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high treason to his country, and was sentenced to be broken alive upon the wheel, his body to be quartered, and then to be burned to ashes, and those ashes to be collected and cast into the sea. It is revolting to humanity to read these loathsome details, savouring of the ages of barbarism, and though Vuyst met a merited reward for his crimes, in having had sentence of death executed on his person-still breaking alive on the wheel, quartering the body, throwing the ashes into the sea, refusing them Christian burial, is almost past credence, as having occurred in the eighteenth century, and casts a stigma of disgrace upon the nation that would sanction torturing the living body, or wreaking vengeance on senseless remains.

In 1739, Narendra Singha died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Sreewijaya Rajah Singha. History says that the character of Narendra Singha was vile; he was most licentious, indulging his passions without restraint; prone to anger, he insulted his nobles, and was on the brink of losing his crown, through a rebellion which these injured nobles headed. Notwithstanding all this, he reigned two-and-thirty years, and during this period his Dutch allies retained peaceable possession, and employed the advantage offered to increase their maritime dominions.

During the reigns of the last two Kandian kings, the ordinances of the Buddhist religion had been considerably neglected, the priests having be come lax and careless in the administration of the various rites thereof; and in 1745 Sreewijaya Rajah Singha sent a deputation of his chiefs to Siam, to request that priests might be allowed to come to Kandy, to restore the neglected ordinances of Buddha. In compliance with this request, several upasampada, or high-priests, returned with the chiefs, who set to work vigorously, immediately on their arrival, to fulfil the mission which had brought them from Siam. pears that Sreewijaya Rajah Singha devoted the principal portion of his time to purify and restore the religion of the state, and Buddhism under this monarch was restored to all its former grandeur. During this reign, hostilities were renewed between the Dutch and Kandians; and although some of

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the maritime provinces were taken by the latter, they were eventually retaken by the Dutch; and in 1747 Sreewijaya Rajah Singha died, and was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Kirtisree Rajah Singha, who, in 1750, sent another deputation of chiefs to Siam, to procure priests of Buddha; and in 1753 these chiefs returned to Ceylon, accompanied by some Siamese priests of the highest rank, and Wellewike, the chief priest, was placed at the head of the Buddhist establishment in the island, under the title of Sanga Rajah.

In the year 1761, the violent measures adopted against the natives by governor Screuder, occasioned an insurrection on the western coast; the Kandians aided the insurgents against the Dutch, and thereby involved themselves in fresh hostilities (for there had been for a short period a cessation), and skirmishes were constantly carried on until the following year, when the Dutch made themselves masters of Kandy, Matele, Doombera, and Wallapana; but Kirtisree Rajah Singha retook this portion of the kingdom, after the Dutch had held possession for nine months, and the slaughter that ensued is hideous to read of. From this period desultory warfare was carried on between the contending parties, until the Dutch appear to have obtained the advantage; as in 1766 a new treaty was entered into between the Kandian monarch and the Dutch, which ensured to the lat ter the unmolested possession of all the places on the sea coast; and the Dutch now might look upon themselves as conquerors, having brought the eastern potentate under subjection, as by this treaty they dictated the articles which were agreed to by Kirtisree Rajah Singha, and one of these was, that the various humiliating ceremonies which were exacted by the king, when an envoy from the Dutch went to his court, were to be for the future entirely dispensed with, and totally abolished.

We must now take a retrospective view of events, and return to the year 1763, when Mr. Pybus was sent by the Madras government as ambassador to the king of Kandy, to assure the monarch of the friendly feelings of the English towards him, and the anxiety of the government to furnish him with the means of carrying on the war against the Dutch, and offered to

enter into a treaty. National events of importance, and the stirring incidents of the American war, called for all the attention and money that our government had to bestow, and to this only can be attributed the non-fulfilment of the treaty entered into with Kirtisree Rajah Singha; but the impression produced by this breach of faith, on the minds of the king and royal family, was most prejudicial to the honour and probity of England.

In 1781, Kirtisree Rajah Singha died, and was succeeded by his brother Rajadhi Rajah Singha; and in the following year a fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, and a body of troops, headed by Sir Hector Munro, were dispatched by Lord Macartney, then Governor of Madras, to Ceylon, to take from the Dutch their territories in that island; and our troops took possession of Trincomalee, which the French retook for the Dutch in the August of the same year, during the absence of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, who had sailed for Madras to have some necessary repairs performed to his ships. Mr. Hugh Boyd had been sent with the expedition as ambassador to the king of Kandy, and left Trincomalee in February, but did not reach Kandy until the beginning of March, owing to the badness of the roads; for although Trincomalee is less than 180 miles from Kandy, the route was a most tedious and perplexing one, Mr. Boyd and his companions having at times to force their way through a dense forest, or jungle. Previous to quitting Trincomalee, the following letter was despatched by Mr. Hugh Boyd to Rajadhi Rajah Singha :-*

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To the king of Kandy, &c.

"I have the honour of acquainting your highness, that I am appointed ambassador to your Highness, Durbar, by His Excellency the Right Hon. Lord Macartney, the Governor, and the President of Madras; and that I am charged with a letter to your highness, from the governor, in order to explain to you their favourable sentiments, and assure you of their friendship. I suppose your highness has already heard of the great successes of the English against their enemies, particularly the Dutch, whom they have now driven entirely from the coast of Coromandel, having taken from them their last settlement, Negapatam.

"To carry on the victories of the English against the Dutch, Vice-admiral Sir Edward Hughes, commanderin-chief of the King of England's ship and marine forces in India, is now arrived with the fleet and force under his command at Trincomalee, in conjunction with the troops of the English East India Company. He has already taken one of their forts from the Dutch, called Trincomalee Fort, with many prisoners, and without opposition; and he is proceeding with vigour, and with certainty of equal success against their only other fort, called Ostendburgh, which must also yield to the great superiority of the British arms.

"This will certainly have been effected long before your highness can have received this letter. But in the character with which I have the honour of being invested, as ambassador to your highness, I am desirous to take the earliest opportunity in transmitting to you these happy particulars, to assure you that it is only against their enemies, the Dutch, that the arms of the English are directed, and that the highest respect and attention will be shown your highness's rights and dignity, and that your subjects will be

treated with the utmost kindness and
friendship, according to a declaration
which his excellency Sir Edward
Hughes, admiral and commander-in-
I am
chief, has already published.
happy in communicating these matters
to your highness, not doubting that it
will give you pleasure to hear of the
success and power of your friends.

64

As many more English ships and troops are expected soon to be here, and as some great further operations will probably be soon carried on by them for the destruction of their ene mies, and the advantage of their friends, I am ordered by his excellency, the Governor of Madras, to communicate to your highness, as soon as possible, the letter from him, which I have the honour of being charged with.

"I shall be happy, therefore, to defiver it to your highness in person, with every explanation and friendly assurance which you can desire, as soon as I shall know, in reply to this, that you have sent proper persons to conduct me thither; and this I hope your highness will be pleased to do immediately, as there ought to be no delay in transactions of so much importance.

"I am also charged with a letter to your highness, from his Highness Walah Jah, Nabob of the Carnatic, which I shall be happy to deliver to you. I only wait to have the honour of hearing from your highness, as I have desired; I

This letter will be found in the "Miscellaneous Works of Hugh Boyd," vol. II.

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Upon the arrival of our ambassador at Kandy, he met with innumerable delays, and was received with distrust and suspicion by the Kandian court; the natural result of our former breach of faith, and which but illaccorded with the British character for probity. "It is now twenty years since your ambassador arrived here, while we waged war with our Dutch enemies; we replied frankly, and accepted cheerfully your offered and promised aid; but since your envoy left, not a breath have we heard of your offered aid, nor promised assistance. As you are now at war, in your turn, with the Dutch nation, and are desirous to injure them, and obtain their possessions, you come to us, professing that it is only for our benefit that you desire to force them to quit our kingdom. We doubt the sincerity of your nation, as we have ever met with treachery from Europeans."

Our ambassador made excuses for the non-fulfilment of the former treaty, and referred to the high character borne by England for probity and truth; but all his efforts proved abortive, and he quitted Kandy the latter end of March, without having accomplished either of the objects of his mission-namely, to make a treaty, and form an alliance with the king of Kandy-and for some years we left the Kandians and Dutch in undisturbed possession of Ceylon.

In the year 1785, Governor Van der Graaff first introduced paper currency into Ceylon; and in 1789, the same governor caused a census to be taken of all the inhabitants of the maritime districts, subject to the Dutch East India Company; and the statistical returns gave eight hundred and seventeen thousand inhabitants, of both sexes, and of all ages.

In the year 1795, the union of Holland with France took place, and war was declared by us; and Colonel, afterwards General Stewart, was sent by the Governor of Madras, with a large force, to reduce Trincomalee, to which he laid siege, and after the lapse of little more than three weeks, the

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fort was surrendered by the Dutch commander, as our troops were preparing to storm it. In the September following of that year, Jaffna was taken by the same general; Colpentyn was surrendered to the British forces, under the command of Colonel Bowser, on the 5th of November; and General Stewart shortly afterwards took Negombo. Success now followed the British arms in Ceylon, and General Stewart resolved upon attacking Colombo, the seat of government then as well as now, and marched for that place with his Majesty's 52nd, 73rd, and 77th regiments, accompanied by three battalions of Native Infantry, and some Bengal Artillery. The route to Colombo lay through dense jungle, and over rivers swollen by the late rains; but no ambush was laid by the Dutch to obstruct the progress of our troops, and they reached the river Kelany (about four miles from the Fort of Colombo), which was defended by a strong fort, and there halted to await the expected coming of the Dutch troops. the conclusion of the second day, intelligence reached them that the guns were dismantled and spiked, and that the troops had abandoned the fort, and retreated to Colombo. Our men crossed the river with great caution, fearing surprise, but no ambuscade had been laid. Our encampment was then formed, the siege of Colombo planned, and our soldiers immediately afterwards marched for the fort, expecting a strong resistance to be made by the Dutch; but, to the astonishment both of General Stewart and the troops which he commanded, the only attempt to defend Colombo was made by a body of Malays, headed by a French officer, who were sent to meet them, but quickly retreated, and very shortly after Colombo surrendered, by capitulation, to the British forces, who were commanded by General Stewart and Captain Gardiner, R. N. Within a short period, the whole of the forts and possessions in the island belonging to the Dutch were delivered up to our troops. We should not have found Ceylon so facile a conquest, had it not been for the want of discipline and subordination found amongst the Dutch troops-the men refusing to obey their officers' orders, and the officers almost devoid of bravery or energy to defend their country's rights.

According to "Percival's Ceylon," p. 92-" The Dutch force consisted of two battalions of Hollanders, the French Regiment of Wirtemberg, with some native troops, forming in all a force equal to that of the invaders."

In taking leave of the Dutch as rulers in Ceylon, we give the names of those who were sent there as governors. The first, in 1640, was W. J. Koster, who took Galle; J. Thysz, J. Matsuyher, J. Van Kiltenstein, A. Vander Meyden, R. Van Goens, J. Hustaur, L. Van Peil, T. Van Rhee, P. De Rhoo, G. De Heer, C. J. Simonsy, N. Becher, T. A. Rumph, A. Moll, J. Hertenberg, J. P. Schagen, P. Vuyst, S. Versluzs, G. Wontersz, J. C. Pielaat, D. V. Domburg, J. Maccara, Baron Von Imhoff, W. M. Bruininch, D. Overpeck, J. V. S. Von Galnesse, G. Van Vreeland, J. De Joug, J. G. Laton, J. Schrender, Baron Van Eck, A. Mooyart, J. W. Falck, W. J. Van der Graaff, J. G. Van Angelbeech, under whom Colombo and the entire possessions of the Dutch were delivered over to the British.

Under the Dutch, their own mode of worship was introduced into Ceylon, and there were many professed converts among the Cingalese. This arose from a regulation of the Dutch, which prohibited any native from holding an office, however humble, under their government, unless he professed to belong to their church. The Dutch encouraged agriculture to a great extent, and introduced the cultivation of coffee, pepper, cardamons, and cinnamon. It was under Governor Falck that the latter shrub was first cultivated. The pearl-fisheries were also lucrative and productive, under their management; consequently it must have been a national loss of no trivial nature, when so profitable and promising a settlement was wrested from them by the British.

We shall wind up our summary by glancing at the effect produced upon the native character by the line of conduct pursued by the Dutch, who acted as if they believed that their responsibility as Christians and enlightened men, commenced and terminated by forcing nominal religion upon the natives-by making an external avowal of Christianity the only stepping-stone to patronage or employment under government; and they neglected no op

portunity or means whereby wealth could be amassed. Their public po licy and private enterprise began and ended with the same goal in viewnamely, the acquirement of riches. Thus the English commenced their rule in Ceylon, having the impressions to eradicate which had been produced upon the minds of the Cingalese, through the sufferings they had experienced under the military and reli gious oppression of the Portuguese, and no less oppressive grasping and religious despotism of their Dutch

successors.

These fearful examples, set by professing Christians, have been too forcibly stamped upon the feeble and flexible characters of the natives; and European vices have thus become engrafted upon the effeminate, pusillanimous dispositions of the Cingalese who inhabit the lowland and maritime districts, thus forming a character of the most despicable description.

We subjoin the following extract from "Philalethe's History of Ceylon," in support of our previously-expressed views and sentiments :

"The Portuguese were under the influence of a sentiment of bigotry, which, when it becomes a predominant feeling in the human heart, equally disregards the suggestions of caution, admonitions of prudence, and the higher considerations of humanity. It is a blind impulse, and it has all the effect of blindness, both visual and mental; in the strange deviations which it causes from the straight path of virtue and truth, and consequently of the best policy, and most stable interest. The Dutch did not bend before the grim Moloch of religious bigotry; but cent. per cent. was their faith, gold was their object, and Mammon was their god. But the idol of the Dutch is as unfavourable to the growth of the humanise the exercise of power, as that loftier virtues, and to all that tends to of the Portuguese. Avarice is a cold, calculating feeling, and where it totally pervades the bosom, absorbing the affections, and concentrating the desires in a single object, it renders the heart as impenetrable as a stone to those moral considerations which are more particu larly associated with a benevolent regard for the happiness of those who are placed in subjection to our will, or within the sphere of our influence. The insensate avarice of the Dutch proved as unfavourable to the happiness of the people of Ceylon, as the enthusiastic bigotry of the Portuguese."

SONNETS.

BY B. B. FELTU 8.

I.-BOYHOOD.

Behold that wild, impetuous, wayward boy,
Bound o'er the play-ground with a lusty shout,
In antic leap-frog foremost of the rout
Of Merry-Andrews. But the boisterous joy
Sinks into silence soon where Science coy

Sits veil'd: he at her feet. His soul looks out
Less brightly now, less stirr'd from things without,

And bearing trace of some severe employ.

Yet oft he starts, as visions wondrous fair

Flit by, a gorgeous train, scene after scene-
Fiery Ambition-Fame, a cherub rare,

Blowing his trump-Hope, crown'd with chaplet green,
Whose falling leaves quick-coming blooms repair-
And Beauty, Nature's first unsullied queen.

II.-YOUTH.

"Oh, glorious world, thy frowning heights all scaled, Youth, health, and fortune mine, what more remains But happiness, enhanced by pleasant pains,

The price of pleasure-pleasure unentail'd
On late repentance." Thus the stripling hail'd

His entrance into life. As Fancy feigns,

All sights are fair, all sounds transporting strains, And even the common air's from joy exhal'd.

Break not the spell-melt not, oh tender haze-
Spread thy fine drapery o'er the early dawn.

Oh, Fancy, follow where the enthusiast strays
In raptured mood, from worldly eye withdrawn.
Call up an image of the pastoral days,
Some laughing Satyr romping with a Faun.

III.MANHOOD.

He hath been wounded. Ah, too cruel gashes
Into the bosom'd home of young delights,
Where Love's first hope lay dreaming days and nights,
And would not be awak'd. The lightning flashes,

The tempest rocks, the whitening billow dashes

Its foam around. Nor wind nor wave affrights.
'Tis smiling Falsehood's poisoned steel that smites,

'Tis the fair cheat that crumbles into ashes.

Vanish vain visions-beautiful deceits

Your reign is over; never, never more,

Will his heart nestle in those green retreats Where Poesy once taught her golden lore.

A shadow falls on every thing he meets, And deeper lines his brow have furrow'd o'er.

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