they too remain slaves their whole lives even if the father dies or they pay [the] said debt. Likewise, many of them who have bands of followers and are rich because they have arms go to a Moorish lord and borrow a certain sum of money, and remain in his service for a certain time. Then they pay him back and so regain their freedom, but remain as his property, declaring always that they belong to such and such a one and that they protect him. In these Maldive Islands they make very rich cloths of cotton and so fine that they are worth forty, fifty and even one hundred bastões per piece of cotton mixed with silk. And they also make cloth of lower price such that one piece is worth four cotas. Cotton does not grow there except in very small quantities. It all comes from Cambay, and they trade it for fish called camelmas.45 Camelmas is a fish of which the vessels of all India take advantage because it is also cured. It only exists around these islands. It is two hands in length and it is round, and they fish it in this way, that is to say, they first catch the small fry, which they use afterwards to catch the camelmas in another place. To fish for small fry they use a net so fine that half a finger cannot get through between two boats. This net they throw into the water between the islands. Inside the net there are rocks that sink, and they throw into it something edible such as coconuts or something else, and in the said net there immediately gathers an enormous quantity of small fry, which they pull out and throw into the boats. After this they go out to sea two or three leagues from the islands with their hooks to places where they know that they will find those fish at any time of the year. They throw the small fry into the sea, and immediately so many camelmas come, that all they need do is throw in the hooks with nothing on them and do this repeatedly, taking as many as they can. Thus five or six men fill up their boat. Many times it happens that they find themselves with a mountain of these fish without having any small fry. Then they bail water out of the boat with ladles, and with the sound of such throwing many fish appear, and they throw in the hooks and

44

porçellos (little pigs), indicating the shape of the cowrie. Calmelas, also spelt camelmas, refer to the fish called kalu-bili-mas (or black bonitofish) in the Maldives. See Pyrard, Voyage to the East, vol. I, p. 190, n.2 45

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catch endless fish. This fish has no scales, and they simply cut it in four pieces or in half and boil it in half-salt half-sweet water, and after it is well boiled, they make high platforms of cane where they place the said fish, and underneath it they make a fire and so cure it in the smoke until it becomes hard as rock and inside very red and very well cured. They take this fish all over India – namely to Ceylon, Sumatra, Melaka, Cambay and Calicut and so on. Many palm trees grow in these islands and they call them in their language ruco, in Arabic nachil, which in our language means palm tree. The fruit of the palm tree is the coconut, and coconuts give oil and milk, that is to say, that while the coconut is fresh they make milk of it, and when it is dry they make oil of it. The shell of the coconut they burn to make charcoal for the goldsmiths. From the fibre with which the coconut is covered they make ropes for ships, as we do here from hemp. They take these ropes all over India, for there are none better than those from these islands because they never rot in the sea. They are an important commodity, for each year in these islands they load between twelve and fifteen ships with them, bound for Calicut and Cambay and its coast, and their ships carry nothing but these ropes. Palm trees are of two kinds – namely those that produce the aforementioned coconuts and others that produce some buds that resemble coconuts. These buds are full of a juice that is as sweet as honey, and from this juice they make sugar candy and honey. This honey they eat with fish and rice. There are many men in India and the islands who do not know what rice is and eat nothing but these coconuts and fish, and so in these islands there is no meat except in the island where the king is, and there is often not enough there for his feasts. Furthermore, they also make wine from the juice of these buds. They fill a jar with it and bury it and they throw into it the rind of the coconut, and thus it ferments for a while and becomes wine. They make vinegar in the following way: they let the said juice from the buds stand outside in the sun, and soon, in three or four days, it makes good vinegar. Of the wood of the said palm tree they make houses, ships, boxes and all that is needed that can be made of wood. They roof their houses with the leaves of the palm tree, and so this tree is considered better and more sacred than any other because they can get so much benefit from it, and whoever fells one of these palm trees is considered excommunicated. So no matter how savage a war they may wage against one another, they do not cut down the palm trees. Within these Maldive Islands there are found many dead whales that the sea has cast among the islands. They cut up these whales and make oil from their flesh. In some they find pieces of ambergris like pine-nuts and some larger, some smaller, twenty, forty, a hundred sometimes more or less, and even twenty stuck together to form a single big piece. They must take this ambergris immediately to the king on pain of death, and no one can steal it. The king sells the said ambergris and also

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sends it as a gift. One ounce is worth one ducat, and each mitical eighty reis of Portugal in ceptis. They gather in the sea at low tide between one island and another little shells or small cowries with which all the inhabitants pay tribute to their king. These shells are stuck to pebbles that lie on the ground, on one rock two, in another three, in another more. In the whole of India there is no other headland or place where one can gather the said shells except these islands. Each year five or six big ships come from Bengal to these islands with sugar and rice, silk, gold, silver and fine cotton cloths, which they exchange for cowries. They fill their ships with them and take them to Bengal, for there they circulate as currency. All the ships that go from Cambay to Melaka which do not want to follow the coast of Calicut pass by these islands and get fresh water and ropes and buy what they want here and they pay their tribute of ten paras of rice as soon as they anchor. The inhabitants of these islands sail in boats large and small from one island to another. They are made like ours, except that they are nailed with wooden instead of iron nails. They use wooden nails, not because of magnets as they gave us to understand, but in order to reduce the cost. There are no animals in these islands except for a few goats, which the ships brought there. In these islands there are four seasons in the year, two winters and two summers. They tell the time by the shadow they themselves cast and they measure that shadow with their feet, and in each month they know how many feet there are in each hour of the shadow of a person. (b)

Description of the Maldives by Duarte Barbosa, 1518 Excerpts from The Book of Duarte Barbosa. For Barbosa and his Livro see document (b) in Chapter 2 above. The translation has been adapted from that in the Hakluyt edition pp. 103–8, and checked by Chandra R. de Silva against the following: Livro em que dá relacão do que viu e ouviu no Oriente Duarte Barbosa, Augusto Reis Machado (ed.), (Lisbon, 1946), pp. 174–6 and O Livro de Duarte Barbosa, Maria Augusta Viega de Souza (ed.), 2 vols. (Lisbon, 2000) II, pp. 271–8.

Across from the sea facing the greater part of the land of Malabar at forty leagues distance lies an archipelago of islands, of which the Moors report that they number twelve thousand. They begin in the sea of Mount Dely, where the shallows of Padua are46 and extend towards Melaka. The first are four little isles, extremely flat, 46

Between 12 and 14 degrees N.

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which are called Maldives. They are inhabited by Malabar Moors, and they say that they belong to the king of Cannanore. Nothing else grows here save groves of palm trees, from which they live, as also on rice, which is sent thither from Malabar on ships which go there to take in cargoes of coir rope.47 There is in these islands great store of dried fish, and they also carry from here certain small shells, which are much sought after in the kingdom of Gujarat and in Bengal, where they circulate as small change, for they hold it to be cleaner and better than copper. In these islands they make very rich cloths of cotton and silk, and gold, which are worth great sums of money among the Moors for their garments and turbans. The men of these islands wear as a headdress very fine and thin kerchiefs, so finely wrought and perfect that our workmen would not be able to make them, and without any difference between the right and the wrong side. They find in these islands tortoise shells, which they call alquama48 and which they divide into little pieces, very thin, which are also great articles of trade in the kingdom of Gujarat. Here too ambergris is found in large lumps, some white, some grey and some black. I have asked these Moors many times what this ambergris was and whence it sprang. Among themselves they hold it to be the dung of birds, and they say that in this archipelago among the uninhabited islands there are certain great fowls which alight on the cliffs and rocks of the sea, and there drop this ambergris, where it is tanned and softened by the wind, the sun and the rain, and pieces both great and small are torn by storms and tempests and fall into the sea until they are found or washed up on the shores or swallowed by whales. And those that they find white, called ponambar, they say have been in the sea only a short time, and these they value most. The grey has been long in the sea and so obtains that hue; this too they hold to be good,49 but not so good as the white. The other, which is found black and

47

Giovanni Batista Ramusio adds

In front of Pananie, Cochin and Coulan are other islands, ten or twelve thousand, which are inhabited by tawny Moors of short stature, who speak a tongue of their own. The king is a Moor and lives in an island called Mahaldiu and to all these isles they give the name of Palandura. The men of these isles have no weapons whatsoever; they are feeble folk yet very cunning and above all things they are mighty magicians. The king of these isles is chosen by certain Moors, merchants from Cannanore [Cananor], and they change him whenever it pleases them. To them he pays a yearly tribute in ships’ shrouds and in coir rope and other things produced in the country, and often these Moors go there to lade certain ships, taking no money with them, and either by love or by force they must receive whatsoever they ask. Ramusio, Navigazioni e Viaggi, 6 vols (Turin, 1978), vol. II, pp. 537–709. The extra material is thought to be an elaboration of the text by the Spanish translator used by Ramusio. 48 Ama is Maldivian for tortoise. 49 The Spanish version of Barbosa’s account calls the grey ambergris, Puambar.

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crushed, they say has been swallowed by whales and so has turned black, and it has such strength that the whale cannot bear it but vomits it up altogether. This they call minambar; it is worth less than the others. In these Maldive Islands they build many great ships of palm trunks, sewn together with thread, for they have no other timber, and in these they sail to the main[land]; they have keels and are of great burden. They also build smaller rowing boats, like brigantines [bergantins] or pinnaces [fustas]; these are the most graceful vessels in the world, very well built and extremely light. In these they voyage from one island to the other and also cross in them to Malabar. Many ships of the Moors passing from China, the Moluccas, Pegu, Melaka, Sumatra, Bengal and Ceylon towards the Red Sea touch at these islands to water and take on supplies and other things needful for their voyages. Sometimes they arrive here so battered that they discharge their cargoes and let them go to the bottom. Among these isles, many and rich vessels of the Moors are cast away, which, as they cross the sea, dare not through dread of our ships finish their voyage to Malabar and from these the natives obtain much valuable merchandise, which they sell to the Malabars, who come hither to take in coir rope, as I have already said.

(c)

Report on the Maldive Islands by João de Barros, mid-sixteenth century Excerpt from the account of João de Barros, Década III, book 3, chapter 7. For details of João de Barros and his work see document (b) in chapter 1 above. The translation is adapted by Chandra R. de Silva from that by Donald Ferguson. This account indicates that, despite several decades of contact, Barros’s informants had only limited first-hand knowledge of the Maldive Islands, as is evident from his mistaken belief that one could swing from island to island by means of the branches of trees. On the other hand, there is clear recognition of the importance of the main products of the islands – coir and cowrie shells.

This name Maldiva, though it is the distinctive name of a single island, as we shall see, is derived etymologically from the Malabar language meaning a thousand islands – mal, a thousand, and diva, islands – there being upwards of that number all in a string. Others say that this word Mal is the proper name of the chief island, on which resides the king who is lord of all. That one is commonly called Maldiva, though one should say the island of Mal, and as it is at the head of the group, the rest are called after it. This string of islands, which runs like an extended diadem over against the coast of India, begins at the flats which we call the shoals of Padua, in the neighbourhood

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of Mount Deli, and ends at the land of Java and the coast of Sunda. This is seen in some of the sea charts of the Moors, for ours as yet only describe them for a distance of three hundred leagues of their extent, beginning at those called by us the islands of Mam‘ali, from the name of the Moor of Cannanore. This man was lord of the first section of them, about forty leagues distant from the Malabar coast at an altitude of twelve and a half degrees north. The remainder, called Candu and Ada, 300 leagues off, are in seven and a half degrees south. In the middle, as it were, of this three hundred-league diadem is the capital island, Maldiva, as stated above, where resides the king, who is entitled lord of all the islands. The smaller islands are subordinate to the larger, so that some thirty or forty are governed by one, according to their situation: and this number of islands so grouped is called a patana. Though the king, who has claim to be lord of all, and all of the people are gentiles, the governors are Moors, a circumstance which is a rich source of trouble. Having little by little secured the government of the mainland, they have become lords of these islands too. They have managed this by first becoming farmers of the revenue on the mainland, chiefly at the seaports. To this farming of the revenue they have added the administration of justice, thus better securing the revenues of the prince of the country. This position the Moors have not as yet obtained so firmly in the islands as on the mainland. As regards their situation, though some of the larger islands are some distance apart, some five, ten, fifteen, or twenty leagues, the great majority are so close together that they look like an orchard half inundated by a flood, equal parts of which are visible and concealed, and one can leap from one to another without wetting one’s feet, or else swing across by means of the branches of the trees. The currents of water collecting in the channels are so strong that the natives, when overtaken by a tide, as happens sometimes, cannot make the crossing they desire. And while many of these channels are deep enough to carry very large vessels, yet they are so narrow in some places that the yards will strike the palm trees. These palm trees do not yield dates, as do those of Barbary and all Africa, but a fruit the size of a man’s head.50 Before the kernel is reached, it has two husks after the manner of nuts. The first, although on the outside, is quite smooth; beneath this is another all of fibre, which excels the esparto. The rope made from this fibre supplies the whole of India, chiefly for making cables, because it is more secure and stands the sea better than any made from hemp. The reason is that it agrees with the salt water and becomes so tough that it seems like hide, contracting and expanding with the strength of the sea, so that a good thick cable of this rope, when the ship is standing at anchor in a heavy gale and straining upon it, draws out so thin that you would think it could not hold a boat; when the vessel is pitching in a mere swell, it keeps its usual thickness. This coir is also used instead of bolts, for

50

Coconut.

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such virtue does it have of swelling and shrinking in the sea that they join the timbers of their ships’ ribs with it and consider it quite secure. These ships, it is true, are not sailed through the furious gales of the Cape of Good Hope. The islanders make their voyages avoiding the winds and navigating only in the summer time during the monsoons, which are seasons of fair winds, blowing regularly in their direction for three months at a time. When the winter comes round, they do not go to sea. This profitable fruit has another shell of very hard substance, on the surface of which the traces of the fibres and threads of the outer husk can be seen. It is like the pith of the cork tree or, rather, like a nut shorn of its green shell. This shell, at the place where the fruit receives its vegetable nourishment – that is, at its lower end – is somewhat pointed and resembles a nose between two round eyes. It is through these that the nut throws out its shoots when planted. Owing to this shape our countrymen call this nut coco, the name given by women to anything used to frighten their babies. This name has so stuck to it that no one knows it by any other. Its proper name, however, is tanga51 with the Malabars, and narle52 with the Canarins. The kernel within this second shell is about the size of a large quince, but of a different appearance, resembling the filbert in its outer surface and inner substance. It has, however, a hollow space within. It tastes the same but is of greater bulk, and is oilier in its consistency than the filbert. Within the cavity is distilled some water, which is very sweet and refreshing, especially when the nut is young. When the nut is planted, this whole cavity in which the water was becomes a thick mass like cream, called lanha. It is very sweet and tasty and better than almonds, when it thickens on the tree; and just as this fruit in its substance and edibility is very like the almond or filbert, so, too, its outer surface is fawn-coloured and its interior white. This nut and the palm that produces it have other profitable uses, ordained by God for the support and necessities of man. Besides those mentioned it supplies him with honey, vinegar, oil and wine, and is itself a substantial food, either eaten alone or with rice or served in other ways employed by the Indians in their cookery. From the first outer husk is made coir, which, as we said, is in common and universal use for the ships throughout the East, after being soaked, beaten and twisted like hempen rope. The palm trees also are used for timber, logs and tiles, for the natives cover their houses with the leaves, which prevent any water getting in. These also serve them for paper, and their palm branches put them in no need of the palm branches of Barbary. In short, if a man of those parts has but one of these palm trees he has everything necessary for existence; and when they wish to praise

51 52

Tamil: tengku. Sanskrit: narikula.

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somebody for his benefactions, they are wont to say, ‘He is more fruitful and profitable than a palm tree.’ Besides these trees, which in those islands grow above ground, it seems their seed is endowed by nature with such virtue that in some places beneath the salt water it has produced another species, which yields a larger nut than the coconut. The second shell of this nut is found by experience to be more efficacious against poison than the bezoar53 stone, which also comes from the East and grows in the stomach of an animal called by the Persians pazon [goat], of which we have treated at length in the chapters of our Commércio upon antidotes. The commonest and most important merchandise of these islands and, indeed, the cause of their being visited is coir. Those seas cannot be navigated without it. There is also a kind of shellfish, as small as a snail but differently shaped, with a hard, white, lustrous shell, and which is sometimes so highly coloured and lustrous that, when made into buttons and set in gold, it looks like enamel. Many ships bound for Bengal and Siam are laden with these shells for ballast. There they are used for money, just as we use small copper money for buying things of little value. In some years as many as two or three thousand quintais are brought by way of ballast even to this kingdom of Portugal. They are then exported to Guinea and the kingdoms of Benin and Congo, where also they are used for money, the pagans of the interior in those parts making their treasure of it. Now the manner in which the islanders gather these shells is this: they make large bushes of palm leaves tied together so as not to break, which they cast into the sea. To these the shellfish attach themselves in quest of food, and when the bushes are all covered with them, they are hauled ashore and the creatures collected. They are then all buried in the earth till the fish within have rotted away. The shells (buzios as we, or igovos as the blacks call them) are then washed in the sea until they are quite white and so dirty the hands less than copper money. In this kingdom [of Portugal] a quintal of them is worth from three to ten cruzados, according to whether the supply from India is large or small. These islands produce an abundance of fish, from which a great quantity of moxama is made. It is exported as merchandise to many places and gives a good profit, as do also fish oil, coconuts and jaggery, which last is made from the coconuts in the same manner as sugar. The fabrics made by these islanders are silk and cotton, and no finer stuffs are made anywhere in those parts. The principal manufactory is on the islands of Ceudu and Cudu,54 where there are said to be better weavers than in Bengal or Coromandel. Yet all the silk and cotton of which those stuffs are made come to

53 A stony concretion found in the stomachs of goats, antelopes and other ruminants. Literally, antidote (Persian: pädzahr; Arab: bädizahr, bäzahr). 54 Hawadu and Addu?

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them from abroad as the islands lack both these commodities, and also rice, of which their whole supply is imported. They rear herds of sheep and cows but not sufficient for the supply of butter, which is brought from Ceylon and other parts, and yields the carriers a good profit. The people of these islands with whom our countrymen have come into contact are dull, feeble and malicious, qualities always found together, not only in the human race, but also in the brute creation, thus verifying the paradox that a weak intellect is crafty in mischief. The higher classes dress in silk and cotton, and the rest of the people make shift to weave themselves clothing made from palm leaves and herbs. They have a language of their own, though those nearest to the Malabar coast speak the language of that country; this is chiefly so on Maldiva island, where the king resides, because it is frequented by so many Malabars.

(d)

Letter of Afonso de Albuquerque on the Maldives, April 1512 Excerpt from a letter of Afonso de Albuquerque, viceroy of India, to King Manuel I, 1 April 1512, published in Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, R. A. de Bulhão Pato (ed.), vol. 1 (Lisbon 1884), pp. 48– 9. Translation by Chandra R. de Silva and Manuela Mourão.

At the beginning of the month of August, after my return from Melaka, a messenger55 arrived in Cochin from the king of the Maldives.56 I have already written something about these islands in these letters that I now send Your Highness, about the person who sent word that he wanted to be Your Highness’s vassal and have all these islands at your command, and [asked] that you free him from the theft and oppression of the Moors of Cannanore. Mam’Ali57 and his brothers, upon learning this, all renounced the right they had to certain islands that they had taken by force from this king and given to one of his brothers named Icapocar, to whom, with the king of Cannanore, they gave the title of king.58 I tell you, Sire, that these Moors of Cannanore, if you do not strike a good strong blow against them, will eventually do you some great wrong or something Your Highness will be greatly displeased by,

55

This was Baba Abdullah, who came to Cochin to plead the case of Kalu Muhammad. See Jean Aubin, ‘Le Royaume d’Ormuz’, in Mare Luso Indicum, II (1973), pp. 201–11, 212–14. 56 Sultan Kalu Muhammad (r.1491–2, 1494–1510 and 1512–28). 57 Identified as Mamale Arakkal by Bouchon. See Bouchon, Regents of the Sea, p 89. See also document (c). 58 King of the Maldives. In 1512, Icapocar and Kalu Muhammad were competing for control of the islands.

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besides always bringing us the pretender59 to the throne without our seeing him or speaking with him, and moreover keeping Calicut in front of our eyes and with our security, not to mention their vessels60 and their jealousy in which they always live with us. If, Sire, you do not have this done, it seems to me that for the ships of Cannanore you should always have a good armada, and if I were more trusted by Your Highness, I would send you Mam’Ali with half a dozen of their most important ships, and it seems that Your Highness should send secretly for them, and maybe some others will be upset, if they see that Your Highness wants to take over that place; and this is the enterprise that Mam’Ali and his brothers now undertake, to make themselves conquerors of India and of your armadas and of your title in front of the eyes of your captain-general, and to want to conquer and take over the islands. Moreover, Sire, I have letters from your officers in Cannanore, in which they send word that, as for the Moors of Cannanore, you should harvest that wheat, so that it does not grow so much.

(e)

Letter of Afonso de Albuquerque on the Maldives, October 1512 Excerpt from a letter of Afonso de Albuquerque, Viceroy of India, to King Manuel I, 11 October 1512, published in Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, R. A. de Bulhão Pato (ed.), vol. 1, (Lisbon, 1884), pp 87– 8. Translation by Chandra R. de Silva and Manuela Mourão.

Before this when I arrived in Cannanore the alguazil and Mam’Ali and another brother of his whom they had made king came to see me, and I called Your Highness’s captains and officers, and before them asked Mam’Ali and the alguazil what right they had to make their brother king in the islands, and of your armadas and of your title, and how Mam’Ali dared turn conqueror, knowing that Your Highness is called Conqueror of the Indias? I asked him what right they had in the islands. Mam’Ali answered that a great man61 had risen against the king of the islands, and that the king of the islands had asked him for help and that he had given it to him, and that he [the king] then gave him certain islands. I then sent for the messenger of the king of the islands, who had put himself under your command and ordained that the islands and their rule pass to Your Highness, to rid him of the power of the Moors of Cannanore. The messenger told Mam’Ali that he had dispossessed the king and taken the islands by force, and now wanted to remove him and make his brother king,62 and that the islands had been given him because 59

Amomtado. Beocos. 61 Kalu Muhammad. 62 See document (c) above. 60

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he had detained him63 in Cannanore, and because of the oppressions he had been subjected to and not of his own free will. Mam’Ali then said that he had letters of proof and that the king of Cannanore had been judge. I answered him that the king of Cannanore was a native and that the islands belonged to the Moors, that the naires did not sail, nor was the king a judge of that cause, and that Mam’Ali should not give his brother the name of king, nor allow the islands to be conquered, seeing your power and strength in India, and that being your duty and your rule. Furthermore, I told him on your behalf that within five months they should remove their people and their governor from the islands, and leave the king free with all his power and rule, for he had made himself Your Highness’s vassal and submitted to your rule; and that if they had any right in the islands, they should go and request justice from Your Highness, and that after the time limit he should be assured that anything of his left in the islands would not survive, and moreover, that I delivered the king of the islands alive to him on behalf of Your Highness, and gave him your royal assurance. I told him that, in case he received some misfortune or conflict in his government and rule, or in case some injury or death was inflicted on his person, that he would be held accountable, and that I would not show him any leniency. I told him, moreover, that Your Highness had ordered a fortress built there, that our navigation of Melaka would always be done through there and that they should give up their misguided fantasies. This said, the brother who was known as king of the islands began dealing with me, saying that I should make him king, and that he would hold the islands on behalf of Your Highness. I did not approve of this, nor did it seem in your best interest, because it is near Cannanore, and they show some right in them, and always have help and favour from Cannanore for any evil they wish to undertake, and also because the other is the rightful king and has submitted to your rule, without any other help or favour or aid, except for what Your Highness will give him. He will give Your Highness all the ambergris and all the coir rope you may need, and some precious cloths from the islands and, moreover, will not allow anyone to navigate around there except those whom Your Highness permits, nor will ships be allowed to sail inside the Gulf of Ceylon except for those that carry your insurance, and all the coir rope of the islands will be in your hands, and will not be given to anyone except those Your Highness orders.

(f)

Baba ’Abdullah’s Appeal to King Manuel, c. 1519 Letter of Baba ’Abdullah to King Manuel I, c. 1519, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Cartas Orientais, 9. Jean Aubin published the

63

Kalu Muhammad.

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original letter in Arabic in Mare Luso Indicum, II (1972), pp. 201–11. A contemporary Portuguese translation, which is a shorter version of this letter, was also published in the same issue of the journal on pages 212–14. That translation was also published in Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, R. A. de Bulhão Pato (ed.), vol. V (Lisbon, 1907), pp. 6– 7. Translation from the Arabic by Abdelmalik Eagle. This letter is from your servant Baba ’Abdullah, a Muslim, from the port of Hormuz.64 He arrived from the port of Malé65 at the port of Cochin,66 and the ambassador of Hormuz introduced me to the chief captain,67 whose name is Afonso de Albuquerque.68 The aforementioned ambassador, who had previously kissed the hand of the chief captain when he returned from the port of Melaka,69 said to him: ‘Ask Baba ’Abdullah for all the news about the Maldives and the regions around, since he is fully knowledgeable about what is going on there.’ Then, my lord, your slave made clear to the chief captain what was happening in the Maldives and what concerned its revenues. He then enjoined me: ‘You will be the intermediary between me and the sultan of the Maldives in bringing about a reconciliation between us. You are my translator and special vizier.’ After we had reached an agreement and covenant, I wrote to him about the conditions in the Maldives, and the chief captain likewise put in writing the task he had assigned to me. I informed the chief captain that the people of the Maldives were simple folk, who did not deserve war or fighting. They had to pay a certain sum of money as tribute for the benefit of the sultan of Portugal. Previously, half the revenue of the Maldives had gone to Mam’Ali al-Malibari,70 who collected it once a year. I told the captain, ‘Take Mam’Ali to task regarding the (aforementioned) revenue and tell him that it has to go to the sultan of Portugal.’ After your slave had departed with the captain-major from Cochin to the port of Goa,71 we arrived at the port of Cannanore. Mam’Ali, who was present at the captain’s court, was asked to step forward. The captain then rebuked him saying, ‘Every year you take the revenue of the Maldives by force and we will not allow you to take it, since the revenue belongs to Portugal.’ Mam’Ali agreed that he

64

al-H-rmuz. The text has al-Diba and al-Diba al Mahal and al-Dib, all of which have been rendered as the Maldives if the reference is to the islands, and as Malé if the reference is to the chief port. 66 Al-K-shi. 67 k[a]ftan al-mawr. 68 Afunsu B[e]lkirk. 69 al-M-laqah. 70 Mamale in Portuguese documents. 71 al-Juwwah. 65

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would not touch the Maldives revenue and wrote by his own hand a letter and gave it to the captain-major, having mentioned in it the witnesses present at the captain’s court, namely: Fuk[a]r Husayn Malibari and Khwaja B[a]gh[i] and the vizier of Cannanore and Don Gh[a]rsh[i], with the Portuguese naval commanders. The letter said: ‘The revenue of the Maldives which we used to collect every year belongs to the sultan of Portugal.’ After this the captain-major travelled from Cannanore to Goa and [your] slave was with him. At Goa fighting broke out over the fortress of Benasterim. The captain-major, after he had taken the fortress, said ‘We will bring you a gharb72 and troops and dispatch you to the Maldives.’ My Lord, after [the captain-major] had seized Benasterim, your slave said to him: ‘Give us a gharb and troops so that we can travel to the Maldives’, to which he replied: ‘Letters have arrived from the sultan of Portugal ordering us to head for the port of Aden, taking with us the gharbs and all the troops. After we return from Aden, God willing, we will give you a gharb and the troops. [Now] Baba ’Abdullah go to ’Adil Khan73 and hand over our letters to him. After we return from Aden, [then] you can go off to the Maldives.’ Your slave went up to ’Adil Khan and informed him [of this], with a full explanation of what the captainmajor had said. My Lord, after the captain returned from Aden, your slave came down from ’Adil Khan and asked the captain to dispatch him to the Maldives. He replied that the ambassador of Hormuz had come from the sultan of Portugal bringing with him documents relating to the building of the fortress at Hormuz and that he was sailing thence. At this your slave set off for the Maldives in a ship belonging to Mam’Ali. The captain-major had given me a letter and papers74 for the sultan of the Maldives and the viziers concerning the collection of the money they used to give to Mam’Ali and that was [now] for the sultan of Portugal and was not to be given to Mam’Ali. The captain-major had said to me: ‘Take this letter [sic] and go to the Maldives and give to each one his [appropriate] paper. Stay in the Maldives until we return from Hormuz.’ Your slave had received [the papers] and went to the Maldives. After arriving at Malé, I gave him75 the papers addressed personally [to the various individuals], as I had been directed by the captain-major, and stayed there until the aforementioned captain should return. Men came from Mam’Ali to collect the revenue of the Maldives and demanded it from the sultan. The latter replied that he had received letters from the captain-major in which he had written: ‘Do not give the revenue money to Mam’Ali’s men’, and [the sultan] went on to say, ‘If you 72 A gharb (pl. aghriba) was a double-ended ship, sewn together by rope and with a rope steering system. 73 Ismail Adil Khan, ruler of Bijapur. 74 awraq, pl. of waraqa. 75 Sultan of the Maldives.

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want the money, give me a letter written in the captain-major’s own handwriting.’ They enjoined: ‘The captain-major died after he returned from Hormuz.’ The next captain, who was called Lopo Soares,76 and Mam’Ali came to an understanding and reached an agreement that [Mam’Ali, must] hand over the revenue[s] that he had delayed giving up for [the past] two years. Yet after this, Mam’Ali’s men, my Lord, [persisted in] collecting half the Maldivian revenue. During the period of the second monsoon [of that year] Dom João,77 the captain of Ceylon, entered the Maldives and told the sultan: ‘Send two of your viziers to Cochin to [meet] the chief captain, so that you can establish an agreement between yourselves and him.’ So the sultan of the Maldives sent two of his men, and I, your slave, was with them. We arrived at Cochin and had a meeting with the captain-major, and we agreed that every year out of one thousand five hundred bahar of coir,78 which is rope, and ambergris, which comes out of the sea, half would go to the sultan of the Maldives and half to the sultan of Portugal, and on this condition they concurred and became reconciled and were satisfied, and they wrote [to this effect] a letter in their own hands, and the captain-major wrote one in his own language and gave it to the sultan of the Maldives’ men. Afterwards Mam’Ali found out that men from the sultan of the Maldives had gone to Cochin and had come to a settlement, whereupon he wrote to the captainmajor concerning the Maldives affair, saying ‘whatever [revenues] the Maldives folk [are obliged to] give, we will take on the responsibility for submitting them and [so] there is no need to trouble yourself with the Maldives. I know [those] people and I will hand over every year the amount that has been decided upon.’ Then the captain asked for the aforementioned letter [which he had written at Cochin], tore it up and altered the agreement, and wrote another letter to the sultan, which he entrusted to the vizier of the Maldives. Then I, your slave, together with the vizier, travelled from Cochin to the Maldives. You have to know concerning Mam’Ali that he collects half the revenues of the Maldives and keeps them for himself, although by right the aforementioned revenues belong to the sultan [of Portugal]. The captain will see to it that we will assuredly withstand Mam’Ali, so that the land becomes free from every disorder and all the revenues will go to the sultan of Portugal. After this Mam’Ali [will] wish in his heart to see the Maldives ruined, because they will have slipped from his authority, but if you support them [the people] against [Mam’Ali], all the populace of the Maldives will be rid of his evil ways. Know [also] my Lord that at this time the sultan of the Maldives and the viziers and the people are pleased with J-n-k-m M-sh. If you give him four gharbs, they 76

Lub-s S-ras. Dun J-wan. 78 Qinbzir. 77

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can stay in perpetuity in the Maldives. These islands are on a marvellous trade route. Ships arrive here from every port, especially from Melaka, Martaban, Pegu, Bengal, al-Fansur, [Barus, in Sumatr], India, Hormuz and the whole land of Malabar, [all] in order to engage in trade. Here there are abundant customs dues from buying and selling, but there is one drawback, which is that the inhabitants are fainthearted and, if they suffer only a little disquiet, they will flee [the islands], and all the Maldives will fall into ruin on account of injustice. There are many foreigners here. If security could be established, there would be [good] revenue from buying and selling. If unrest were to ensue, all would flee. All the boats in the port would be sold, and the Maldives would perish. Know also, my Lord, what kinds of things [could] produce revenue in these [islands]. Foremost there is qinbar, which is [coir] rope; secondly, the large [trade] in cowrie-shells, [with which are traded ] an abundance of garments; thirdly, there is fish, which is shipped from Malé to the port of Sumatra,79 where the people buy as much as they can get. Malé is a port inhabited for the most part by simple folk, and the people of the [entire] country are the same. [Malé] is beneficial to the sultan as a place on the trade route. What is needed most of all in the Maldives is law and order, so that no one is oppressed and boats that arrive from every port have security, so that they can engage in buying and selling. This day, I, your slave, have been in the service of the sultan of Portugal for seven years. I have left my country, my kinsfolk, my wife and children and have been devoted to your service. Please favour your slave by [an increase] in wages and allowances for my family. It would be a favour to me and assistance if, when [a missive] arrives for the captain, you wrote my name in it, that is, ‘Baba ’Abdullah, who is our servant’. This would be [out of] your bounty towards [this] your slave. Farewell.

(g)

Letter of Hasan IX, King of the Maldive Islands, 1556 Letter of the king of the Maldives to the Mesa da Consciência, 23 January 1556, published in Documentação para a história das missões do padroado portuquês do oriente. India, António da Silva Rego (ed.), vol. VI (Lisbon, 1951), pp. 97–8. The original document is in Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Chancellerias, Corpo Chronologico, 1– 97–62. Translated by Chandra R. de Silva and Manuela Mourão.

I write a letter to Your Highness by two channels. It seemed to me fair and due, for I am a Christian and invoked the name of Christ Our Saviour to bring me to his holy

79

al-Shamutrah, possibly Aceh.

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Catholic Faith and to take me from the agony I lived in. I also beg of those in the Consciência to sustain me in this state to which Our Lord brought me and to protect me from the wrongs they do me in this land. On the death of the viceroy, Dom Pedro Francisco Barreto became the governor.80 Because it seemed to me that he would do as Your Highness orders, I went to Goa and he, being related to António de Ataide, did not want to dispatch me, nor did he want to let me go to my kingdom, in order to give that favour to António de Ataide. For if I do not go there, he can do his will and steal my islands, while I starve to death. In this way they will know from the letters that I write to Your Highness. I was in Goa for some thirty days starving to death, eating fried shad from the bazaar, often sending word to the governor that I was starving to death and that I was unable to buy a pair of shoes to cover my feet, asking him to send me money to spend. After a few days he sent for me and told me that I was not the one to govern the islands nor even to govern a village, that I was incompetent, that of his own accord he wanted to give me a few houses, that he wanted to make me settled like a horse without fetters that one wants to fetter again. I, who am meant to govern these kingdoms, would not go to even one of them. This that they want to do is not because I am what they say, but rather because they want to steal my islands, and I am starving to death. Your Highness provided, in accordance with two paragraphs in a letter of your viceroy and most beloved nephew, Dom Afonso,81 that I was to be given thirty men from your foists to go to my islands, and that only whoever I wanted was to be captain and to guarantee to bring five hundred bahar of coir of his tribute. I have given very good guarantee, but they will not let me go to my islands but instead send there the captains they want in order to steal and, if ten bahar of coir are missing, they make me and my guarantors pay the weight and in their stores they steal one hundred bahar. I receive the grant to provide myself in the way I do, but as it profits me, they do not wish to obey and comply. I ask Your Highness to provide me by his patent and grant with penalties, for otherwise it will not be complied with, and I ask that I be allowed to go and see to my islands and go back to my wife once a year, and with this I am satisfied Your Highness will provide me, as king and prince, for so I expect you will do by me. Done this day, the twenty-third of January, year 1556.

80 81

Dom Pedro Mascarenhas, viceroy 1554–5; Francisco Barreto, governor 1555–8. Dom Afonso de Noronha, viceroy 1550–54.

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(h)

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Excerpts from an Islamic History of the Maldives, early eighteenth century Excerpts from The Islamic History of the Maldive Islands (Tarikh lslam Diba Mahal) by Hasan Taj al-Din, Muhammad Muhibb al-Din and lbrahim Siraj al-Din. Translation from the Arabic by Abdelmalik Eagle. Al Qazi Hasan Taj al-Din (1661–1727) was born on Gan island but was educated in Malé. He went to Mecca at least twice in his lifetime and played an important role in politics, being exiled from Malé twice. He was the qazi at Malé in the 1690s and again from 1705 until his death. It was during this last period of his life that he was entrusted with the writing of the Tarikh. His work is important in giving a Maldivian and Islamic point of view – tales of resistance – on the contacts between the Portuguese and the people of the islands. At certain points, the Tarikh gives us information that appears contrary to that given in contemporary Portuguese documents. For instance, it states that tribute began to be paid to the Portuguese in 1514 because the Portuguese aided the return of Sultan Kalu Muhammad to power, while documents 7 (d) and 7 (e) seem to indicate that Sultan Muhammad had regained power by 1512 and that Governor Albuquerque forced the kölathiri of Cannanore to accept Portuguese claims to tribute from the Maldives after Muhammad gained power with the aid of Mam ’Ali. Nevertheless, in virtually all other instances, the chronology given in the Tarikh matches that in Portuguese sources, and by comparing the two, we can construct a fascinating history of the interaction.

When he [Sultan ’Ali, r. 1512] had ruled for nine months there arrived from Cannanore the deposed Sultan Muhammad with a force of Malabars obtained from ’Ali Raja, who had made a stipulation that he must hand over to him a specific sum of money every year. When they were leaving the port of Cannanore they encountered ships [of] foreign Nasranis82 who lived at their fortress at Goa. They [the Nasranis] positioned their gharbs83 for several days in the sea facing Cannanore and blockaded them. They would not let [the Malabaris] pass until they had got them to agree that every year a certain sum of money would be handed over to them too. Then they let them proceed and also gave [Sultan Muhammad] assistance [in that] they arrived [together] at the port of Diba Mahal [enabling the sultan] to seize

82 83

Christians. See Glossary.

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power with their help. This capture took place in the Hijri year 919 [1513–14]. When [Sultan Muhammad] gained control over the country, he made the payments that had been imposed upon him. The sultans after him continued to hand over money to both parties until the time of Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, son of Sultan Muhammad ’Imad al-Din, both of whom will be mentioned in due course. This was a source of corruption and disquiet in religion, which remained with his children and descendants and others from among the illustrious sultans. It [caused] a greater decline in religion and was a bigger calamity [for] Islam and the Muslims than [the machinations] of those godless infidels. Sultan Muhammad was a despot, tyrannical, mighty in his realm, a pillager. He engendered fear [and was] a natural commander, proud and haughty. He showed little compassion and mercy and was unscrupulous [in his deeds]. His judge was Qadi Isma’il al Fam-dar [al-Famudeyri]. When the latter died he appointed (the qadi’s) son Qadi D-n-k-r-l T-k-w-r [Donkorali Takuru]. When [Sultan Muhammad] seized power, he thought that kingship would remain for ever and that he was immortal in his sultanate and that time belonged to him, and he did not realize that time belonged to no man and that ‘it spares not neither leaves alone’;84 nor was he aware that he would have ‘no power nor helper’85 when the cutting sword of fate came upon him. His might and power would not protect him from destiny, nor would his invincibility and the awe in which he was held repel [fate]. Fate brought him down from the throne of the caliphate and kingship and transferred him to the throne of the bier to the hole of annihilation and perdition. He passed [from history] as if he were ‘a thing unremembered’86 and ‘God’s commandment is destiny decreed’.87 The [total] length of his rule, for the three [times he was sultan] was thirty years and nine months. His death took place in the Hijri year 935 [1528–9]. Then his son Sultan Hasan, son of Sultan Muhammad, son of Sultan ’Umar, son of Sultan Yusuf, son of Sultan Hasan al-Hilali, became sultan. His mother was a concubine from Shiraz named Fatima, and so he was called Sultan Hasan alShirazi. He was titled Siri M-n-r-nn L-w-k M-har-d-n [Maniran Loka Maha Radun] and died in the Hijri year 955 [1548–9] and the length of his reign was twenty-one years. Then [there succeeded to] the sultanate the son of his brother [by the same father], Sultan Muhammad, son of Máfat [Máfaiy] Kilége ’Umar, son of Sultan Muhammad, son of Sultan ’Umar, son of Sultan Yusuf, son of Sultan Hasan alHilali. His title was Siri B-v-na M-har-d-n [Sinha Bavana Maha Radun], and he ruled for two years and four months. 84

Qur’an: LXXlV, 28. Qur’an: LXXXVl, 10. 86 Qur’an: LXXVl, 1. 87 Qur’an: XXXlll, 38. 85

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After this his brother (from the same father and mother) overthrew him, namely Sultan Hasan, son of Máfat Kilége ’Umar, son of Sultan Muhammad, son of Sultan ’Umar, son of Sultan Yusuf, son of Sultan Hasan al-Hilali, killing him and taking over the sultanate. His title was Siri D-r-k-s L-w-k M-har-d-n [Dirikusa Loka Maha Radun]. This took place in the Hijri year 957 [1550]. After two years and five months he openly displayed to the people what he had secretly entertained regarding his apostasy, changing his religion [and] going to Cochin, to the foreign despicable Nasranis. He showed forth his unbelief, wore their infidel garments and stayed there many years. Then he went to Goa, where he settled and married a Nasrani girl, the daughter of one of their leading citizens. He begat infidel children by her. The display of his unbelief and his departure from Mahal Diba took place in the Hijri year 959 [1552]. Then, after two years Sultan Abu Bakr, son of Ibrahim Fa-r-na [Fashina] Kilége, whose mother was Sanfá D-’wa [Di’yo], took over the sultanate. His title was Siri Asa’is L-w-k [Asa’sa Loka Maha Radun]. He reigned for four years and was killed in the Hijri year 963 [1555–6]. Then, after two years (the Grand Vizier) Sultan ’Ali son of ’Abd al-Rahman became sultan. His mother was the daughter of Kabádi Kilége of Feridu.88 His title was Siri A-w-d S-yak K-tt-r M-har-d-n [Auda Siyaka Kattiri Maha Radun], and he reigned for two and a half months. He fought the cursed foreign Nasranis until he died a martyr. The reason why war broke out between him and the disbelieving Nasranis was, so it is related, because Sultan Hasan, who joined them having apostasized from his religion, wanted to call those viziers and noble leaders of the community who remained in the Maldives89 to abandon their Islamic faith (may God Almighty protect them from [such a step] by His overall kindness and His perfect bounty). Hasan sent them a band of Nasranis in one of their ships to bring them to him at Cochin.90 They arrived at the port of Malé91 and, having sent for the leaders of the community and the viziers, said to them: ‘Your sultan summons you to Cochin.’ The inhabitants discussed the matter among themselves, but God strengthened them in their Islamic faith and they agreed that they would not go with them and would not change their religion. So [the Muslims] fought them and killed all of them, seizing their weapons and money. Those warriors were Sultan Abu Bakr and Sultan ’Ali, son of ’Abd al-Rahman, before they became sultans, and their followers. Thereupon, the foreign Nasrani populace of Cochin again sent a [band of] Nasrani soldiers and arrived at the port of Malé and fought and pillaged and engaged in fierce combat. They got [back] their ship and weapons and money. 88

An island either in Ari atoll or South Thiladhunmathi atoll. Dhiba Mahal. This term and its variants are translated as the Maldives unless the context indicates that it refers to the port of Malé. 90 K-shi. 91 Mahal. 89

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Then for the third time they sent gharbs equipped with weapons and valiant foreign Nasranis. Their chief was a commander called Adiri Adiri.92 They arrived at the port of Malé two and a half months after ’Ali son of ’Abd al-Rahman became sultan and began to disembark, with their rifles at the ready, on the western shore of Malé. In order to kill those vile unbelievers Sultan ’Ali startled them with his large army, brandishing swords, lances and darts. Sultan ’Ali proceeded ahead of his troops, flourishing his sharp-cutting sword and his protective shield. When the sultan approached the ’Abd [’Eid] mosque, he looked round at his men and saw that they had been routed and that there remained no one steadfast with him except his chief vizier and one of his slaves. The sultan hastened with them to confront the overwhelming enemy, and they pounced upon them with their swords like a brave lion and attacked them with [these] mighty [weapons]. When the unbelievers perceived the might of those three noble ones and the strength of their allegiance to Islam and the extent of their perseverance and attack with their swords and shields, they became frightened and were scared to draw near to them. So they hastily fired upon them, and the sultan, his slave and vizier were shot by bullets from their muskets and were killed, martyrs for the sake of God. After this the unbelievers entered the town and seized the government of the Maldives. Then some of the Muslims went out to the coast and came across Sultan ’Ali and his two companions slain. They buried them on the spot where they had been killed and built up stones around their graves like a wall. Seawater would flow around that wall, and up to this day sultans and others visit the graves. The Muslims then sought a safe conduct from the unbelievers, who gave it to them. Their captain,93 Adiri Adiri, took over the government of the sultanate. This unbeliever then sent emirs from among his [co-religionists] to the provinces of the land of Diba Mahal, and so the Muslims became servile and humiliated under the control of the Nasranis, subjected to their rule for however [long] God should so wish. The martyrdom of Sultan ’Ali, son of ’Abd al-Rahman, and the victory of the Nasranis over the kingdom of Diba Mahal took place on the first day of Sha’ ban in the year 965 [16 June 1558]. God is the most knowing. After this those unbelievers continued victorious over the sultanate of the Maldives until their oppression grew worse, their violence increased and their tyranny became more intense. They wrought havoc on land and sea by their shedding of life, seizure of property, and their widespread adulterous conduct with Muslim women, both unmarried and married, and all the Muslims were subject to their insults. Those irreligious unbelievers [brought about] one of the greatest disasters in [the history of] Islam, and [caused] the severest weakness in religion and a great

92 93

Ad-rdd-r [An’diri An’dirin]. q[a]ftan.

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sedition, in which the hearts of the slaves [of God] pined away, and its harm encompassed both town and country. Then, when they had reached the heights in their harassment of the slaves of God, the Muslims, and had committed excesses in rape and tyranny and the slaughter of unbelievers, God the Sovereign, the Omnipotent, the One, the Subduer wished to extend His compassion towards [the Muslims] by bringing about the eradication of the might of those evil Christians from this land, extinguishing their state and repelling their hurt from His slaves who testify to the Divine Unity. [Accordingly] he inspired his brave and courageous slave Khatib94 Muhammad al-Utimi,95 son of Khatib Husain, who is now known as Muhammad Takurufanu the Great96 (may God clothe him with his mercy and favour and refresh his soul with the perfumes of refreshment and sweet basil), to rise up and execute the obligation of jihad, to snuff out the lantern of this infidel and obdurate people and to extinguish the fires of sedition, oppression and immorality by killing those people who believe in [the Trinity] and have no religion and [thus] to make Islam supreme in this land, despite the unbelief and the stubbornness of the slaves of God.97 When [these thoughts] settled in the heart of Khatib Muhammad, the astute, the perspicacious, the discerning, he deliberated on this matter, [employing] his enlightened and apposite judgment, and decided in his strong and magnanimous heart, after supplicating God for guidance by istikhara,98 and being inspired by God, the Watchful, beseeching his Lord the All-Hearing, the Answerer [and] asking God for success and succour and a speedy victory, to make war upon the despicable foreign Nasranis and make victorious the religion of God, [which is] Islam. Then he took counsel with his two astute and noble brothers Khatib ’Ali and Khatib Hasan,99 and they agreed to make raids upon those godless unbelievers so as to fortify Islam and the Muslims. Thus, they – a small company – [began] to wage a jihad in the path of God, with swords, lances, muskets and darts. They prepared a sturdy vessel to carry them 94 Lit. ‘orator’. In the Maldives civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions were exercised by khatibs, who supervised the caretakers of the mosques. The office of khatib might run in particular families, and each of the 13 provinces had a naib to supervise the khatibs, while the naibs were under a chief judge, the fadiyaru. See Pyrard, Voyage to the East, 1, pp. 198– 9. 95 Utimi is an island in Thiladhummati atoll. 96 T-k-r-fan al-akb-r. 97 The Muslims. 98 Praying to God for a right decision. 99 The text specifies that Khatib ’Ali and Khatib Hasan were full brothers, and this implies that Khatib Muhammad’s mother was a different woman. Maldivian legend, however, states that Khatib Muhammad, Takurufanu’s father, married twice and had ’Ali and Fatima by his first wife and Muhammad and Hassan by his second.

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across the ocean currents and boarded it with their weapons and loaded it with their provisions and clothes. They then set off for the port of Maliku,100 where they could leave their children and womenfolk in safe hands since Maliku was in the territory of ’Ali, Raja of Cannanore. There they met up with two heroic, astute, quick-witted men who had arrived from Mecca the Noble (may [God] cherish her), after performing the obligations of Hajj and Umra and the visit [to the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina]. They were brothers from the same mother, Hajj ’Ali and Hajj Hasan, and were well-known as expert instructors in the art of throwing the lance. They had gone on the Hajj before the unbelievers had gained control over the Maldives, so al-Khatib and his two brothers told them the news about [the islands] and how the people were faring under the oppression of the unbelievers, adding that they were determined to fight them saying: ‘We trust that God will rescue our land from the hands of the godless Nasranis and will return it to Muslim sovereignty.’ [The hajjis] replied: ‘We will wage a jihad with you against those unbelievers, so that the authority of God in our land will be supreme and the might of those who do not believe will be brought down to ignominy.’ They appointed their sheikh, Khatib Muhammad, as their leader. Then they pledged themselves before God never to leave him nor dispute his authority nor take flight. [They would be bound by their allegiance to him] until God had destroyed the enemies of the Muslims and of Islam and defeated the worshippers of the Cross and the idols and eradicated by their sharp swords every obstinate, stiff-necked unbeliever and delivered for [the Muslims] the kingdom of the Maldives from the hands of the despicable foreigner. Then they set about slaying those cursed unbelievers, relying on the words of God Almighty: ‘Many a small company has overcome a large one with the permission of God, and God is with the patient’, and also on His words, the Mighty, the Exalted: ‘It is incumbent upon us to come to the aid of the believers.’101 So they began to fight the unbelievers and kill them wherever they found them. They would land on the islands at night to [get] water and food and kill anyone whom they [came across] from among the contemptible Nasranis. They would then go out to sea before dawn and during the day would cruise around in their ship in such a way that the enemy would not see its sails, and when darkness fell they would enter the islands and would do what we have [already] mentioned. One night their brother Khatib ’Ali left their company and slept in his wife’s house until morning. His brothers left without him before dawn. When he got up and [saw] the daylight, he hid himself right inside the house on the isle of Takandu.102 The unbelievers on the island got to hear of this and brought him out of the house and cut off his head, which they sent to their commander, Adiri Adiri, and threw 100

M-l-k in the text; Maliku of Minicoy, north of the Eight Degrees Channel. Qu’ran: II, 249 and XXX, 47. 102 In the Thiladhummati atoll. 101

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away his body. The Muslims buried it on that island, and the folk of the Maldives asked the captain for his head and buried it on Funadu.103 These warriors became four heroes, who possessed zeal, bravery and tenacity, and so did not give up fighting for the cause of God, vanquishing the enemies of God, overpowering those who opposed them and victorious over those enemies who attacked them, so that [virtually] no Nasranis remained in the Maldive islands. Those who were left, however, came together in Malé to prepare for a fight and keep a watch out for those Muslim heroes who were sailing around Malé at a distance but could not find an opening on the coast by which to enter Malé, owing to the great alertness and vigilance [of the enemy] and their preparedness for combat. The Muslims wanted to take them unawares by a surprise raid, [and] so they went out of their sight by going to Cannanore. They then requested the ’Ali Raja of Cannanore to send with them a body of men from the Cannanore army. The ’Ali Raja agreed to this and sent with them a band of his Malabar troops. They set out [together] from the port of Cannanore and arrived near Malé just before the night on which the Nasranis decided to summon the Muslims of Malé on the following day to [embrace] their Christian religion and order them to prostrate themselves with them before the idol. Anyone who refused to do so would be killed. Anyone who in his heart did not change his religion and who died [as a true believer] in the community of his Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be prayers and greetings, [would not be deemed an apostate]: [this is] their [the authors’] opinion. They [then] went into detail concerning the whole incident of the arrival of the men of Malabar, [although] some say that [the latter] did not arrive at Malé until after the end of the conflict. [The Muslims] met together in the house of the judge, namely, Qadi104 Abu Bakr, son of Qadi ’D-nn-k-r-l [Dankorali], son of Qadi Sharaf al-Din Isma’il al-Famdar [al-Famudeyri], son of Ibrahim, and agreed that they would not apostasize from their Islamic faith and that they would refuse to go to [the Christians] if they were bidden to prostrate themselves before the idol. If, however, they came to them summoning them by force, [then] they would fight as Muslims until they were killed. They got ready what they could in the way of swords, lances, knives, staves and darts. Then they vowed that they would make a Mawlad105 for the Prophet, upon whom be blessings and greetings, every year in the enclosure of the tomb of Sheikh Yusuf Shams al-Din al-Tabrizi, if Khatib Muhammad al-Utimi and his men arrived before the dawn [prayer] of this night to come to their aid and to the aid of the 103

In Malé atoll. The text has F-n-du. Qazi or judge. 105 Celebration of the Birthday of the Prophet Muhammad on the twelfth or seventeenth day of the third Islamic month (Rabeeu’l Awwal). 104

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religion of God, [which is] Islam. Thereupon they recited the Fatiha106 and prayed to God the All-Hearing, the Omniscient that He would keep them fast to His true religion and to the community of His beloved Prophet. Then that night, after two-thirds of it had passed, there arrived at the port of Mahal the gharbs107 of Khatib Muhammad and his men. They disembarked at Mahal, while the unbelievers were heedless and distracted, wandering around in their drunkenness. They looked around [the town] until they drew near to the courtyard of the house of their [the Christians’] commander, where they saw him sitting on his chair in front of the reception room. Around him in candlelight were standing some of his retainers. Khatib Muhammad al-Akbar fired at him with his musket and hit him with a bullet. [The commander] fired with his musket in the direction of the bullet [which had hit] him and then fell to the ground. The Khatib moved a little from the spot where he had fired to behind a coconut palm and thus escaped from the unbeliever’s bullet, [which had hit] the front of the tree. [The commander’s] men, the unbelievers, came outside with their muskets and fired at the spot where the Muslims were, who in turn returned the fire. The unbelievers were hit but could not hit [their targets]. The two sides then joined together in combat, and the weapons of the Muslims struck the bodies [of the Christians], whereas God protected the bodies of his slaves from their weapons. They continued to fight the unbelievers until God inflicted humiliation upon them and they were seized ‘with a great seizure’108 and slain to a man, and all of them fell to the ground killed: ‘Neither heaven nor earth wept for them, nor were they given respite.’109 So their power came to an end, and their rule passed from the Maldives, and their sovereignty died out and faded away. Their might became [as] ‘scattered dust’110 as if they had not been ‘a thing worthy of remembrance’.111 The period of the [conquest of the] foreign Christians over the kingdom of the Maldives lasted years. This celebrated defeat and the [re-conquest] of the prosperous kingdom of the Maldives at the hands of Khatib Muhammad the Great took place on the 1st Rab’i’ I in the Hijri year 981 [1 July 1573]. When those Muslims gained control of Diba Mahal the hearts of the believers became glad – may God Almighty cause [the islands] to remain under Muslim rule until the Day of Judgement. God Almighty gave the sovereignty over Diba Mahal to Khatib Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great. ‘That is a bounty from God; He gives it to whom He wishes, He makes mighty whom He 106

First chapter (sura) of the Qu’ran. See n. 72 above. 108 Qu’ran: LXXIII, 16. 109 Qu’ran: LXIV, 29. 110 Qu’ran: XXV, 23. 111 Qu’ran: LXXVI, 1. 107

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wills and humiliates whom He wills. In His hand is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and He is mighty over everything.’112 Then the Muslims who had been in the land, oppressed beneath the hand of the unbelievers, came out to meet him, their faces glowing with joy and happiness, while he came to meet them with a gleaming forehead, filling [their] hopes with brightness and light. They kissed his dear blessed hand and prayed abundantly for the continuation of his great rule. He welcomed them profusely and gave them hospitality and retained them in their former posts. They gave him allegiance as their great overlord and titled him Siri K-w-n-s-r [Kunsur] Ad-y-tt M-har-d-n [Kava Savaditta Maha Radun]. He sat upon the throne of the sultanate and built its palace, prepared the basis for running the affairs of the realm and formulated its laws. He got his brother Khatib Hasan to share in many of the affairs of the kingdom and gave him the title of Ranna Badéri Kilégefánu. He gave the grand viziership to Hajj ’Ali, the Ghazi113 for the sake of God, and gave him the title of Hajj ’Ali Doriméná and made his brother Hajj Hasan a powerful vizier, giving him the title of Shahbandar.114 Khatib Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great was a sultan who was generous, upright, forgiving, astute, just, very merciful towards his subjects, full of compassion towards [those] slaves of God who were weak. He concerned himself with the problems of the ordinary people, carried out the affairs of the realm and busied himself in administering justice. He was the first to organize the military, fixing for them the amount which the troops take [as a levy] from the outlying districts and the islands, giving them rice twice a month and issuing each soldier three loincloths115 a year, as is still done today. He spread justice everywhere and eradicated from the weak the injustice of their oppressors. The subjects under his rule lived a good life. No one was able to oppress another. The days when he was in power were the best of days and the most splendid of months and years, as if they were days of marriage or religious festivity, except that they were devoid of ulema.116 [This was] because Diba Mahal had had no ulema for thirty years after the knowledge had disappeared which the ’alim, the most knowledgeable, the possessor of virtue and miracles, the well-known sheikh, the ’alim and jurist Sulayman al-Madani, son of Muhammad, son of ’Isa al-Zayla’i, had propagated. He [was] from near Zabid [in] the land of Yemen, [and] his grave is

112

A combination of parts of the following verses from the Qur’an: LVll, 21; lll, 26 (where the pronoun is ‘Thou’ not ‘He’); XXlll, 88; Vll, 185; LVll, 2. 113 Lit. champion-warrior. This term seems to be used elsewhere in the text as a title. 114 Lit. Lord of the Port; Divehi: velana. Perhaps this was an office as well as a title and the official might have been responsible for the collection of customs duties. 115 These were feyl, a cloth wrapped round the waist. 116 Ulema (sing. ’alim), learned man especially knowledgeable in the Shari’a (Islamic law).

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now at Maf-n [Maafannu].117 Those who had learned from him [had] died and [so had] their pupils and the pupils of their pupils, and so there was no one in the land of Diba Mahal who [was able] to teach anything in the sciences of the Shari’a [Islamic law].118 Then when Sultan Takurufaanu the Great needed someone from among the recognized ulema to guide him in establishing sound government and [true] religion and, since he became occupied with affairs more important than solving quarrels and since it was his duty to appoint over us a judge who was a mujtahid119 to settle disputes among the people, there arrived an ’alim from Hadramaut. He was the labourer [in the service of Islam], the virtuous, pious, ascetic, the consummate in sincerity, the exemplar of an eminent man, the one who [truly] knew God, (the Mighty, the High), the teacher of our teachers, Sheikh Muhammad Jamal al-Din alMahali.120 They say that he left Diba Mahal seeking knowledge of the Shari’a in the days of Sultan Hasan (son of Sultan Muhammad), well-known by his surname of Shirazi, and that he gained knowledge from the sayyids of Hadramaut.121 When the aforementioned sheikh arrived, Sultan Muhammad Takurufaanu was joyful to [see] him and gave him abundant hospitality and respect. ’Ali Kahil, master of the retainers, brought him to the sultan, who seated him in a privileged position in his audience-chamber and showered upon him the greatest hospitality and gave him privileges and an income and showed him a [degree of] respect and honour that no other ’alim of the land has ever enjoyed either before or since. Despite all this the sheikh did not like to stay in Mahal because of his excessive piety and ascetism; indeed he desired to live an isolated existence. So he asked the sultan for permission [to leave] and went to Wadu al-Suwaduviyya.122 The headman of Wadu, Muhammad Fazi’a [Fashina] received him kindly and built him a house in a remote spot. He lived there and taught [the headman’s] son ’Ali, who was the deputy [for his father]. Seekers of knowledge came to him from everywhere, [and] he would teach them. His most knowledgeable pupil was Qadi Abu Bakr, who [later] propagated the knowledge [he had gained] from him. [The sheikh] died in Wadu at the principal mosque. His grave is well known, and people talk about the miracles wrought by his intercession.

117

In Malé. The next three paragraphs extolling the need for ulema are omitted from this translation. 119 An ’alim who is qualified to make an independent juridical decision (fatwa). 120 M-h-li. This is probably the nisba of Mahal. 121 Hadramaut is a region of southern Arabia and is now one of the provinces of the Republic of Yemen. Sayyids are direct descendants of the Prophet through his daughter Fatima. The sayyids referred to here are most probably those of the Ba ’Alawi family, who made the city of Tarim in Hadramaut a centre of learning. 122 Presumably Vadhu, an island on the South Huvadhu atoll, apparently also known as Suvadu, since the nisba is S-w-y-duwwi. 118

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Then Sultan Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great established to perfection sound government and [true] religion, but treacherous time was alert for him, and a turn in fortune awakened him at night to certain calamity. Disasters overtook him, as they had done to those before him, and this is how the world treats its children, be they the weak [or] the great, and persists among sultans and ghazi-kings, [for] permanency and constancy [belong alone] to God, the Great, the Glorious, the Omnipotent. Then fate unsheathed upon him the cutting sword of death and neither lances nor arrows nor soldiers could repel it from him, and the veins of his life were cut, and he was brought from the grand Sultanic Palace and was wrapped in the enveloping covers of his shroud. He was taken down from the throne of kingship and carried in a box [sic] on the shoulders of the dignitaries from his elevated palace to the edge of the grave. He was buried in his burial-niche beneath the dusty earth. His demise was at the beginning of the great and esteemed month of Ramadan in the Hijri year 993 [27 August 1585]. The length of his reign was twelve years and six months. On the day he died his son, Sultan Ibrahim succeeded to the sultanate. He was titled Siri S-dd S-w-r-d L-w-k M-har-d-n [Sudda Suvara Loka Maharadun]. He was given allegiance in accordance with the directives of [his] late father. He was an astute and generous king and an august, great, impartial, just, industrious [and] virtuous sultan. He acquired knowledge from Qadi Abu Bakr, the pupil of Sheikh Muhammad Jamal al-Din al-Mahali. He loved to propagate knowledge and he ordered the people to study the Shari’a. He would assist [the students] by giving them a salary. He was affectionate and generous towards them and treated them differently from [the] others. Thus Faqih [the jurist] Ahmad al-’Arabi said in a poem praising him: ‘The proof of your nobility is your love of knowledge, the fugitive from which you [even] gave refuge, though he were routed.’123 His judge was Qadi Abu Bakr al-Suvaduvi.124 After him his pupil Qadi Muhammad, son of Na’ib Hasan al Haddummati al Fonaduvi125 was appointed judge. [Sultan Ibrahim] would counsel the ulema and the judges in many religious and everyday matters. He was of considerable intelligence, of manifest political acumen, [a man] of bravery and justice. [He showed] great compassion and sympathy towards the unfortunate among his subjects. He would concern himself with the affairs of [his] subjects and put matters right [for them]. In his days the people lived a life of prosperity. During his reign the knowledge of the ulema triumphed and they increased in number and became stars of true guidance. His reign was like gold brocade, and his kingdom shone like a bride swathed in jewellery and gold. He propagated justice in every place and removed from his subjects the injustice of the oppressors.

123

Kamil metre. The sultan had been the pupil of Sheikh al-Mahali on Vadu Island in Huvadu atoll. 125 From Fonadhu island, capital of Haddhummathi atoll. 124

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When the rule of [Sultan Ibrahim, son of Sultan Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great] was fully established and his sovereignty had become manifestly consolidated, all of a sudden boats approached [Diba Mahal] belonging to raiders from Malabar, who were causing havoc on land and sea. It is related that this Sultan Ibrahim gathered together his viziers and troops and his judge, who was Qadi Muhammad al Haddummati al Fonaduvi. The sultan asked [the qadi] for a juridical decision (fatwa) in the matter. The Qadi Muhammad’s fatwa was that flight was preferable to fighting them, and so they hastened to get a large boat ready. Then they quickly boarded it and headed speedily for the south. Those evil pirates hastily directed their boats towards them, caught up with the sultan’s boat in mid-ocean and started to hurl their javelins and arrows, at which the viziers and troops that were on board the sultan’s boat threw themselves into the sea and swam towards an unoccupied island nearby. They reached it, leaving their sultan to fight the enemy by himself, and there was no one with him in the boat save one man from the soldiery whose name was Jamal K-lu [Kalo]. They fought the enemy until they were both killed: [they were] martyrs and [had been] wronged. When they had fallen dead the raiders went on board the boat, seized all the weapons and money which were in it and abandoned it, [leaving] the sultan and his companions there to be carried along by the current until [the vessel] drew near to Hannameedu.126 When the inhabitants spotted the vessel, they boarded it and saw [that] their sultan had been killed by a charging lancer, and the soldier (already mentioned) they also saw slain. They brought the two down and buried them on their island. The tomb of the (aforementioned) sultan is well known to this day, next to the entrance of their impressive mosque. He was killed on Wednesday, 28 Shawwal 1017 [4 February 1609] of the Hijra [namely the Emigration] of him [that is, the Prophet] from whose palm sweet water poured forth. The length of his rule was twenty-four years and two months. When the sultan had been killed and those raiders had plundered all that was in the boat they landed on Mahal and pillaged all the money that was in the Sultanic Palace. They harassed the relatives of the sultan and his womenfolk to [force them] to show where the money lay. They took captive Muhammad, son of ’Umar, that is al-T-k-la al-Aswad [Kalhu Tukkala], son of Amina Mawi [Mawa] Kilége, daughter of Maryam K-bad [Maryiam Kan’baidi] Kilége, daughter of Khatib ’Ali al-Utaymi, brother of Ghazi Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great, and brought him to the ’Ali Raja [of] Cannanore. The ’Ali Raja imprisoned him in his city of Cannanore for many years. Then there succeeded to the sultanate Vizier Husayn Fam-dar Kilége Ad-q-n alM-z-f-ri [Husayn Famudeyri Kilégefaanu],127 who was given the title of Sultan 126

An island in Ari atoll. The editor of the Tarikh says that M-z-f-ri is the nisba of Maadhaffaru [ Maduvvarie] island in Malosmadulu [Maalhosmadulu] North atoll, but it could be read as al-Muzaffari, derived from muzaffar, ‘victorious’. 127

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Husayn Fam-dar [Famudeyri] Kilége. He was a generous king, awe-inspiring, clement, just, intelligent, very merciful and compassionate towards the weak among [his] subjects. He had married K-ba ’A’isha, who had been the wife of Ghazi Sultan Ibrahim, son of Sultan Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great, when he was killed. She gave [Sultan Husayn] a daughter and three sons. The death of [Sultan Husayn] took place in Q-r-y-du128 on 15 Rabi’ l 1029 [19 February 1620]. He was buried by the mosque of Q-r-y-du in the Hijri year 1029. The length of his reign was eleven years and five months, bar a few days. Then, Sultan Muhammad ’Imad al-Din, son of ’Umar Maf-ha [Mafaiy] Kilége, succeeded to the sultanate. His mother was Amina Mawi Kilége, daughter of Mariyam Kan’baidi Kilége, daughter of Khatib ’Ali, brother of the Ghazi Sultan Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great. His title was Siri K-l S-n-d-r K-tt-r B-v-na M-har-d-n [Kula Sundura Kattiri Bavana]. He had married K-ba [Kanba] ’Ai’sha, the widow of Sultan Husayn Famudeyri. She gave him [Sultan Muhammad] a male child, who would be held in awe and would be eminent and perspicacious, and he named him (Sultan) Ibrahim. When Almighty God blessed him with a son, he wanted to [rebuild] the Sultanic Palace, just as you see it now, after it had fallen into ruin. He built a wall around it, in which he constructed apertures for the cannon, and dug a moat in front. In the fifth year of his reign, the Portuguese infidel B-lyaq129 came with a body of his Portuguese fellow-countrymen in boats, replete with implements of war to attack Sultan Muhammad ’Imad al-Din. The sultan gathered together his men and the viziers and extracted from them a covenant and pledge that they would not take flight, and he urged them on to fight those infidels. One who also goaded them on [to fight] was Qadi Muhammad, son of Na’ib Hasan al-M-y-duwwi al-Azzuwwi [al-Meeduvi al Adduvi]. At that time there were only five cannon in Mahal and [in Mahal] there was neither tower, fortress nor wall. [However], they did not cease to make war upon the infidels with [their] five cannon, while the latter fired at Mahal from the cannon in their boats. God Almighty protected the populace from their cannonballs and He directed the fire from the cannon of the Muslims on to their barks, so that the [enemy’s] men were hit and [the Muslims] continued to fight for the sake of God in that manner until He had instilled fear into the hearts of the godless infidels, with the result that they were driven off and sailed away in their boats, defeated. They burnt down the mosque at W-l-q-l130 and then returned to their country, Goa, unsuccessful, distressed, rueful [and] suffering loss. Sultan Muhammad ’Imad al-Din and his men were victorious and triumphant over their infidel enemies. God had granted them victory, despite their small number and the few cannon they [possessed]. ‘Surely that is no great matter for God’, for as God has [also] said,’[On that day the believers will rejoice] in God’s help. He grants 128

Guraidhu Island in Malé atoll. Domingos Ferreira Belliago. 130 Villingili, Malé atoll. 129

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victory to whom He wishes and He is the Strong and the Mighty’.131 This raid took place in the Hijri year 1034 [1624–5]. After this [Sultan Muhammad] built the large fort which was joined to the Sultanic Palace, and in it were made apertures for the big cannon, and he also [ordered the] construction of the rest of the towers on the coasts of the island.132 He fortified every two towers [by erecting] a wall between them, with gates and apertures for cannon by which any enemy would be repelled who might attack [the sultanate] from abroad from wherever he came. Then [Sultan Muhammad] built the wall that can be seen today by the edge of the seawater around the town. It surrounds the town completely, except for the gates through which boats133 and vessels134 enter and leave just as you see now. He made the town a fortress possessing the maximum fortification and strength [to resist attack]. [The sultan] then sent one of the ships belonging to Diba Mahal to the port of Aceh under the command of Mu’allim135 al-K-b-r-duwwi [al Kumburudu]136 to purchase cannon for him. They say that he bought fourteen cannon made of copper for Sultan Muhammad from the port of Aceh. Subsequently, God Almighty provided him with large cannon whenever the ships of the infidels were broken up on the reefs between the islands of the land of Diba Mahal. This was because the infidels, when a ship of theirs was routed, would board the vessel137 and seize whatever money they could and take flight to India or Malabar, leaving behind in the ship what remained of the money and [abandoning also] the cannon. In that way Sultan ’Imad al-Din took the money and the cannon as booty. His kingdom was consolidated, his support was succoured [by God], his sultanate was established and his capital was built up. His son became a grown man. Then he wanted to seize the kingdom of the maternal uncle of his son, al-Sam-yan Farna [al-Samiya Fashina] Kilége, the sultan of Maf-lafur [Mifilafushi],138 and sent

131

Qur’an: XIV, 20; extracted from Qur’an: XXX, 4–5 and XLII, 18. Fi atraf al-balad, lit. the outskirts of the country or town. Presumably balad here refers to the island of Mahal. 133 Hawari (sing. huri): a small dug out canoe, between ten and twenty feet in length. 134 Batati (sing. battil). These vessels were apparently of the same type as the gharb. They were noted for their speed and manoeuvrability and were therefore often used as war ships. They were used for travel within the atoll, while the gharb [Divehi: guraabu] was used for inter-atoll travel. The text, however suggests that gharb and battil were synonymous in the understanding of the authors. 135 The pilot or navigator of a ship. 136 Kumburudhu Island on South Tiladhummathi atoll. 137 Battil. 138 The editor of the Tarikh identifies this place as probably Maafilaafushi [Mafilafushi] on Fadippolhu atoll. Since the ruler is described as ‘sultan’ and is described as having a ‘kingdom’, this would suggest that Sultan Muhammad’s rule was not accepted throughout the Maldive islands. 132

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to that place, troops and a commander with boats abundantly provided with cannon and all other kinds of weapons. They attacked him but were unable to beat him, so they returned to their sultan, Muhammad ’Imad al-Din. [The latter] repeatedly sent [a force] to that end but could not capture him. Then [Sultan Muhammad] began to seize any soldier or vizier who was by himself, until [the sultan of Maf-lafur’s] rule became weak and he could not find people to help him. So control over Maf-lafur slipped from the throne of his kingship, and he set off for M-l-k,139 which belonged to the ’Ali Raja, where he stayed for a short time. Then [Sultan Muhammad] sent a body of men and seized him while he was sitting in the mosque of Maliku. They chained his legs with a silver chain and brought him to their sultan [in] Mahal. Then he was sent to F-w-n-m-l-k,140 where they housed him as a prisoner, [although] not in a prison or chained, but able to move around [as he pleased]. [He lived there] until he died – may God Almighty have mercy upon him and forgive him – which caused Sultan Muhammad ’Imad alDin to rejoice, since he had been delivered from the evil intents of his enemies and the envious, and the isles of his land were [now] under his full control. He was a great king and noble sultan, highly intelligent, possessing sound judgment and political acumen. He brought to life the realm of Diba Mahal after it had grown weak and feeble. He displayed the authority of the sultanate after it had suffered humiliation and degradation. He removed injustices and [every occasion] for disquiet from [his] subjects [and] adorned the necks of the people of his time with the necklaces141 of security and benevolence. He could become very angry and when he did he was unable to control himself. One result of this anger was his dismissal of the learned and venerable judge Sheikh Muhammad al-M-y-duwwi al-Azzuwwi [al-Meeduvi al-Adduvi] because he had changed one word in the prayers of the Khutba142 after he had [previously] established a good relationship with him and prayed for him in the Khutba. [Sultan Muhammad] did not forgive him and expelled him from Mahal with his three sons, all of them venerable, revered men of learning, and sent them to their place of birth, M-y-du [Meedu].143 He summoned Qadi Muhammad, son of Na’ib Hasan al-F-nduwwi [al-Fonaduvi], who had been the judge in the days of Ghazi Sultan Ibrahim, son of Ghazi Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great, and appointed him judge. When his son reached adolescence he consigned a sheikh to him to teach him the Qur’an and the conditions for the [performance] of the obligations of Islam [prayer, fasting, alms-giving 139

Maliku (Minicoy). Fua Mulaku (Foah Mulah) atoll. 141 The text here has atwaq not atraq, which does not make sense. 142 These are the prayers that are said towards the end of the Khutba (the sermon before the Friday prayer). 143 In Addu atoll. 140

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and so on] as well as the basic doctrines [of Islam]. Then he instructed him how to fire a cannon and a musket and [use] a dart, sword, shield and javelin. When the rule of [the sultan] had become firmly and solidly established and his sovereignty had become fully consolidated, his reign went on and on (but where lies [real] stability?) and all the travel routes and provinces [of his realm] had become secure for him (but what is this security in the hands of treacherous fate?). In this way the sun of his rule moved towards its setting and the full moon of his life waned. There is no escape from effacement after fullness, and cruel fate betrayed him and plots were hatched against him. The hand of destiny stretched out towards him, and neither the parapets of a fortress nor the stronghold of a castle could safeguard him from it; neither an army nor wealth nor children could protect him from the cutting swords of death. Death removed him from his sovereignty and the throne of his realm, and took off the splendid garments of his kingship, clothed him in a burial shroud and placed him in the bowels of the graveyard [where] ‘he possesses no power nor supporter’.144 He died on 5 Shawwal 1058 [23 October 1648] after the Hijra, and the length of his reign was twenty-nine years. His son Ibrahim succeeded to the sultanate, and he was twenty-eight years old. His title was Ibrahim Iskandar, and his Dibi title was Siri K-l-r-n-m-y-b Iskandar K-tt-r B-v-na M-har-d-n [Kularan Miba Iskandar Kattiri Bavana Maha Radun]. He was a highminded, revered king and an intelligent, forbearing and noble sultan. He was white [in complexion], tall, handsome, unique among the people of his time and place. No one could match him for distinction and magnanimity. He was intent [on doing good] and was a fine organizer. He was clement and patient, never rushing to punish anyone who disobeyed him, but [instead] he would wait until his anger subsided. He would forgive the shortcomings [of others]. He was the instructor par excellence of his contemporaries, and the people would learn from him the art of using a sword, a shield, a dart and how to fire a cannon and a musket and [how to] wrestle. He kept on good terms with the ulema in order that they would teach the people knowledge, so that the land would not become devoid of knowledgeable people, for he feared vengeance from God Almighty. He cherished students of knowledge and honoured them both in how he addressed them and in what he said [in praise of them]. However, he would not give them stipends. Indeed, he was parsimonious and he did not [see fit] to give them anything in the way of clothes and expenses. In his days the port of Diba Mahal was a port of bounty, a harbour to which would come ships from India, Aceh and every port with money, foodstuffs and every other kind [of merchandise]. The merchants would make an ample profit from selling their goods to the traders of the port and to individuals, since Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar gained nothing financially from this buying and selling, and he

144

Qur’an: LXXXVI, 10.

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did not prohibit individual citizens from selling their fish, qinbar, cowrie shells and coconuts. Indeed, he let them buy in exchange [for their goods] whatever they wanted from the people on the ships. He did not appoint an overseer to inspect the goods nor did he get from the merchants tithes or religious tax (zakat). In his days neither the head khazindar145 nor the shahbandar took any revenue from this trade with the ships, for during his rule those two men and the other officials [enjoyed] equal status. The raid of D-n-l-w-y-z and D-n-m-l-w-y-z [Dom Luis and Dom Malavis] took place in the ninth year of his reign. They say that they were the two sons of the daughter of Sultan Hasan who had apostasized from Islam and had gone to Goa, the land of the foreign Nasranis. They had come from the port of Goa with a band of cursed foreign Nasranis, with boats replete with weapons and cannon. When the sultan was informed that they were coming and that they were approaching the port of Mahal, he pondered [employing] his illuminated, certain and correct judgment and was determined in his strong, munificent heart to make war upon those despotic infidels. Then he summoned his three esteemed brothers and his eminent viziers and counselled them in [the matter]. They agreed to repel them with the mighty cannon, so they fired upon them, and God brought down those vile Nasranis and made them his Muslim slaves, and Islam victorious. Among the infidels killed were their leader D-n-m-l-w-y-z (his brother D-n-m -w-y-z was wounded), and a large number of them were slain. Then they turned back in flight to their country of Goa, routed, defeated, their hopes dashed, [and] having suffered loss. After that they despaired of Diba Mahal, [for they had been] deprived of what the sultans had given to them since the days of Sultan Muhammad (the grandfather of Sultan Hasan, who changed his religion and apostasized), because Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar after he was victorious in this raid did not hand over to the foreigners nor to the ’Ali Raja [of] Cannanore anything from the Diba Mahal taxes. He was a strong, independent-minded, victorious sultan. That celebrated raid took place in the Hijri year 1059 [1648]. Then when Sultan Iskandar did not give anything to the ’Ali Raja the latter sent a band of troops in boats replete with weapons to [fight] him. When they reached the edge of Diba Mahal [territory] the sultan received news of this and went out at the head of boats prepared to [confront them, equipped] with cannon, muskets, swords, lances and darts, along with his victorious men and eminent viziers. They met up with them while they were plundering the property of the country folk in the far reaches [outlying atolls] of [the land of] Diba Mahal and they repelled them with their massive cannon. God smote with their cannonballs some of their barks and they were speedily routed. ‘They turned around and fled, then they would have no helper.’146 They returned to

145 146

Treasury official. Qur’an: III, 111 with slight alteration.

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their land defeated, vanquished [and] unsuccessful. Then after a short while the ’Ali Raja again sent another force. When news of this reached the sultan, he sent a band of his victorious troops to fight them. They confronted them after they had burnt down the Friday Mosque of al-F-w-ri the Lesser [Kuda Fushi],147 and repelled them with massive cannon. There they were beaten and overturned, humiliated. ‘And God assists by His victory whomsoever He wills and He is the Strong and Mighty.’148 After the Malabar raiders had repeated their raids, and their harassment of the weak from among the subjects of the land of Diba Mahal by their violence and pillaging had become more frequent, Sultan Iskandar deliberated [using] his acute, correct judgment that he would erase this sedition and corruption [inflicted] upon the people of those villages and the remote areas, and so he sent a band of his victorious troops149 to the island of the ’Ali Raja [of] Cannanore, overlord of the islands of Divanduru [Androth]. So they entered the port of one of the islands and landed there with muskets, javelins, swords and darts and routed the populace and any of the ’Ali Raja’s men who were there. They pillaged their property and belongings, just as the ’Ali Raja’s men had pillaged the property of the islands [ruled by] the sultan of Mahal, and they burnt down their houses just as [the ’Ali Raja’s men] had burnt down the houses [on] the islands of Sultan Iskandar. Then they returned unharmed to their sultan, triumphant, victorious [and laden] with booty. When they arrived at the port of Mahal, the sultan received them with magnanimity and hospitality. Then the sultan summoned the governor of Maliku and its notables. He imprisoned them locally for several days and imposed upon them a small tax of twelve larins every year, which they would have to hand over to him, so that people would say that Sultan Iskandar owned Maliku, one of the ’Ali Raja’s islands – then he sent them [back] to their island of Maliku. At this the ’Ali Raja was speechless and kept quiet, and after [these events] was powerless to send [men] to the sultan to demand anything or [send men] to the outlying districts [atolls] of Diba Mahal to plunder anything from their villages. In this way the great disquiet that had existed between the sultans of Diba Mahal and the people of Cannanore was silenced, and after this [the two parties] became reconciled.

147

Malhosmadulu atoll. Qur’an: III, 13; XLII, 19. 149 The Arabic can be read in two ways: ‘to the island of [the ’Ali Raja of] Cannanore and to (wa-ila) the islands of Div Androth’ or ‘to the island of the ’Ali Raja [of] Cannanore governor (wali) of the islands of Div Androth’. The editor of the Tarikh gives the latter reading. 148

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(i)

217

Memorandum on the Maldive Islands, 1645 Excerpt from a Memorandum of the Overseas Council, Lisbon, entitled ‘Regarding a paper given by the king of the islands150 of the Maldives about certain matters concerning them, 2 March 1645’ Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisboa, Índia, caixa 29, no 126. Translation by Chandra R. de Silva and Manuela Mourão. This document is a summary of a plea sent by D. Luís de Sousa, claimant to the throne of the Maldives. The memorandum, which indicates that members of the Overseas Council had insufficient knowledge to appraise critically the exaggerated claims of riches that might be gained from the Maldives, gives some clues on the relative ignorance in Portugal about some parts of Asia even after a century and a half of experience in the Indian Ocean. As a result of this memorandum and orders sent to Goa, the Portuguese launched one last expedition to conquer the Maldives. The defeat of this expedition is recounted in document (h).

… When the most serene King Dom Manuel was ruling in Portugal, during the last years of his rule, in view of the necessity that his fleets had of rope for rigging, he sent an ambassador to the king who then governed in the kingdom of the Maldives, who was the great-grandfather of the present king, and the envoy was instructed to seek a commercial and religious alliance with him, as was customary with all the princes in the kingdoms of his conquests. As subsequent results illustrated, the said king accepted the envoy but, regarding the issue of the sale of rope, he answered that he would not sell any to His Highness; however, if he wanted to form an alliance with him and his descendants in perpetuity, and place himself and his kingdom under his [the Portuguese ruler’s] protection, to support them and defend them, he would give him one-third of his rope every year. This having been agreed on both sides, the said king contributed, while he was ruler, two thousand bahar of rope, and so from the Estado da Índia there would go four ships of the kingdom every year to protect the coasts and boats of the Maldives, the said four ships having been agreed to by perpetual contract by the most serene King Dom Manuel. Help was given for some years by the Estado da Índia with the said four ships, and some time later, when the most serene King Dom João III was ruling in Portugal, the said king of the islands, inspired by the Holy Spirit, went to Cochin to ask for Holy Baptism, which was given him with the usual celebrations and thanksgiving, followed by the congratulations of the said king of Portugal, with new confirma-

150

D. Luís de Sousa. See n. 37 above.

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tions of the alliances and protection that had been agreed to by the two crowns. The said king of the islands sent word to his wife, the queen, so that she might desire to imitate His Majesty, her husband, with the princes and the most prominent vassals of the kingdom, and to come to Cochin to receive our holy Catholic faith. However, the Queen followed another resolve and retired to the states of her brother, who was king in Gorsonda [?]. This was known by the then viceroy, Martim Afonso de Sousa, who married one of his nieces to the said king of the islands, by whom she had three sons and three daughters. The most prominent vassals of the Maldives, having learned of the decision of their king to leave wife, children and kingdom to seek a new religion and to marry in the lands of the king of Portugal, took care to elect governors to govern the Maldives in the absence of their king, recognizing him as such, [but] disposing of the kingdom as they saw fit and only sending the king what they saw fit from his revenues. The king sent news of these disorders to the viceroy, who sent a squadron of eight ships to the said islands, as a result of which things got better for a while, and help was given to him with some benefits. However, since owing to the king’s absence and to the lack of care of the viceroys, the corsairs in the said islands became more daring every day, things became worse, and the government became so tyrannical that the said king sent his son and heir, Dom Francisco, to this kingdom to give information to King Dom Felipe I, who was then ruler of this kingdom, to give an account of the state of the Maldives and [explain] that, because no heed had been paid to the obligation of the contract made with the kings of Portugal to order the Estado da Índia to guard the islands every year with four ships, they were oppressed by corsairs to the detriment of the revenues and authority of the Portuguese crown and of the said king. The said prince, Dom Francisco, was well listened to and sent back by King Dom Felipe. However, the orders were not executed because when they were about to be expedited, there died in this city the said prince, who was buried in São Domingos, with, [as] the said king ordered, the ceremonies due to a Catholic prince. There succeeded to his place in the kingdom his son, Dom João II,151 who immediately informed King Dom Felipe152 of his succession and of the state of the islands. However, it was inevitable that the kingdom of the Maldives would have the same fortune as other places in the Estado da Índia, losing forts and commerce, and being oppressed for so many years by the continuous invasion of pirates, not only from the Orient but also from the states of Europe. Dom Felipe, uncle to [the] king and brother to Her Majesty, Princess Dona Ines, succeeded King Dom João, his grandfather.153 Dom Frei Aleixo de Meneses then governed in India, and the

151

King of the Maldives. King of Portugal. 153 Of the present king. 152

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Malabar pirates, seeing the lack of protection given by the Estado da Índia to the Maldive Islands and that, because of the absence of its kings, there was no protection nor government there and being assured that no help would come from the Estado, armed sixteen ships, with which they attacked that kingdom and took from it great riches, as was stated in part in the certificate that was offered. On the main island of the Maldives they stole the treasures of the king’s royal ancestors, killing officials and the most prominent people. A report of all this was drawn up to send to the king of Castile, so that he could see the damage that resulted from the fact that the viceroys of India did not help as they ought according to the contract between the kings of this country and those of the Maldives. Finally, owing to the death of King Dom Felipe, the son of that king, who did not leave an heir, succeeded to the crown, as nephew [and] son of Princess Dona Ines, his father’s sister.154 [He is] most happy a thousand times because it was time that God turned his eyes to this kingdom, restoring it to Your Majesty. The Most Rightful Lord will turn his eyes as well to the Estado da Índia to return it to its ancient greatness. For this reason, foreseeing such a great good [and] having for so many years desired to come to offer himself in person for the service of Your Majesty and make him this offer of what is his, because these islands of Your Majesty are his kingdom, and Portuguese lands are part of the Estado da Índia and of this Crown and not a separate thing, and also to show Your Majesty the state in which that afflicted kingdom finds itself, he decided to undertake this journey, for which he already anticipates good success because of the favours he has received from Your Majesty, in the hope that Your Majesty will employ him in your service and will accept this small offer, so that, those islands, being administered for Your Majesty, will flourish as a kingdom and the brilliance of the Estado da Índia will be increased by our holy Catholic faith. In this way the nobility and the revenues of Your Majesty will achieve new profits greater than the state in which they used to be. The Maldives are as calamity-ridden as they can be, for they are exposed to continual invasions by corsairs, who constantly cause damage and deaths there. There is no one to help remedy these ills for, lacking the care of the king to assist, the regents steal what they can, not caring about anything but their own advantage and not helping to remedy what is needed. They know the king little more than by his name, and with all the islands under their control, they [the regents] send him what they please of his revenues … and for that little, they give as an excuse that the state does not comply with its obligation to defend the kingdom as agreed in the contract. However, the truth is that they have no fear because they have had no native kings for over one hundred years and, being sure they will not return to their kingdom, they have the opportunity to take these liberties.

154

See n. 37 above.

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The kings, their ancestors, have not till now been part of the government as it should be. The difference in religion and the tyranny and ambition of those who govern the islands, and the rebellion of others has caused them diffidence and uncertainty, or, more probably, the little favour they always found with the kings of Castile has taken from them the courage to make such attempts. There is no customs house for Your Majesty here, and because of this there was a break in the payment of tribute, because the present king’s great-grandfather, Dom Manuel, while he ruled paid two thousand bahar of rope after coming to Cochin and, not having punished the rebellions in the islands, they paid one thousand five hundred bahar. After the death of his great-grandfather things got worse, and they paid seven hundred bahar. In the time of his successor only two hundred bahar were paid, and in his time the king paid only fifty of the one hundred bahar of his revenues sent to him, which fifty bahar he paid punctually each year, as the factors and comptroller of revenue of Cochin can testify. This is the state of the kingdom of Maldives and of the property Your Majesty and the king155 have lost because of the lack of four ships, which for more than seventy years have failed to come to guard the islands, while neither the kings, his ancestors, nor the present king had ever failed to meet their obligation towards the Portuguese Crown. What Your Majesty should maintain for the pacification and entire obedience of these islands [and] to destroy tyranny and chastise rebellion will amount to sixteen ships of the kingdom called foists, with four hundred men. The expense that this fleet may entail is very limited and the king, in the service of Your Majesty, will give you information about this. Alternatively, noblemen and people experienced in island affairs can give it to him. After the arrival of this fleet at the main island, this expense, as well as the expense of building a fort, can be met immediately by the great quantity of ambergris, which, as it is the property of the Crown, the rulers and regents fear to keep. There is so much ambergris that, as the factors of this king who were there say, it is distributed in [several] storehouses. There are also a great many double coconuts,156 which are the privilege of that Crown. For the sustenance of the fleet and the progress of the fort there will immediately be available the revenues of the Crown and other taxes and dues157 which can be introduced, and with these that kingdom will be able not only to furnish the fleet for its defence, but also to aid the Estado da Índia. Moreover, there are in that island four hundred pieces of artillery of bronze and cast iron and nearly four thousand muskets, while in an island named pro Maluco na Patana de Suadur, there are the treasures of the ancestor kings where, in accordance with the style of those parts, the royal revenues in gold, silver, and precious stones were deposited. This island, where the regents have hidden everything for 155

King of the Maldives. cocos de contrapesonha. 157 frutas. 156

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fear of the Malabars, is deserted. Those who know of this island and of the place of the treasures are: a vassal of the king himself who lives in the Maldives, named Dorminay, the present governor of the armaments; Jenia, a native158 who lives in Cochin, administrator of the merchandise that comes from the islands to the said city, João Gomes, a native of the land [Portugal] who lives in Nossa Senhora da Ajuda and was in the said islands as factor of the said king; Domingos Vaz, a native of Nossa Senhora do Cabo who was also in the said islands; Jacinto de Faria, a native who was sent to the said islands by order of the king; and Adão Prolis (?), who lived there for a long time. The description referred to was signed by the king of the islands. The said paper having been seen in this Council, it was thought that, in view of what it described, a letter should be written to the viceroy of India as one who has current knowledge of all these things and who has much foresight, so that he may proceed as is most convenient for the service of Your Majesty, reporting everything to Your Majesty for your information. 2 March 1645 Jorge de Castilho; Jorge de Albuquerque; Jorge de [——] do Figueira.

158

homem de terra, meaning native of Portugal.

Glossary

addear (Tamil): honorific title. adigar (Tamil: adigar): revenue collector in Jaffna. alguazil: Portuguese official. alias (Sinh: alia): tuskless elephant. amuna: Sinhala measure of quantity, equal to about six bushels of rice in the husk or about 25,000 areca-nuts, or a surface measure equal to the sowing area of an amuna of rice. arratel: weight equivalent to approximately 453 g or 16 oz. arroba: weight equivalent to approximately 15 kg or 33 lbs. bagada: term used to denote South Indian mercenaries in Sri Lanka. bahar or bar (Arab: bahar): weight equivalent to 16 arrobas or 518 lbs. bastão (pl. bastões): liquid or dry measure in the Maldives equivalent to 25 alqueires or 325 litres. batgama: Sinhala caste group. brahmin: priest, member of the highest of the four hereditary Hindu caste. cabaya (Arab: qabä; Malay: kebaya): long outer garment or tunic worn in many parts of South and Southeast Asia. camelmas or calmelas (Maldiv.: kalu-bili-mas): bonito, tunny fish. candura: see gundra.

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casado: literally ‘married man’. European man who has married while living in a Portuguese overseas territory, usually to a native woman. catur (Skt: kartarí, ‘scissors’; Eng.: cutter): light rowing vessel used on the Malabar coast. champana (Malay: sampan; Chin.: san-pan, ‘three planks’): small boat used on the coasts of China, Japan and parts of India, propelled with a scull and sometimes a sail. comprador: native agent or factotum employed by European commercial and financial establishments in India and the Far East. cota or cotta (Tamil: kottei): measure of capacity in the Maldives equal to 13,000 cowries. Eight cota made up one pará. cruzado: Portuguese silver coin of 400 reis. disava (Sinh.: disava): province; also used to denote the administrator of a province and, under the Portuguese, the commander of lascarin forces. durava: Sinhala caste group. fanão: four silver fanões of Sri Lanka equalled one Cochin fanão and 18 Cochin fanões equalled one cruzado. fatwa: Islamic religious decree. feitor: factor, steward. fidalgo (filho d’algo): gentleman or member of the lesser nobility. fusta: foist, pinnace, small vessel of about 300 tons, with one or two masts, lateen rig and 15 or 16 banks of oars, sometimes called a galliot (Port.: galeota). gharb (Arab: pl. aghriba): a double-ended ship, sewn together by rope with a rope steering system. goyigama: Sinhala caste group, whose traditional occupation was farming. gundra or candura: Maldivian sailing vessel.

Glossary

225

jihad (Arab.: jihäd): holy war, internal struggle for purification. kaffir (Arab: käfir, ‘infidel’): term originally applied by Muslim Arabs to all pagans; later it became associated by the Portuguese particularly with black pagans, and later still was applied to any black-skinned person. kanakapulle: Tamil record keeper. karaiyar: caste group in South India and Sri Lanka, whose traditional occupation was fishing. karava: Sinhala caste group, whose traditional occupation was fishing. larim (Persian: lärï): silver coin made in the shape of a fishhook, used as money of account equal to 60–100 reis in Sri Lanka. One xerafim equalled three larins. lascar, lascarim (Hindi and Persian: lashkar ‘army’): Asian (originally Indian) soldier or sailor serving the Portuguese. marca: measure. maththakkar: minister, administrator. meirinho: bailiff, lay person appointed to watch over the behaviour of Christians. moxama: dried fish. mudaliyar (Tamil: muthali): high-ranking military officer. nalavar: a caste among the Tamils in Jaffna. nale (Tamil: nali): measure of capacity in the Maldives equivalent to approximately half a litre. Twelve nale equalled one cotta. nawab (Arab. and Hindi: nawwäb): deputy ruler or viceroy. nayak (Hindi: nayäk): ruler. ola (Malayalam: ola, Tamil: ölai; Sinh: puskola): palm-leaf manuscript; manuscript inscribed gold or copper plate.

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padrão: commemorative stone pillar bearing the royal arms, erected by Portuguese navigators as a mark of possession. pagode: ‘pagoda’, term used by the Portuguese to denote a Buddhist or Hindu temple or image, a Buddhist monastery or a mosque. pandaram: person of vellala caste. pará (Malayalam: para): measure of capacity for dry goods of different value in different parts of India. In the Maldives it was equivalent to 100 000 cowries. One pará equalled 100 nale. parava: caste group in South India and Sri Lanka whose traditional occupation was fishing. paraveniya (Sinh: paraveni): inheritable land grant. pardao: for silver pardao see xerafim. The gold pardao was worth 360 reis. português: Portuguese coin worth approximately 400 reis. pulla: a caste among the Tamils in Jaffna. qazi: Islamic judge. quintal (Arab: qintâr): weight ranging from 51 kg (light quintal) to 59 kg (heavy quintal), divided into 4 arrobas of 32 arrateis each. regimento: standing order issued by king or viceroy. salagama: Sinhala caste group, whose traditional occupation was weaving or cinnamon peeling. shari’a: Islamic law. sheikh (Arab.: shaïkh, ‘old man’): Muslim chief, head of a clan or tribe, religious teacher. sura (Concani: sür; Sanskrit: surä): sap taken from the spathe of various palms, especially the coconut palm. Used as a cooling drink and to make vinegar, an alcoholic liquor and jaggery.

Glossary

227

tanga (Concani: tang): coin worth a fifth of a silver pardao. tombo: register of lands and revenues, place where records are kept. ulema (Arab.:‘ulema, pl. of ‘älim, ‘learned’): in a Muslim country the body of theologians and expounders of the law; an individual learned in Islamic doctrine. Vädda or Vedda: aboriginal inhabitant of Sri Lanka. vanniyar (Tamil: vanniyan): chieftain of Vanni (area south of the kingdom of Jaffna). vellala: dominant caste among the Tamils in Jaffna, whose traditional occupation was farming. vidana: revenue collector or agent. xerafim (pl. xerafins; Arab: ashrafi, ‘noble’): silver coin minted in Goa and widely current in Portuguese Asia, worth between 300 and 360 reis. zambuco or sambuco (Arab: sanbuq): small dhow with one sail used for coastal navigation in western India and East Africa.

Bibliography

Published Primary Sources Abeyasinghe, Tikiri, Portuguese Regimentos on Sri Lanka (Colombo, n.d.) Alahapperuma, Aththanthari Wijayawardhana Abhaya, Sitawaka Hatana, ed. Rohini Paranavithana (Colombo, 1999) Alakesvara Yuddhaya, ed. A. V. Suraweera (Colombo, 1965) Arquivo Portuguêz Oriental, ed. J. H. Cunha Rivara, 6 vols (Nova Goa, 1857–77) Aubin, Jean ‘Francisco de Albuquerque, un juif castillan au service de l’Inde portugaise, 1510–1515,’ in Arquivos do Centro Cultural Português, VI (1974), pp. 175–202 Baldaeus, Philip, A True and Exact Description of the Great Island of Ceylon, trans. Pieter Brohier (Dehiwala, 1958) Barbosa, Duarte, The Book of Duarte Barbosa, ed. and trans. Mansel Longworth Dames (London: Hakluyt Society, 1921) Barbosa, Duarte, Livro em que dá relação do que viu e ouviu no Oriente, ed. Augusto Reis Machado (Lisbon, 1946) Barbosa, Duarte, O Livro de Duarte Barbosa, ed. Maria Augusta Viega de Souza, 2 vols (Lisbon, 1996–2000) Barros, João de, Asia, Dos feitos que os Portugueses fizeram no descobrimento e Conquista dos Mares e terras do Oriente (Lisbon, 1973) [Barros, João de and Couto, Diogo do], ‘The History of Ceylon from the Earliest Times to 1600 AD as related by João de Barros and Diogo de Couto’, trans. Donald Ferguson, Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XX (1908), pp. 1–445 Berjeau, J. (ed.), Le Second Voyage de Vasco da Gama a Calicut. Relation Flamande editée vers MDIV (Paris, 1881) Bocarro, António, Livro das plantas de todas as fortalezas, cidades e povoações do Estado da India Oriental, ed. A. B. de Bragança Pereira, Arquivo Português Oriental, Nova Edição, Tomo IV, Vol. II, 1937–8 Bulhão Pato, R.A. de and Lopes de Mendonça, H. (eds), Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, seguidas de documentos que se elucidam, 7 vols (Lisbon, 1884– 1935) Bulhão Pato, R.A. de (ed.), Documentos remettidos da India ou Livros das Monções, 4 vols (Lisbon, 1884–1935)

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Castanheda, Fernão Lopes de, Historia do Descobrimento e Conquista da India pelos Portugueses, ed. Manuel Lopes de Almeida, 9 vols (Porto, 1979) Coelho, Jose Ramos (ed.), Alguns documentos da Torre do Tombo ácerca das navegações e conquistas portuguezsas (Lisbon, 1892) Correia (Corrêa), Gaspar, Lendas da India, ed. Rodrigo José de Lima Felner, 4 vols (Lisbon, 1858–66) Couto, Diogo do, Dos feitos que os Portugueses fizeram na conquista e descobrimento das terras e mares do Oriente (Lisbon, 1973–5) Couto, Diogo do, and Barros, João de, Décadas da Asia (Lisbon, 1777–88) de Silva, C.R. (trans. and ed.), ‘The First Portuguese Revenue Register of Kotte, 1599 by Jorge Florim de Almeida’, The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, new series, V (1&2), (1975), pp. 71–153 Faria e Sousa, Manuel de, Asia Portuguesa, 3 vols (Porto, 1947) [Fernandes, Valentim], Códice Valentim Fernandes, with notes by José Pereira da Costa (Lisbon, 1997) ‘First Treaty of Peace between the Portuguese and the King of Kandy, 1617,’ trans. S. G. Perera, Ceylon Literary Register, Third Series, II (12) (December 1932), pp. 529–38; III, (1933), pp. 155–66 Flores, Jorge Manuel (ed.), Os Olhos do Rei: Desenhos e Descricões Portugueses da Ilha de Ceilão (1624, 1628), (Lisbon, 2001) Fontoura da Costa, Abel (ed.), Roteiros Portugueses ineditos da carreira da Índia do século XVI (Lisboa, 1940) As Gavetas da Torre do Tombo, 10 vols (Lisbon, 1960–74) Hasan Taj al-Din, Muhammad Muhibbal-Din and Ibrahim Siraj al-Din, The Islamic History of the Maldive Islands (Tarikh Islam Diba Mahal), ed. Hikoichi Yajima (Tokyo,1982) ‘Historical Records of the Society of Jesus’, trans. S. G. Perera, Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, III (1917–18), pp. 49–52 Jordão, Levy Maria (ed.), Bullarium Patronatus Portugallae Regem in Ecclesiis Africae, Asiae atque Oceaniae, vol. 1 (Lisbon, 1868) Judice Biker, C. (ed.), Collecção de Tratados e Concertos das Pazes que o Estado da India fez, vol. 1 (Lisbon, 1881) Kirimatiyawe, Maha Hatana, ed. T. S. Hemakumar (Kandy, 1964) ‘Last Treaty of Peace between the Portuguese and the King of Kandy, 1617’, trans. S. G. Perera, Ceylon Literary Register, Third Series, III (July 1934), pp. 289–95, 350–4, 403–5 [D. Manuel, King of Portugal], Geste Proxime per Portugalenses in India, Ethiopia et Aliis Orientalibus Terris (Rome, 1506) Mendo Trigoso, Sebastião, (ed.), ‘Navegação as Indias Orientais’, Collecção de Notiçias para a Historia e Geografia das Naçoes Ultramarinas que virem nos Domínios Portugueses, II (2) (Lisbon, 1867), pp. 153–217

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Orta, Garcia da, Colóquios dos Simples e Drogas da India, ed. Conde de Ficalho, 2 vols (Lisbon, 1891–2) Paranavithana, R. (ed.), Sitawaka Hatana (Colombo, 1999) Perniola, V. (ed.), The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka: The Portuguese Period, Volumes I–III (Dehiwala, 1989–91) Pessoa, António, ‘Livro que trata das cousas da India e do Japao’, ed. Adelino de Almeida Calado, Boletim Biblioteca da Universidade de Coimbra, XXIV (1960), pp. 36–9 Pieris, P. E. and Fitzler, M. A. Hedwig (eds), Ceylon and Portugal: Kings and Christians, 1539–1552 (Leipzig, 1927) Pires, Tomé, The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires and the Book of Francisco Rodriguez, trans. and ed. Armando Cortesão (London, 1944) [Pulavar, Matakal Mayilvakanap] The Yalpana-vaipava-malai, or, The History of the Kingdom of Jaffna, trans. and ed. C. Brito (New Delhi, 1999) Pyrard, François, Discours du voyage des François aux Indes Orientales [Voyage to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil] trans. and eds Albert Gray and H. C. P. Bell, 2 vols (London, 1887–90) Queyroz [Queirós], Fernão de, Conquista Temporal e Espiritual de Ceylão (Colombo, 1916) Queyroz (Queirós), Fernão de, The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, trans. S. G. Perera, 3 vols (Colombo, 1930) Radulet, Carmen (ed.), Vasco da Gama. La Prima Circumnavigazione dell’Africa, 1497–1499 (Reggio Emilia, 1994) Rajavaliya, ed. A. V. Suraweera (Colombo, 1976) Rajavaliya: A Comprehensive Account of the Kings of Sri Lanka, trans. A. V. Suraweera (Colombo, 2000) The Rajavaliya or A Historical Narrative of Sinhalese Kings from Vijaya to Vimala Dharma Suriya, trans. B. Gunasekera (Colombo, 1900; repr. 1954) Ramusio, Giovanni Battista, Navigazioni e Viaggi, 6 vols (Torino, 1978), Vol. II, pp. 537–709 Rebello de Silva, Luíz Augusto (ed.), Corpo Diplomático Portuguez, Vol. 1 (Lisbon, 1862) Schurhammer, G. and Voretsch, E. A. (eds), Ceylon sur Zeit des Königs Bhuvaneka Bähu und Franz Xavers, 1539–1552 (Leipzig, 1928) Silva Rego, António da (ed.), Documentação para a história das missões do padroado português do oriente. India, 12 vols (Lisbon, 1947–58) Trindade, Paulo da, Chapters on the Introduction of Christianity to Ceylon taken from the Conquista Espiritual do Oriente, trans. Edmund Pieris and Achilles Meersman (Colombo, 1972) Trindade, Paulo da, Conquista Espiritual do Oriente, ed. Felix Lopes, 3 vols (Lisbon, 1962–7) ‘Uma carta inedita de Valentim Fernandes’, published by A. Brasio with a transla-

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tion by Albin Beau, Boletim da Biblioteca da Universidade de Coimbra (24 (1960), pp. 5–25 Wicki, Josef (ed.), Documenta Índica, 14 vols (Rome, 1948–79)

Secondary Works Abeyasinghe, Tikiri, Jaffna Under the Portuguese (Colombo, 1986) Abeyasinghe, Tikiri, Portuguese Rule in Ceylon, 1594–1612 (Colombo, 1966) Alden, Dauril, The Making of an Enterprise: The Society of Jesus in Portugal, Its Empire, and Beyond, 1540–1750 (Stanford, 1996) Alpers, Edward A., Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa (London, 1975) Aubin, Jean, ‘Le Royaume d’Ormuz au début du XVIe siècle’, Mare Luso Indicum, II (1973), pp. 77–179 Bell, H. C. P., The Maldive Islands. Monograph on the History, Archeology and Epigraphy (Colombo, 1940) Biedermann, Zoltán, ‘Tribute, vassalage and warfare in early Luso-Lankan relations(1506–1545)’, in Fatima Gracias and Charles Borges, eds. Indo-Portuguese History: Global Trends. Proceedings of the XIth International Seminar of IndoPortuguese History (Goa 2005), pp. 185–206. Bouchon, G., ‘Les Rois de Kotte au début du XVIe siècle’, Mare Luso-Indicum, I (1971), pp. 65–96 Bouchon, G., ‘A propos de l’Inscription de Colombo (1501). Quelques observations sur le premier voyage de João de Nova dans l’Océan Indien’, Revista da Universidade de Coimbra, 28 (1980), pp. 235–70 Bouchon, G., Regent of the Sea: Cannanore’s Response to Portuguese Expansion, 1507–1528 (Delhi, 1988) De Silva, Chandra R., ‘Beyond the Cape: The Portuguese Encounter with the Peoples of South Asia’, in Stuart B. Schwartz (ed.) Implicit Understandings: Observing, Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 295–322 De Silva, Chandra R., ‘Colonialism and Trade: The Cinnamon Contract of 1533 between Bhuvanekabahu, King of Kotte and António Pessoa, Portuguese factor in Kotte’, University of Colombo Review, 10 (Dec. 1991), pp. 27–34 De Silva, Chandra R., ‘The First Visit of the Portuguese to Ceylon 1505 or 1506?’ in L. Prematilleke, K. Indrapala and J. E. Van Lohuizen-De Leeuw (eds), Senerath Paranavithana Commemoration Volume (Leiden, 1978), pp. 218–20 De Silva, Chandra R. ‘Lancarote de Seixas and Madampe: A Portuguese Casado in a Sinhalese Village’, Modern Ceylon Studies, II (1970), pp. 18–34 De Silva, Chandra R., The Portuguese in Ceylon, 1618–1638 (Colombo, 1972) De Silva, Chandra R. ‘Portuguese Interactions with Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the Sixteenth Century: Some Parallels and Divergencies’, Sri Lanka Journal of

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the Humanities, XXVII & XXVII (2001–2), pp. 1–23 De Silva, Chandra R., ‘The Rise and Fall of Sitawaka’, in K. M. de Silva (ed.), University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka (Peradeniya, 1995), pp. 61–104 De Silva, Chandra R., ‘Sri Lanka in the Early Sixteenth Century: Economic and Social Conditions’, in K. M. de Silva (ed.), University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka (Peradeniya, 1995), pp. 37–60 De Silva, Chandra R., ‘Sri Lanka in the Early Sixteenth Century: Political Conditions’, in K. M. de Silva (ed.), University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka (Peradeniya, 1995), pp. 11–36 De Silva, Chandra R. and Pathmanathan, S., ‘The Kingdom of Jaffna up to 1620’, in K. M. de Silva (ed.), University of Peradeniya. History of Sri Lanka (Peradeniya, 1995), pp. 105–21 Diffie, Bailey W. and Winius, George D., Foundations of the Portuguese Empire 1415–1580 (University of Minnesota Press, 1977) Ferguson, Donald W., ‘The Discovery of Ceylon by the Portuguese in 1506’, in Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XIX (1907), pp. 284– 385 Fitzler, M. A. Hedwig, ‘Die Maldiven im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert. Ein Kapitel portugiesischer Kolonialgeschichte’, in Zeitschrift für Indologie und Iranistik, X (1935–6), pp. 215–56 Flores, Jorge M., Hum Curto Historia de Ceylan: Five Hundred Years of Relations between Portugal and Sri Lanka (Lisbon, 2001) Flores, Jorge, Os Portugueses e o Mar de Ceilão: Trato, Diplomacia e Guerra (1498–1543) (Lisbon, 1998) Flores, Jorge (ed.), Exploring the Links: History and Constructed Identities between Portugal and Sri Lanka (Wiesbaden, 2007) Jackson, Kenneth David, Sing without Shame: Oral Traditions in Indo-Portuguese Creole Verse (Philadelphia, 1989) Jayasuriya, Shihan de Silva, From Tagus to Taprobane: Portuguese Impact on the Socio-culture of Sri Lanka (Dehiwala, 2001). Pearson, Michael N., Merchants and Rulers in Gujerat: The Response to the Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century (Berkeley, 1976) Perera, C. Gaston, Kandy Fights the Portuguese: A Military History of Kandyan Resistance (Colombo, 2007) Quèrè, Martin, ‘Beginnings of the Portuguese Mission in the Kingdom of Kotte’, Aquinas, V (1988), pp. 71–99 Roberts, Michael, ‘A Tale of Resistance: The Story of the Arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka’, Ethnos, 54 (1–2) (1989), pp. 69–82 Ryan, Michael T., ‘Assimilating New Worlds in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 23 (1981), pp. 519– 38

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Stoler, Ann L., ‘Rethinking Colonial Categories: European Communities and the Boundaries of Rule’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31 (1989), pp. 134–61 Schurhammer, Georg, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, 4 vols (Rome, 1976–80) Strathern, Alan, Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth Century Colonial Sri Lanka: Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Land (Cambridge, 2007) Strathern, Alan, ‘Towards the source-criticism of Sitavakan heroic literature, Part One: The Alakesvara Yuddhaya: Notes on a floating text’, The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities, XXXII (2006), pp. 23–39. Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700: A Political and Economic History (London and New York, 1993) Villiers, John, ‘The Portuguese in the Maldive Islands’, in T. F. Earle and Stephen Parkinson (eds), Studies in Portuguese Discoveries I: Proceedings of the First Colloquium for the Study of the Portuguese Discoveries (Warminster, 1992), pp. 17–34.

Index

’Abd al-Rahman 201, 202 Abu Bakr, Sultan 178, 201 Aceh 175, 180, 212, 214 Achchuveli 134 Adam’s Peak 25, 28 Aden 195 ’Adil Khan 195 Addu 176 adigar(s) 58, 143, 144, 148, 149, 150, 223 adiguars 64 Adiri Adiri 178, 202, 204 Aisha, widow of Sultan Ibrahim 179 al-Fansur 197 al-Sam-yan Farna [al-Samiya Fashina] Kilége 212 Alakanmaivallamuthali 134, 135 Alakesvara Yuddhaya 2, 18, 75 alguazil 192, 223 Alho, Martim 6 ’Ali, Sultan 199, 201, 202 ’Ali IV 174 ’Ali V 175 ’Ali Kahil 208 ’Ali Raja 174, 175, 180, 199, 204, 205, 210, 213, 215, 216 alias 142, 143, 144, 223 ’alim 207, 208 alms 74 alquama 186 ambergris 176, 184, 186, 193, 196, 220 Ambuluwa 171 amethysts 24 Amina Mawi [Mawa] Kilége 210, 211 animals 39–40 Anriques, Anrique 125 Anuradhapura 44 apostasy 201, 215 Appa, daughter of 129 Arabian Sea xviii

Arali 134 areca-nut 8, 30, 34, 38 n.37, 41, 55, 149, 155, 162 aretane 143 Ari xxi, 201 n.88, 210 n.126 armour 19 arrack 102 arrows 44–5, 124 artillery 67, 114, 115, 116, 118, 119, 124, 162, 164, 170, 220 atecorlea 41 atolls xxi, 176, 178 Aubin, Jean 23, 193 Azamor 119 Bab el Mandeb 13 Baba Abdullah 175, 191 n.55, 193–7 badagas 137, 138 bahar 30, 223 Balana 154, 155, 162, 164, 170, 171 bandari 47 baptism 37, 67, 74, 81, 84, 85, 91, 92, 97, 100, 101, 104, 105, 106, 107, 119, 126, 136, 139, 145, 217 Barbosa, Duarte 23, 25, 185 Barbudo, Duarte 59, 60, 61, 65, 80 n.8 Bardes 40 Barreto, António Moniz 79 Barreto, Dom Constantino 165, 167, 169 Barreto, Dom Pedro Francisco 198 Barzeus, Father Master Gaspar 34 Bassein 136 batgama 47, 223 Batticaloa 44, 45, 46, 79, 80, 106, 107, 111, 135, 140, 154, 156, 166–7, 168, 171 bears 145 beatilha 46 Belliago, Domingos Ferreyra 180, 211 n.129

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Benasterim 195 Bengal 29, 30, 31, 93, 179, 185, 186, 187, 190, 197 berawaya 47 berbaya 47 betel 30, 34, 37–8 bezoar stone 190 Bhuvanekaba, King 21, 22 Bhuvanekabahu, King 21, 51–75, 77, 78, 79, 80, 105 n.45 Bijapur 195 n.73 B-lyaq see Domingos Ferreyra Belliago blacksmiths 44 Bocarro, Manuel 160, 165, 167, 169 Bokara Bevila 170 Bouchon, Geneviève 174, 176 Brahmin(s) xx, 25, 223 Bruno, Fr I. 139 Buddhism 153 n.1, 156 Buddhist ideals 19 Buddhist monks 23, 38 Buddhist priests 29 Buddhist religion 75 Buddhist temples 34, 40 Buddhists xviii, 72, 128 buggalows 13 Bulatgama 170 Buraki Rani 175, 177 butter 118, 191 Butuqua, Jerónimo 177 Cabral, Luís 138 Cabral, Pedro Álvares 17 Caldeira, Lourenço 165 Calicut xxi, 8, 11, 12, 111, 177, 181, 184, 192 Cambay 5, 8, 27, 31, 183, 184, 185 camelmas 183, 223 canacapole 41 Canarese 47 Canaris 113 Çankili 128, 133 Cannanore xv, xxi, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 179, 180, 186, 188, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 204, 205, 210, 215, 216 cannon xv, 12, 19, 180, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216 cannonballs 14, 20, 211, 215

Cão, Lopo 13 cardamom 33, 40 Cardiva 140 Cardoso, Jaime Mendes 17 carea 47 cartazes xv, 63, 179 Carvalho, Francisco 160, 169 Carvalho, Paulo 165, 167, 169 Casa da Índia 4 casado(s) 84, 114, 158, 177, 223 Castaneda 150 caste groups xviii high 145, 146 low 46–8, 75 Castile, king(s) of 219, 220 Catarras, Dom António de Noronha 114, 115, 116, 117, 121, 123, 124, 125 Catarina, Queen Dona, of Kandy see under Kusumasana Devi Catarina, Queen of Portugal 72 Catholic Faith 119, 198, 218, 219 Catholicism 128 Ceilão xiii n.1, xx Ceylon xiii, 2, 8, 14, 17, 18, 46, 184, 187 king of 42, 89 Chakrayudha, Prince 20 chaleaz 47 champana(s) 54, 55, 56, 63, 89, 224 chandaz 47 chank(s) 33, 127 charges by vicars for burials 149 for weddings 149 Chekarasa Sekaran 125 n.22 chickens 118, 150, 182 Chilaw 28, 30, 43, 55, 113 China 187 Christianity xxi, 2, 62, 66, 92, 108, 156 conversion to xv, xvii, xviii, xix, xx, 34, 48, 51, 52, 57, 58, 61, 65, 66, 77, 78, 79, 81, 87, 94, 96, 97, 101, 103, 104, 105, 109, 110, 111, 119, 122, 128, 145–7, 153 n.1, 177, 178, 205 Christian(s) 54, 61, 62, 65, 69, 82, 85, 94, 99, 108, 122, 125, 126, 127, 145, 146, 156, 164, 170, 181, 199 n.82, 203 Asian xiv

Index children 103, 147 converts 53, 54, 55, 57–9, 60, 61, 67, 109, 110, 129, 139, 162, 164, 170 names after baptism 83, 85, 99, 107 native 66 Portuguese 54 proselytization 78 women 35, 159 church(es) 58, 63, 65, 66, 72, 73, 85, 100, 139, 140, 141, 145, 146, 149, 156, 162, 164, 170, 181 cinnamon xiv, xviii, xxi, xxii, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 17, 24, 25, 26, 28 n11, 30, 31, 32, 33, 40, 43, 47, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 63, 66, 67, 68, 102, 155, 162 cinnamon ship 100 Christóvão, Dom Frei 139 circumcision 48 clergy xxi native 147 cloves 5 Cochin xx, 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 25, 33, 54, 68, 89, 92, 113, 125, 139 n.45, 175, 177, 178, 191, 194, 196, 201, 217, 218, 220, 221 bishop of 113, 114, 119, 122, 126 coconut(s) 8, 11, 34, 133, 181, 183, 184, 188–9, 190, 215, 220 oil 33, 184 Coimbra 34 coinage 30, 67 coir xiv, 34, 93, 174, 176, 177, 187, 188, 189, 190, 196, 198 rope 173 n.4, 176, 184, 186, 188, 193, 197, 217, 220 Collaco, António 88 college(s) 74 Colombo xv, xix, 1, 5, 8, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 48, 52, 64, 71, 84, 86, 89, 94, 97, 139 n.45, 154, 158, 159, 160, 165, 166, 168, 176, 177 compensation 109 Comorin 29, 53, 113 compradores 122, 224 concubinage 36 concubines 151 Confraternity 63, 66

237

copper 29 coral 33 Cordovil, Fernão Gomes 113, 121 Coromandel 27, 28, 29, 30, 190 Correia, Gaspar 1, 7, 13 Correia, João Fernandes 118, 121, 123, 124 Correia, Simão 75 Correia, Vicente 113 corsairs 218, 219 see also pirates Cotrim, Fernão 6, 11 cotton 183, 186, 190, 191 Coutinho, Dom João 138 n.44 Coutinho, Manuel Rodrigues 58, 62, 125, 127 cowrie-shells 173 n.4, 182, 183, 185, 187, 190, 197, 215 cows 110, 120, 149, 151, 191 craftsmen 30 crocodiles 25 crosses 72, 104 customs house xvii, 114, 220 Cutrim, Fernão 13, 15, 16 D. João 59 n.17, 61 n.21, 105 D. Luís 59 n.17, 61 n.21, 68, 111, 137 n.39 D. Manuel 178 D. Pedro 137 n.39 D. Sebastião 124 D’Ayora, Francisco 62 d’Ourea, Cristovão 95 da Câmara, Ambrósio de Freitas 142 n.51 da Costa, Bernardo 165, 167 da Costa, D. Jorge xxi da Costa, Francisco 117 da Cunha, Diego de Sousa 166, 168 da Gama, D. Estêvão 51 da Gama, D. Francisco 42 n.47 da Gama, Gaspar xx da Gama, Vasco xix, xx, 28 n.12 da Silva, Luís de Melo 114, 115, 116, 119 da Silva, Pero 141 da Trinidade, Frei Paulo 73, 136 Dakkini 48 dâkum 19, 21 dal Bocchier, Francesco 23, 25 Dalade, pagode of the 74 de Albergaria, Lopo Soares 26, 176, 196 de Abreu, Lopo Gomes 142

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de Abreu, Vitorino 160, 166, 169 de Albuquerque, Afonso 174, 175, 176, 191, 192, 194, 199 de Albuquerque, Fernão 138 de Albuquerque, Francisco 23 de Albuquerque, João 96 de Albuquerque, Jorge 221 de Almeida, D. Lourenço xx, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 174 de Almeida, Diogo 9, 10, 11 de Almeida Cabral, Pero 165, 167, 169 de Almeida Calado, Adelino 31 de Almeida, Jorge Florim 40–43 de Almeida, Viceroy Francisco 1, 3 n.6, 5, 174 de Araújo, D. Manuel da Silveira 178 de Araujo, João Vaz 166, 167, 169 de Ataide, António 198 de Azevedo, D. Jerónimo 42 n.47, 43, 155 de Azevedo, Gaspar 69, 70, 71 de Azevedo, Manuel de Oliveira 160, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169 de Barros, João 1, 4, 187 de Betancor, Frei Pedro 139 de Bragança, D. Constantino 110, 112–25, 126 de Bragança, Dom Jaime 119 de Brito, Diogo Mendes 141 de Brito, Manuel Correia 167 de Carvalho, Miguel 86 de Castelobranco, Dom Martinho 6 de Castelobranco, Fernão de Sousa 114, 119, 122, 123, 124 de Castilho, Jorge 221 de Castro, Dom Alvaro 82, 85, 88, 91, 97, 98 de Castro, D. João 52, 60, 64–6, 79, 81, 82, 88, 92, 93, 97–8, 103 de Castro, Dom Jorge 91 de Castro, Jorge de Melo 127 n.24 de Coimbra, Frei Simão 85 n.13, 88, 98– 108 de Faria, Jacinto 221 de Fonseca, António 64, 70 de Lima, Frei Sebastião 160, 166, 167, 169 de Macedo, Duarte Teixeira 53, 57, 59, 63, 67 de Macedo, Lourenço Ferreira 160

de Macedo, Lourenço Teixeira 169 de Macedo, Luís Teixeira 168 de’ Medici, Lorenzo xx de Melo, Governor Martim Afonso 109 de Melo, Manuel Cabral 167 de Meneses, Dom Fernando 115 de Meneses, Dom Frei Aleixo 218 de Miranda, Martim Afonso 114, 119 de Monteprandone, Frei Francisco 68 n.31, 83 n.11, 84, 86, 88, 91 de Navaes, Miguel Ferrão 160 de Noronha, Dom Afonso 198 n.81 de Noronha, Dom Diogo 72, 73 de Oliveira, Felipe 137, 138, 142 n.51, 160, 166, 167, 169 de Queirós, Fernão 1, 12, 13, 23, 44 de S. Agostinho, Frei Gaspar 166, 169 de S. Maria, Frei Manuel 137 de Sá, Garcia 68 de Sá de Miranda, Constantino 44, 45, 46 de Sá de Noronha, Constantino 111, 137 n.37, 138 de Sá Tinoco, Bento 160, 165, 169 de Saldanha, Aires 115 de Seixas, Lançarote 160, 161, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169 de Sequeira, Diogo Lopes 174, 176 de Silveira, D. João 176 de Sousa, André 78, 83, 84, 85, 86, 89, 90, 92–3, 94, 95, 101 n.41 de Sousa, Diogo 158 de Sousa, Jerónimo xviii de Sousa, D. Luís, king of the Maldives 217–21 de Sousa, Martim Afonso 77, 98 n.37, 104, 218 de Sousa, Paio 6, 7, 13, 16 de Vasconcelos, João Fernandes 69, 70 de Vila de Conde, Frei João 52, 60, 68 n.31, 69, 74, 78, 80, 82, 83, 94 de Vilalobos, André 123 Deccan 27, 48 Deigashirai 171 Denawaka 154 Devinuwara 30, 72 di Sena, Fr Bernadino 140 diamonds 16, 40 Dias, Gaspar 6

Index Diba Mahal 199, 202, 206, 207, 208, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216 discipline(s) 36, 146 dissava 138, 168, 224 Diu, siege of 97, 103 Divanduru [Androth] 216 ‘Divi’ xiv, 181 Dharma Parakramabahu IX, King xx, 14, 19, 20 Dharmapala, king of Kotte 153 do Couto, Diogo 112 do Figueira, Jorge de [—] 221 do Lacerda, Manuel de Sousa 142 do Soveral, Inofre 113 Dom Francisco 218 Dom João 196 Dom Manuel 220 Don Gh[a]rsh[i] 195 Don Luiz [D-n-l-w-y-z] 215 Don Malaviz [D-n-m-l-w-y-z] 215 Dorminay 221 dues 140, 149, 220 customs 55, 64 entry and anchorage 67 register 142, 143 durawa caste 75, 224 Dutch, the xv, 111, 141, 156, 179, 180 Dutch ships 168 duty 151 Dyvi Mahal 182 eaglewood 33 East African coast xvi Elephant Pass 122 n. 20 elephants xviii, xx, 5, 8, 10, 12, 16, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, 33, 39, 42, 43, 81, 87, 89, 101, 109, 110, 120 n.18, 126, 137, 138, 142, 143, 144, 145, 155, 162, 163, 170 Elephants’ Quay 113, 116, 118, 143 emeralds 16 English 156, 162 entrepreneurs 77 Estado da Índia xvi, 52, 217, 218, 219, 220 Eucharist 19 expenses 86, 90, 92, 93, 95 Façanha, Frei Diogo 160, 166, 167

239

factor(s) xvii, 32, 33, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 63, 64, 69, 70, 71, 79, 86, 101, 144, 179, 220, 221 death of 31 in Kotte 31 of Jaffna 143 factory, trading 1, 7, 17, 77, 81, 99, 101, 176 Falcão, Aires 113, 124 Falcão, Gonçalo 114, 115, 116, 119 Faqih Ahmad al-’Arabi 209 Faria de Sousa, Manuel de 155 Father Guardian 58, 83, 84, 86, 87, 94 fatwa 210, 224 feitor(es) 17, 32, 55, 224 feitoria 13, 33, 42, 99 Felidi xxi Felipe I, king of Portugal 218 Feridu 201 Fernandes, Fr Matheus 140 Fernandes, Miguel 84, 93–5 Fernandes, Valentim xx, xii, 8, 180, 181 Ferraz, Miguel 167 Ferreira, António 79–81, 84, 94 Ferreira, Gaspar 160 Ferreira, Gomes 86 Ferreira, Jerónimo 169 Ferreira, João Nunes 166, 169 Ferreira, Miguel 106 Ferreira, Tomé 160, 166, 167, 169 fidalgo 35, 224 Figueiredo, Aires 89 n.23 fish 33, 36, 37, 181, 190, 215 dried 173 n.4, 174 Fishery Coast 55, 78, 89, 125 Flores, Jorge Manuel 44 focaria 25 Fonadhu island 209 n.125 food customs 34, 37–8 fort(s)/fortresses 22, 26, 41, 43, 73, 110, 111, 114 n.10, 125, 126, 130, 131, 134, 140, 150, 154, 156, 166, 168, 176, 177, 182, 193, 195, 199, 211, 212, 218, 220 first Portuguese xv ‘Fortaleza do Cais’ 114 no.10 Four Korales 47 fowls 11, 118, 120

240

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Francis, St 42, 74 Franciscan friar(s) 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 42, 94, 97, 119, 138, 139, 156, 164, 170 Franciscan missionaries 52 Franciscan Order 73, 119, 136, 139 Franciscans 80, 122, 126, 136, 158 French 162 friar(s) 43, 58, 62, 65, 72, 77, 83, 87, 90, 98, 99, 101, 103 Frois, Fr Jerónimo 140 Fua Mulaku [F-w-n-m-l-k] 213 Fuk[a]r Husayn Malibari 195 Funadu 205 Galavana Bucalavai 171 Galhia Balavai 170 Galle 1, 5, 6, 14, 29, 43, 71, 84, 89, 94, 99, 111, 180 gamea 41 Gan island 199 garnets 24 garrison(s) 41, 176 Ghazi 207 ginger 40, 102 Goa xvii, 20, 22, 34, 40, 42, 47, 48, 59, 77, 83, 96 n.35, 111, 117, 136, 138, 155, 175, 178, 180, 194, 195, 198, 199, 201, 211, 215, 217 God 12, 14, 19, 28, 34, 36, 39, 58, 63, 65, 66, 69, 74, 93, 94, 96, 98, 149, 203, 211 Godinho, Manuel 142 gods 46, 99 gold 10, 17, 19, 24, 25, 26, 30, 38, 39, 48, 103, 182, 186, 220 leaf 13 trade in xvi Gomes, João 221 Gomes Cheiradinheiro, D. João 176 Gonçalves, António 84 greed 97 goyigama caste 75, 224 Guedes 86 Gujarat 97, 186 Gujaratis 176 Gulf of Mannar xviii, 138 Haddhummathi atoll 209 n.125

Hadramaut 208 hair shirt 146 Hajj ’Ali 204, 207 Hajj ’Ali Doriméná 207 Hannameedu 210 Hasan, Sultan 201, 215 Hasan VII 174, 175 Hasan IX 177, 178, 179, 180, 197 Hasan al-Hilali 200, 201 Hasan Shirazi VIII 177, 200, 208 Hasan Taj al-Din 199 hakuru 47 Henriques, Dom Afonso 105 hermitage 13, 17 Hindu rulers 110 Hindu temple(s) 29, 40, 110 Hindu tradition 34 Hindus 72 Hindustan 48 Hira-hura 46 Hollanders 162 see also Dutch Hormuz 194, 195, 196, 197 see also Ormuz hostage(s) 15, 110, 125, 126, 156, 162, 164, 170 Husain II 179 Husayn Fam-dar Kilége Ad-q-n al-M-z-f-ri [Husayn Famudeyri Kilégefaanu] 210– 11 Huvadu 176, 209 n.124 Ibrahim III 179, 209, 210, 211, 213 Ibrahim Fa-r-na [Fashina] Kilége 201 Ibrahim Iskander 179, 180, 200, 211, 214– 16 Icapocar 175, 191 Idalgashinna 170 idol(s) 25, 38, 47, 205 ill-treatment by vicars 149–51 imprisonment 179, 210 indemnity 110 India xvi, xviii, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 33, 34, 40, 48, 52, 77, 78, 79, 94, 102, 104, 106, 107, 110, 111, 113, 136, 154, 156, 177, 183, 184, 185, 187, 190, 192, 193, 197, 212, 214, 218, 219, 221 Indian Ocean 1, 217 Ines, Princess Dona 218, 219

Index Inquiry into Abuses 147–51 insurrection(s) 56, 141 Ioncolavaddanava 48 Irayarednamuthali 135 ’Isa al-Zayla’i 207 Islam 179, 200, 202, 203, 204, 206, 213, 214, 215 Islamic faith 201 Islamic law 208 Island of the Cows 137 Italy 48 ivory xvi, 30, 45, 48 J-n-k-m M-sh 196 jacinths 24 Jaffna xv, xviii, xxi, 21, 44, 45, 46, 56, 91, 105, 109–51 College of 146 crown prince 110, 114, 116, 117, 120, 121, 125 Kandyan invasion 139–41 king 114, 116, 117, 120, 121, 126, 168 Portuguese conquest 1619 Portuguese invasion 1560 112–25, 125–7 ruler of 109, 110, 111, 112 siege 122 jaggery 47, 190 jak 56 Jamal K-lu [Kalo] 210 Jaques, Henrique 124 Java 188 Jayavira Bandara, king of Kandy 61 n.22, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 88, 98 Jayawardhanapura 21 Jenia 221 Jesuits 34, 39, 43, 78, 110, 112, 158 Annual Letter on Conversions 145–7 jihad 203, 204, 224 João II, Dom 218 João III, King of Portugal 4, 51, 52, 53, 64, 68, 70, 97, 98, 217 João Dharmapala, Dom 73, 74, 110 n.5 Jugo 105 Kabádi Kilége 201 Kachchai 134 Kakkaivanniyan 129, 132, 134 Kalliyankadu 134

241

Kalpitiya 55, 139 n.45 Kalu Muhammad 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 191 n.55, 192 n.61, 193 n.63, 199 Kalutara 43 kanakapulle(s) 142, 146, 150, 225 Kandy xvii, xviii, xix, xxi, 46, 77–108, 111, 128, 143, 153, 154, 156, 166, 168, 170 king of 45, 46, 47, 52, 67, 78, 80, 81, 84, 86, 87, 89, 90, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 106, 111, 140, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 168, 169, 170, 171 limits 170–71 peace treaty 1617 153–71 prince of 91, 96, 97, 100, 102, 104, 106, 107, 158, 159 princess of 86, 87, 99, 100, 159 trade embargo 143 n.54 Kangkatharar 135 Kanthasuvamy 135 Karaikkal 135 Karaittivu 113 n.10 karaiyars , king of 137, 138, 225 Karaliyadde Bandara 79, 158 n.14 Karathivu 135 karava caste 47, 75, 154 n.6, 225 K-ba [Kanba] ’A’isha 211 Kelaniya 73, 74 Khatib ’Ali 203, 204, 211 Khatib ’Ali al-Utaymi 210 Khatib Hasan 203, 207 Khatib Husain 203 Khatib Muhammad 178, 204 Khatib Muhammad al-Akbar 206 Khatib Muhammad al-Utimi 203, 205, 206 khatibs 173 n.3 khazindar 215 Khutba 213 Khwaja B[a]gh[i] 195 kids 150 Kirimalai 134, 135 Klings 29 k lathiri of Cannanore 174, 175, 177, 179, 199 Kollum 31, 176 Konnappu Bandara 153 n.1 Kosgama 170

242

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Kotte xiv, xv, xvii, xvii, xxi, 1, 12, 13, 15, 16, 34, 35, 37, 51, 62, 71, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 91, 154, 155 king of 2, 4, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 52, 53, 67, 68, 81, 86, 87, 93, 94, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109, 120, 128, 135, 153 kingdom 40, 153 Kottiyar 171 Kuda Fushi [al-Fw-ri the Lesser] 216 Kumarasinha 158 n.13 Kumarasinha Adahasin 79 Kumarasuriyamuthali 135 Kumburudhu Island 212 n.136 Kuruwita Rala 154, 158 n.12 Kusumasana Devi (Queen Dona Catarina) 153 n.1, 154 n.5, 156, 158 n.14, 159 n.15, 161, 163, 169 Laccadive Islands 180 lanha 189 lascars/lascarin(s) 43, 47, 86, 90, 100, 137, 157, 225 lemons 11, 24 licences 63, 64 Lisbon 38, 39, 51, 147, 181, 217 Lopes, Tomé xx mace 5 madappali 134 Maf-lafur [Mifilafushi] 212, 213 Maf-n [Maafannu] 208 Máfat [Máfaiy] Kilége ’Umar 200, 201 Maha Asthana 79 Maha Hatana 21 mahabadda 43, 47 Mahal 206, 210, 211, 215 Mahal Diba 201 Malabar 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 51, 178 n.32, 185, 186, 187, 197, 205, 210, 212, 216, 219, 221 coast 5, 23, 174, 177, 188, 191 Malanuale 137 Maldives xiv, xv, xvi, xvii, xxi–xxii, 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 14, 25, 34, 173–21 description 180–85, 185–7 Islamic History 199–216

king of 182, 184, 185, 188, 191, 192 regents 219, 220 Malé xvi, xvii, xiv, 173, 176, 177, 178, 180, 182, 194, 195, 197, 199, 201, 202, 205 Maliku 204, 213 n.139, 216 Mallakan 134 Maluku 178 Malvana 154, 157, 162, 163, 170 Mam’Ali 174, 175, 176, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 199 Mamalle 188 Mannar 43, 89 n.22, 95 n.34, 109, 110, 111, 125, 127, 128, 129, 139 n.45, 143, 144, 145, 158 Manuel, King of Portugal xix, xx, xxi, 2–3, 4, 6, 18, 114, 174, 180, 191, 192 193, 217 Mapane, Dom Felipe Chembugua 148 Mappila 174, 177 Maraikkayars 177 marala(s) 40, 49 Marave 49 marriage customs 24, 25 Martaban 34, 197 martyr(s) 201, 202, 210 martyrdom 122 Maryam K-bad [Maryiam Kan’baidi] Kilége 210, 211 Mascarenhas, Dom Felipe 142 n.51, 147 Mascarenhas, Dom Pedro 198 n.80 Mascarenhas, Nuno 157 Masulipatam 86 Matale, prince of 46, 48 Matara 154, 164, 170 Mathakal 134, 135 mathakkar 135, 225 Mauritania 48 Mawlad 205 Mayadunne 51–2, 53, 55, 56, 67, 72, 73, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 92, 93, 96, 97, 99, 100, 106, 154 Mecca 175, 178, 199, 204 medidor 41 meirinho 35, 90, 148, 150, 151, 225 Melaka xvi, 5, 29, 33, 184, 185, 187, 191, 193, 194, 197 mercenaries 111 merchants 25, 26, 181, 214, 215

Index Asian xv foreign 182 of Calicut 11 Portuguese 54 Mesa da Consciência 197, 198 Mesa da Relação xvii Meyringi, Caturao 150 Milavangarai 171 millet 181 missionaries xiii, 23, 52, 72, 98, 110, 111 Mogudo 92 Moluccas 187 monasteries 38, 65 money 190 Monis, Baltazar 160, 166, 167, 169 Moniz, António 67 Moors 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 26, 28, 31, 47, 48, 56, 61, 162, 185, 186, 187, 188, 191, 192, 193 Morais, Fr 34 mosque(s) 181, 213, 216 Mount Dely 185, 188 Mourão 89 Mouros 4 moxama 190, 225 Mu’allim al-K-b-r-duwwi [al-Kumburudu] 212 Mudaliyar, Tennakoon (Tenagom Mudelyar) 70–71 mudaliyars 158, 225 Mugamale 147 Muhammad, Sultan 199, 200, 201, 208 Muhammad al-T-k-la al-Aswad [Kalhu Tukkala] 210 Muhammad Bodu Takurufanu 178, 179 Muhammad Fazi’a [Fashina] 208 Muhammad ’Imad al-Din 200, 211–14 Muhammad Jamal al-Din al-Mahali, Sheikh 208, 209 Muhammad Takurufaanu the Great, Sultan 203, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 213 mujtahid 208 Mukkuvars 46 mukkuwa 47 Mulaku xxi Musamgamana 171 Muslim shipping xvi Muslim traders xvi, xvii, xix, 1, 156, 174

243

Muslim women 202 Muslims 4, 51, 156, 178, 200, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207 mussels 182, 183 muthali 134 M-y-du [Meedu] 213 Nagapattinam 118, 121, 123, 124 Nagore 29 naib 173 n.3 Na’ib Hasan al Hadummati al Fonaduvi 209 Na’ib Hasan al-M-y-duwwi al-Azzuwwi [al-Meeduvi al Adduvi] 211, 213 naires 193 nalavas 149, 225 Nallur 117 n.16, 132, 134, 135, 138 Nasranis 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 215 nawab of Bengal 144 nayak 125, 225 nayak of Madurai xviii, 144 Negapatam 93, 95 Negombo 30, 43, 47 Nikapitiye Bandara 154, 162 n.23 Nilade xxiii Nirveli 135 Nivanturai 114 n.11 Nocito, Father Pietro 140 Nossa Senhora da Ajuda 221 Nossa Senhora do Cabo 221 Nunes, João 160 nutmegs 5 Nuwarakalaviya (Nuara Calavia) 171 oars for galleys 31, 32, 33, 81, 101 ola(s) 10, 11, 17, 59, 64, 65, 82, 83, 87, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 107, 121, 126, 142, 166, 225 opium 102 oppression 178, 193, 202, 203, 204 oranges 11, 24, 33, 40 Orissa 144 Ormuz 8, 43, 93, 195 see also Hormuz Oupalão, bay of 99 oysters 127, 182 pacha 47

244

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Pacchilaipalli 140 paddy 43, 143 n.55 padrão 1, 7, 225 Padrão, Frei António 68 n.31, 80, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 88–92, 92, 93, 94, 95– 6, 97 Padua 185, 187 pagans 55, 61, 190 pagode(s) 16, 38, 39, 46, 67, 72, 74, 225 Palaraz 47 Palayakayal 125 Palk Straits xviii, 109, 177 Pallaru 47 palm-leaf documents 142 palm leaves 181, 190 palm tree(s) 33, 47, 148, 150, 151, 181, 184, 186, 188, 189 Palugama 46 Panama 170, 171 pandari-pulo 46 Panditha, Sri Ramaraskasha 53, 57, 72 Parakramabahu (Parak-kirama-vaku) of Kotte 128, 135 Paranirupasinkan 129, 130, 130, 132, 134, 135 Pararasasinkan 134, 135 Parasupaniayyar 135 parava fishermen xviii, 109, 177 paravas 38, 52, 226 paravenia(s) 148, 164, 170, 226 Pasai 5 patangatin 144 Paul, St 107 pearl fishery xviii, 43, 55, 109, 110 pearls xx, 16, 33 Pedir 5 Pegu 29, 34, 187, 197 penance 35, 36 pepper xv, 5, 33, 40, 41, 102 Pereira, António 62, 64 Pereira, Gaspar 166, 167 Pereira, Nuno Álvares 77, 78, 82–8, 91, 92, 94, 96, 101, 104, 108, 154, 155, 156, 159, 160, 162, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169 Pereira, Nuno Vaz 7, 13 permits 33, 56 Pero Vaz 85, 86

Persian Gulf xv Pessoa, António 31, 63, 15 Pessoa, João 115 Philip I, King of Portugal 179 Pinto, Frei Luís Gomes 160 piracy xvii pirates 5, 14, 210, 218, 219 see also corsairs Pires, Tomé 23, 29 pitch 33, 101 plantains 40, 118 Pooneryn 142 Pope Julius II 2, 114 n.15 Pope Leo X 114 n.15 port(s) 53, 55, 59, 63, 64, 67, 69, 72, 80, 106, 162, 166, 188, 214, 215 Portugal historical background xv–xvii king of 9, 10, 11, 14, 17, 20, 80, 81, 93, 94, 101, 107, 109, 111, 120, 149, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 163, 164, 170, 177, 218 Portuguese 47 architecture xxii art xxii audience with king 24 captain(s)-general 35, 111, 141, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 168, 170, 192, 196 captain(s)-major 6, 14, 15, 17, 72, 73, 137, 138, 142, 148, 150, 194, 195 captives 158 chief guard 63, 64 commissary 150 control of 93 Council of State xix entrepreneurs xvi first encounter in Sri Lanka xxi n.20, 1– 22 freebooters 177 language, xxii governor(s) xvi, xviii knowledge of social and religious customs in Sri Lanka xxii, 1, 23, 44–9 knowledge of the Maldives 187, 217 military aid 77, 78

Index naval superiority xv Overseas Council 217 resistance to 199 rule over Jaffna 111 settlers 52, 66–8, 155 traders xviii viceroy(s) xvi, xvii, 1, 3, 17, 36, 52, 64, 66, 69, 72, 73, 77, 79, 81, 89 n.24, 97, 110, 148, 150, 151, 155, 164, 198, 218, 219, 221 prahu 84, 89 precious stones xix, 3, 16, 24, 27, 29, 30, 40, 48, 87, 220 priests 29, 31, 38, 48, 72, 73, 98 prison 90, 110, 127, 133, 138, 213 prisoners 162, 163, 170 privateering xvi pro Maluco na Patana de Suadur 220 Prolis, Adão 221 Pulavar, Matakal Mayilvakanap 127 Pulicat 30 pullas 149, 226 Punnaikayal 110 Pyrard, François 173, 179 Qadi Abu Bakr 205, 208, 209 Qadi D-n-k-r-l T-k-w-r [Donkorali Takuru] 200, 205 Qadi Isma’il al Fam-dar [al-Famudeyri] 200, 205 Qadi Muhammad al-M-y-duwwi alAzzuwwi [al-Meeduvi al Adduvi] 211, 213 Qadi Muhammad al Haddummati al Fonaduvi 209, 210, 213 qazi 173, 199, 205 n.104, 226 qinbar 215 Q-r-y-du [Guraidhu] 211 quit rent 43 Qur’an 213 Ragunatha Nayak 111, 137 n.39 Rajasinha of Kandy 158 n.13 Rajasinha of Sitawaka 43, 49 n.61, 153, 154 Rajavaliya xix, 1, 18, 75 Raju 49 Ranna Badéri Kilégefánu 207 Rasavallapamuthali 135

245

Rayigama 46 rebellion(s) 66, 153, 154, 162, 163, 168, 170, 220 Rebelo, António 137 Red Sea xv, xvi, 187 registers, land and dues 142 relics of saints 145 religious men 31 religious Order(s) 63, 157, 160, 166, 168 religious orthodoxy 52 religious tolerance 62 rent(s) 41, 148, 149, 150, 182 revenue(s) xxviii 53, 56, 74, 127, 148, 156, 173, 176, 179, 194, 195, 196, 197, 218, 219, 220 collection 141 collector(s) of 111, 144 comptroller 141, 160, 166, 168, 220 controller of xvii farming out 144, 188 of seaports 41 register 40–43, 140 royal collector 41, 43 superintendent(s) 141, 142, 143 resistance to Portuguese rule 111–12 Ribeiro, Baltazar 157 n.10 rice 29, 31, 33, 38, 100, 118, 120, 148, 149, 176, 181, 184, 185, 186, 189 rodiya 47 Rodrigues, Belchior 58 Rodrigues, Brother Alfonsus 145 Rodrigues, Domingues 157 n.10 Rodrigues, Frei Manuel 160, 166, 167, 169 Roiz, Manuel 157, 163 roriz 47 rubies 16, 24, 27, 33, 40 Ruiz, Amaro 142 143, 144 rumal 48 Ruwanwella 162 Sabaragamuwa 154, 162, 164, 170 safe-conducts xv, xvi, 202 S´aivite Hindus xx, 110 salagama 43, 47, 75, 226 Salcete 40 saltpetre 144 Samiya Kilege 179 Sammanturai 46

246

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

sandalwood 5 Sandiruppai 134 Sanfá D-’wa [Di’yo] 201 Sankili 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139 Sankili I 109, 110, 125 n.23, 128 Sankili II 111, 128 Santhirasekaramappanamuthali 134 São Tomé 86, 106, 113, 118, 121, 123 sapphires 24, 33, 40 Saracens 2, 3 Sardinha 115 sayyids 208 Senerat of Kandy 140, 153, 154, 156, 158 n.14, 161 n.19 Sernigi, Girolamo xxi Seven Korales 47, 78, 154, 159, 168 Shahbandar 207, 215 Shari’a 208, 209, 226 Sharif Ahmad 175 sheep 191 shipbuilding 32, 52, 107, 187 wood for 31, 56, 107 shipping routes 25 shipwrecks 109, 110, 120 n.18, 180 Shiraz 200 Shuja’I Muhamad ’Imad’-ud-din I 179, 180 Siam 29, 190 silk 183, 186, 190, 191 silver 10, 13, 16, 19, 45, 48, 63, 182, 220 Simankure Rala 75 Sinhala xviii ceremonial 16 forces 153 n.1 Sinhalas 12, 15, 17, 19, 44, 46, 48, 119, 128 Sinhalese 75 Sinna Migapulle Arachchi 111 Siri Asa’is L-w-k [Asa’sa Loka Maha Radun] 201 Siri A-w-d S-yak K-tt-r M-har-d-n [Auda Siyaka Kattiri Maha Radun] 201 Siri B-v-na M-har-d-n [Sinha Bavana Maha Radun] 200 Siri D-r-k-s L-w-k M-har-d-n [Dirikusa Loka Maha Radun] 201 Siri K-l S-n-d-r K-tt-r B-v-na M-har-d-n [Kula Sundura Kattiri Bavana] 211 Siri K-l-r-n-m-y-b Iskandar K-tt-r B-v-na

M-har-dn [Kularan Miba Iskandar Kattiri Bavana Maha Radun] 214 Siri K-w-n-s-r [Kunsur] Ad-y-tt M-har-d-n [Kava Savaditta Maha Radun] 207 Siri M-n-r-nn L-w-k M-har-d-n [Maniran Loka Maha Radun] 200 Siri S-dd S-w-r-d L-w-k M-har-d-n [Sudda Suvara Loka Maharadun] 209 Siritivu 114 n.12 Sitawaka Hatana 20 Sitawaka, kingdom of 40, 51, 67, 72, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 87, 110, 153 slaves 54, 104, 123, 124, 164, 170, 183, 202, 215 sodomy 67 Sodré, Vicente 174 Solasinkachchenathirasamuthali 135 soldiers xiii spice trade xvi, 5, 29 spices xv, xx, 5, 14 spies 116, 117, 118, 119, 122 Sri Lanka xiii n.1, xvii–xix, 177 administrative system xviii descriptions 23–49 king of 154 Stoler, Ann xiv sugar 102, 181 Sulayman al-Madani 207 Sumatra 5, 184, 187, 197 Sunda 188 sura 47, 150, 151, 226 Takandu 204 Tambalagama 144 Tamil officials 112 Tamils 119 n.17, 127, 130, 147 Tandava, Marcos 148 Tanjore 111, 137 n.39 Tapare 84 Taprobana 5 Taprobane xix, 3 tar 101 Tarikh Islam Diba Mahal 178, 179, 180, 199–216 taxes 22, 55, 57, 61, 110, 140, 215, 220 Teixeira, Duarte 80, 83 temple(s) 31, 42, 99, 105, 118, 126, 131, 134, 135, 137, 138

Index Buddhist 40, 98 Hindu 40, 140 lands 42, 73–4 Temudo, Dom Jorge 113, 122 Tenassarim 45 Thanapalasinkamuthali 134 Tharamgampadi 131 Tharankampadi 129, 133 Thidavirasinkamuthali 134, 135 Thiladhunmathi atoll 204 n.102 South 201 n.88, 212 n.136 Thomas, Saint 121 tigers 145 toddy 47, 150 tombo 142, 226 topaz 62, 64, 88 topazes 24, 40 tortoise shells 186 torture 117 Travancore 109 tribute(s) 3, 4, 8, 13, 31, 32, 41, 43, 46, 53, 77, 109, 110, 120, 143, 144, 148, 149, 155, 156, 158, 162, 163, 175, 176, 179, 182, 185, 194, 198, 199, 220 Trincomalee 44, 45, 77, 78, 81, 82, 84, 86, 88, 89, 90, 94, 95, 99, 106, 111, 119, 144 king of 88, 94 tupeti 46 Turks 48 Two Korales 154 Uduppiddi 134 ulamas 173 n.3 ulema 207, 208, 209, 214, 226 ’Umar, Sultan 200, 201 Umar II, Sultan 174 Umar Maf-ha [Mafaiy] Kilége 211 Urin 24 Urkavatturai 129, 132, 134 Uva 154, 170 Vadamarachchi 148 Vadamiradchi 135 vadda 47 Vaddas 44, 45, 144, 227 Vaddukkoddai 135 Vadu Island 209 n.124

247

vagueaz 48 Vanni 128, 133, 142, 149 vanniyar(s) 46, 143, 227 Varuna Kulattan 137 n.39 vassalage 12, 13, 14, 175 Vaz, Domingos 221 vazir 179 vedor da fazenda xvii Velanai 114 no.10 Velho, Diogo 6 Velho, Jorge 81 vellalan 135 vellala(s) 148, 149, 150, 151, 227 Vespucci, Amerigo xx Vetha-valliyar 135 Vettivelayuthamuthli 134 Vicente, Frei 13, 14, 17 vidana(s) 40, 41, 44, 144, 227 Vidiye Bandara 110, 120, 121 Vijayabahu I of Kotte 77 Vijayanagar xvii, 24, 27, 103, 109, 113 n.9 Vijayapala 158 n.13 Vimaladharmasuriya 153, 154 n.5, 158 n.14, 159 nn.15 and 16, Viramakaliamman 131 Visaya Theyventhiramuthali 134, 135 vizier(s) 195, 210, 213, 215 Wadu al-Suwaduviyya 208 war(s) 32, 47, 49, 67, 70, 80, 85, 99, 100, 102, 106, 107, 126, 127, 130, 150, 161, 162, 165, 167, 168, 184, 194, 201 Weerasundara Bandara 153 n.1 Weligama 30 Welisara 43 Wellassa 44, 45, 154 Wellawaya 170 whales 184, 186, 187 wheat 33 W-l-q-l (Villingili) 211

Xavier, St Francis 129, 135 xaya 46 xindo 47 Yala 78, 83, 84, 95, 106 Yalpana-vaipava-malai 110, 127

248

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Yemen 207 yogis 38 Yona 48 Yusuf III 174 Yusuf Shams al-Din al-Tabrizi, Sheikh 205

Yusuf, Sultan 200, 201 Zabid 207 zakat 215 zambucos 28, 227