PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
1ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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76
Captain Lillie and the troops, and the next morning, at an early hour, encountered the rebels at Warriapole. A parley ensued: the Pretender's party ordered the troops to return, saying that
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'they were holding Matelle for the king, and A conflict would not permit them to pass." ensued, the rebels gave way, eight or nine were killed, and the remainder fed; whilst the Queen's troops continued their march into Matelle, and recovered possession of the town, which had been utterly sacked by the insurgents, and the public buildings plundered and destroyed.
In all this there is certainly Hittle evidence of the "panic" and needless alarm which Mr. Ans- truther imputes as characteristic of the demeanour of the Government at this crisis.
On the contrary, as Mr. Buller observes, “the facts prove the very reverse, and that the Govern- ment, so far from being unnecessarily alarmed, were not even sufficiently apprehensive. Had they, at an earlier period, been less incredulous as to the disaffection of the Kandyans and the real extent of their danger, they would have taken at the first moment the very measures which they were compelled to resort to later, and which alone saved the colony from an universal and sanguinary insurrection." (Page 22.)
I must likewise may, on behalf of Lord Torring-
ton,
that on my arrival in Colombo, on the 1st of
♦ August, when the first intelligence of the outburst had arrived, I found him seated in his Council, and surrounded by his military advisers, whilst the town, the merchants, and planters were in the midst of excitement and alarm; the most cool and deliberate, and apparently the least excited or was Lord apprehensive individual whom I saw, Torrington himself.
The conduct of the Commandant of Kandy on this occasion and of the military authorities gene- rally evinced no credulity or panie, and the extent
antere
Letter, 28th July, p. 51.
P. SA.
Colonel Droughts statement, p.
77
of the precautions which they took may be safely taken as evidence of the nature and the extent of the danger which they saw impending, so soon as the rapid movements of the rebels, first upon Matelle and two days after on Kornegalle, had exhibited the ramifications of the conspiracy and the bold plans of the insurgents.
The assault on Kornegalle on the 31st July was Matello in every particular similar to that upon two days before. For some days before, the people had been excited and restless, deserting their homes and closing their boutiques in the bazaars. No explanation of auch conduct was procurable, and the Assistant Government Agent complained that amongst all the anxiety of such uncertainty, only three headmen had come to him to make reports, and they were unsatisfactory. "From the headmen of these districts in which there is most alarm not a word has been received." With one exception, the chief all avoided com- munication, and were unaccountably absent from the district when sent for.
At length, on the 29th, a chief, Kanda-Polle Beanaike Nilleme, sent in a short note on the following terms -“I beg to report that on Thursday, the 27th instant, about 5 o'clock, I received information that a Kandyan King had been nominated to assemble people for rebellion. Immediately after the information I make this report.-KANDA-Polla Bagnaikh Nillumk.”
This same chief, the sole informant of the Government, the next morning entered Kornegulla, sword in hand, at the head of an armed party 4000 in number, drove out the European residents, and proceeded to mck the buildings at which occupation they were interrupted by the arrival of the Queen's troops from Kandy; and upwarde of twenty rebels were killed, and the deceitful chief himself was afterwards made prisoner, tried before the Supreme Court, convicted, and trans- ported.
Two days after, the Pretender in person, having fied from his defeat at Warrispola, pissed at the head of the Kornagulla inbergenis, and 4800 followers again attacked the town, agala defeated ; and after a third attempt the afternoon, he fled back to the Matelle die
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