CO882-(1-2) — Page 63

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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higher chiefs, amongst whom many brothers pos-

sess but one wife in common.⭑

Od several occasions, between 1796 and 1812, Ses Proclamation of Sir R. Brown- we attempted to open formal diplomatic relations rigg, February 11, 1815, p. 3.

with Kandy, but virtually failed on all occasions.

Our efforts were mistaken for conscious weak- ness, and our respectful approaches only fed the vanity and increased the despotism of the King.

His cruelties at length became so intolerable that his subjects entreated the British to relieve them from such a tyrant.

It is a curious circumstance, and one illustrative of the unchanging habits and feelings of these people, that even in the time of these native des- pota, five well-known districts were celebrated for

their reckless loyalty to their tyrants, viz., Hewa- See Pridham. Vol. I. p. 182.

hette, Doombera, Oova, Kotmalie, and Wallapane. And it is remarkable that these very districts are those which, since the British occupation, have been most impatient for the restoration of their national independence, and that every rebellion since has originated within one or other of these districts, Matelle being notorious for such plots. That these very districts were the scene of the active insurrec- tion in 1848, and it was through them that further outbreaks were seriously apprehended.

The nature of the despotism to which the Kan- dyans submitted for ages, and its degrading effects, may be inferred from the circumstances which re- sulted in the war of 1815, and the expulsion of the King.

Relying on the fidelity of these five districts, which had been always notorious for their blind devotion to him, and apprehensive of treason else- where, the King ordered every individual who had settled in these loyal districts, to depart to those in which they had been born, thus separating hus- bands and wives, and driving away parents from their children: but the order was obeyed.

Partial disaffection followed, the King hanged and impaled his Ministers; rebellion was threatened in some remote parts, and he put to death the wives

• Though their forests and rocks afford abundant materials for building, all the houses, even those of the chlefs, are of mud, without windows, and the doors often shaped out of a singla tres, cut down for the purpose, and rednesd with hatchets and knives to the necessary thinness. Furniture they have next to mode,

all sleeping on the ground, and seenetimes on a mat stretched

on a rattan frame work. Some of the higher orders have recently begun to use chairs, tables, and earthenware; but the majority

eat their rice with their fingers of a piece of a plantain leaf.

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From Davy's Ceylon, p. 322.

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and children of the suspected chiefs with circum- stances of barberity, for which modern times have nol parallelse. At nu lea kad ne

The circumstance is thus stated by Dr. Davy, a brother wd/Bir Humphry Davy, who, then held an appointment in the Medical Staffy and is author of okrafthebaut und most authentic modern works

10 47 • WISY on Ceylon, raund av din 199

In front of the Queen's palace, and between the Kata and Maha Vishnu Dewale, as if to shock died »insult the gèds as well as the sexy the wife of Theylapots and ̈his › children were brought from prison, where they had been in charge of female jailors, and delivered over to their executionera. The lady, with great resolution, maintained her \own'und hat children's 'innocence, and not less her lord's p'aßdie same-time` mbmitting to the king's pleasure, and offering up her own and her off- Upring's Keek with the fervent hope thas, her hun- 'band's fate urbativbe benefited by the sacrifice. Having uttered these sentimente aloud; she desired her eldest boy teenbelt to his fabe; the poor child, who waist dheven years old, clung to his mother, ter- riffélt and drying'y' har second son, nine-years old, withTMll the inspiration of martyrdom,¬heroically stepped forward, and hade his brother»nst to be aftaki mahe would whow him the way to die! By one blow of w sword, the hɛnd of the noble boy Was several fromi Kin!body; sirompting with blood, and Nardly · Animekinate, it was thrown into a rice miöitärpihe pestle was put into the mothers hands, aild she was'ërdered to pound it, or be disgracefully tortured nád defiled by the Rhodias. To groid the Hörråd'alternative the wretched woman did lift up etrilə med kot 40 fall. One by onetherheads of khen, wäre sent willy mad/vcme-by-one the

• had1to "parform the ballilah› operation. Über of the children van mesykels dində te wound a faniate

|· byrtha flaghalons'n most mon-

· the breast, phikod from the mothée de be be- › kind witterured from the body, the milk it had just drawn in, ran out mingled with

·Nanded;

its blood. During this awful soena, the mowd, who

c

pelig · maple, and sobbed

· fundingo-af grief and