CO882-(1-2) — Page 193

Tennent, 2759.

Insurrection.

། ༄། ། ། :།

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

سلسالسا

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Reference :---

C.O. 882

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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO|

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

Parliamentary Papers, Appendix

No. 17, p. 197.

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actual strength was under 400 men; and from information given by headmen and others, whom I had no reason to disbelieve, it appeared that from 50,000 to 70,000 armed natives were ready to surround and pour into the town.”

Colonel Braybrooke was examined as follows:——

5688. Were you in Colombo when martial law was proclaimed ?--I was.

for

3689. I think that was on the 29th July?—Yes. 5690. That was for the district of Matelle !—Yes. 5691. And on the 31st for Kornegalle?—Yes. 5698. Do you consider that any necessity existed the proclamation of martial law on those days ?—I do. I think that it was a very wise and judicious measure.

5693. Could not the mobs or the assemblages of people have been dispersed with the aid of the existing military force, and quiet restored as well without as with martial law? From what I now know of the people, I think it is possible that it might have been so; but we were under the impression, from what we had heard of the whole country, that we were on the eve of a great rebellion; that being the case, I think it was wise and judicious on the part of Lord Torrington to proclaim martial law, par- ticularly as I know that in 1817 it was generally believed by the first military authorities, much mischief was done by Bir Robert Brownrigg not having proclaimed martial law soon enough. I do not think he proclaimed it till February

1818.

The following letter from an advocate in consider- able practice in Ceylon, confirms this view:

My Lord,

Colombo, November 8, 1849. Having seen it announced in the public journals that it had been stated before the Committee of the House of Commons, that there had been no rebellion, but a mare riot in the Kandyan province, a sense of justice to the Government of the colony prompts me, unsolicited, now

that

my professional duties in behalf of the prisoners who were tried before the Supreme Court for high treason have ceased, to express my fam and unalterable conviction that there did exist a widely-ramified and extended conspiracy among the priesthood and chiefs to drive the British out of the province, and to re-establish a Kandyan throne.

Having been a resident in the colony eighteen years, half of which period has been spent in the Kandyan province in the exercise of my profession, I could not avoid observ- ing, in the course of a pretty extensive praation, and constant intercourse with natives of all ranks, that a strong feeling of jealousy had sprung up in the breasts of the

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"At the first outbreak numbers of classes in the island were so fully satisfied of the existence of a rebellion, that in numerous instances Europeans abandoned their property, and fled for their lives to Kandy from their respective estates in all parts of the adjacent country; both the civil and military authorities considered that the promptest and most energetic measures were necessary to be at once adopted, and those Europeans who had most experience of the Kandyan character, were convinced that far more severe measures than those resorted to would be required finally to crush the insurrection.

"An opinion so universally and simultaneously adopted could scarcely be without foundation, as it is perfectly unreasonable to presume that a large number of Europeans, residing at considerable distances from, and having but little communication with each other, should all be panic struck at the same time, without a known and adequate

cause.

"Some of these gentlemen, at my most earnest entreaty, returned to their estates, being provided by me with am-

munition.

"The first definite intelligence of a disturbance reached me on the afternoon of the 28th July, 1848, and the same evening I dispatched 200 rank and file to Matelle, accom- panied by the Government Agent.

When only five miles on their march, shots were fired near them; and at Warriapolle, a place a mile and a half from Matelle, the troops were opposed and fired on by a very large body of natives, a comparatively small number showing themselves on the road, supported by many thousands under cover of the jungle. According to the pretender's statement, now in possession of Govern- ment, the whole force amounted to 18,000.

"At this spot many prisoners were made; upwards of 100 stand of arms and a considerable quantity of ammu- nition were seised, and the pretender's palanquin was also

taken.

"This unexpected check entirely disconcerted the plan of the insurgents of marching upon Kandy itself, before reaching which place the pretender expected to be joined by a large additional force from Upper and Lower Doom- bra, Bintenne, Hewahette, and Wallapani.

"Large reinforcements from the Doombra country were actually on their march to join him, when, meeting the fugitives from Warriapolle, they retreated.

"From the pretender's army thus increased, had it not been for the sudden check they received at Warriapolle, the town of Kandy would unquestionably have been in imminent danger.

“The force available for its defence being very much reduced by the detachments sent against the rebels, my

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