PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
T ༴། ། ། །
C.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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residing at such distances, and having no commu- nication with each other, should be all panic- any ade- struck at the same moment, and without
quate cause." (Colonel Drought's statement, page 2.)
2. The next assertion is, that not being a "re- As to its being a
Plunderers. bellion," the recent movement was a mere tumult,
a riot, or a row got up for the purpose of plunder.
This assertion is treated in the documents with
so much levity, that it is difficult to extract a grave portion in reply to it.
It is, perhaps, best answered by the fact that in a tumult, got up as asserted, by marauders for the purpose of plunder, no pillage took place, except that of the deserted huts of the poorest portion of the population, and these themselves actually com- bined with the rioters!
Mr. Stewart, the Deputy Queen's Advocate of Kandy, says, "It is a remarkable fact that the houses of the great chiefs, situated in the midst of the rebellious districts, were none of them pillaged, and they were wealthy persons! How is that cir- cumstance to be accounted for consistently with their innocence?
"That plunder was not the object of the enter- prise is evident from the fact that no Kandyan chiefs or common persons were robbed!
"Their object was a single one-to take Kandy, and to expel the British from the interior."
"In Matelle and Kornegalle, some houses were doubtless plundered, but they belonged to loyal subjects, and plunder is invariably an accompani- ment of war and rebellion." (Page 12.)
That pillage and plunder were frequent is no matter of doubt, and that they were not universal is to be ascribed to the precaution of Colonel Drought and the military, in taking possession of
the abandoned property of the fugitives; but that it was the sole aim and object of the rebels, is too absurd a suggestion to be soberly received.
Mr. De Saram, the police magistrate of Gampola, a Singhalese gentleman, with a consummate know- ledge of the character and habits of his country- men, says, “If the object was plunder; and the dis- turbance occasioned by marauders from the Low Country, the energies and cupidities of unch per- sons would have been directed towards the spolia- tion of the houses of the most opulent and wealthy
mere Riot of
Low-Country mon not its mothers.
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chiefs in the disturbed districts, and situated near the scene of outrage. But strange to say, this party of so-called robbers, although bent on plunder, did not direct their steps towards these depositories of wealth; but, on the contrary, the chiefs are represented as endeavouring to show that their dwellings were pillaged by the military themselves, during the prevalence of martial law." "If these dwellings escaped the rapacity of this gang of Lowland miscreants, the presumption is that the disturbances were not occasioned by robbers, but that the owners of these abodes escaped pillage, because they were themselves engaged in the
pro- secution of one common object with the so-called ♪ marauders, viz. the subversion of British rule in the
Island."
And Mr. De Saram very fairly concludes by the observation, that “it is paying a very poor compli- ment to the Queen's Advocate, who indicted the rebels for carrying on war against Her Majesty, in order to deprive her of her lawful rights and pro- perties; to the jury who convicted them of high treason, and to the Chief Justice who sentenced them to punishment as rebels and traitors, if after all the disturbance it was a mere riot occasioned by marauders from the Low country, in quest of plun- der." (Page 38—42).
One pregnant fact, however, bespeaks the real character of the movement—the silence of the chiefs. Had the object been plunder none would have had a deeper interest in denouncing and de- feating it, and their communications to the Go- vernment and application for forces to quell so dangerous a formy across the border, would have been instant and urgent. The chiefs had an interest in exposing robbers and mamandose, but a still deeper one in closely concealing their own tresaem and its agents.
4. The maxt amortion, low-cosméry men were the principal agents in getting up the insurrection, is repolished by authority, native and ropean, and refresco
ndo which have an immedinas the national foaling as it
opinion is pàmmanni to) on semicy Binghalane cffizial expacity in the
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