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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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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

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acted on this opinion of Mr. Staples®, and per- mitted the rebellion to mature when instant Inter-

ference might have stopped it.

But Loko Banda's noté ́was not only mantho- rized, but erroneotis; for Mr. Buller took directly the opposite course, and on the evening of the same day, 26th, sent Loko Banda and as strong a force of police as he could muster, to Matelle, with in- tention to act and arrest the disturbera. of the

public peace.

Loko Banda reported that on arriving at Matelle on the 27th, Mr. Waring told him "there is no rebellion-it is all now secure some people want to steal."

But the very same forenoon, intelligence arrived in Matello that thousands of Kandyans were ad- vancing on the town; that they had crowned a king as their head; and were in full march on Kandy.

Mr. Waring now wrote on the 27th to announce that something formidable was impending, and to beg for armed assistance.

And on the morning of the 28th he followed it by a report "that the rebels were within two miles of Matelle, and will come on in an hour or two. When they enter the town, I shall start."

It will be seen, that 'till within a very few hotirs of the actual attack upon Matelle, not only was the Government destitute of all sound information in regard to it, and impressed with the improba- bility

of any movement so insane, but that, till the rebels were actually within two miles of: Matelle, the resident officer, Mr. Waring; himself, charged with the peace of the district, was totally unaware of their numbers and design, and believed them to be a gang of escaped convicts who were bent épan theft. And to account for that confidence, I can say, without hesitation, that it arose not from any haughty sense of our own superior strength, and the futility of any attempt to assefl 'ns; but: from. I consciousness that the whole tenor of our policy towards the Kandyan people had been so mild and beneficent, that it was impossible that men who had benefitted so largely at our hands could pomi- bly arise in arms for our expulsion.

• This will be proved to be distinctly contradisted in papers presented to the House of Commons last year (p. 160).

Outbreak.

Nothing but the strength of this consciousness can account for, the fact that on every previous occasion of revolt the authorities have been equally slow to give credence to its probability.

In 1834, Mr. Turngar, the ablest man whom the Ceylon civil service has ever produced, utterly ignored the posibility of disaffection, but was speedily undeceived. In 1843, Mr. Anstruther was equally incredulous of treason at Badulla, till con- vinced by some hundreds of arrests, and by the evidence on the trial of thirteen of the ringleaders; and to the present time even their past experiences have not satisfied all the public officers of the existence of this spirit of discontent which on so many occasions has wrayed the Kandyan in rebel- lion against our antherity,

On the morning of the 28th, Mr. Buller applied to the Commandant for 00 of the military to accompany him to Matelle; but Colonel Drought, still incredulous, expressed his belief that Mr. Waring was frightened, and begged. Mr. Buller to ride down first himself to Matelle, and ascertain the real state of affairs, and that troops should then be at his command should he then find it

nocemary to call for them.

Mr. Buller, as the moment of starting, received at the Ferry an express from the Maha Nellame, the highest of the Kandyan chief in that part of the country, and himself deeply implicated in the rebellion, to announce that it bad, braken out- "that the whole district was in rebellion, and a King crowned, and he and his followers in full march towards Matelle and Kandy”---that “pearly all his own followers and tepants had joined the rebels; and that it would require at least 200 soldiers, Europeans, besides the Malayu, to give protection to Matelle.”—(Mr. Famson's Letter, p.

96.)

On reaching the pass at Bulla Kudua Mr. Buller, met „Mri:: Wazing in fall fight, Mabelle having been entered by the rebels at one end

hu, im

(of his intimation, took his departure at the other. Mr. Bullar, turped back to'Kandy, and they

set out aguls wh

that this J. E. T.

Ezien Mačiame, and the serme of Vin urrones with Mr. Anstruther, more rint, got up by robbers or merendars.