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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

הווןווי

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C.O.885

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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he was permitted to reside, deprived of nothing

but his personal liberty; on the same night a similar attempt was made to seize Pelima Palawe, Dessave of the province of Seven Korles, but by the help of his uncle, the Second Adegar, this chief escaped and was received with open arms by Madugalle, the principal representive of the Pretender. His uncle, however, was carried a prisoner to Colombo for having aidedhis escape.

In Suffragain, the Seven Korles, Yatenoora, and Oudanoora, the rebellion made but little progress, but in the other districts the insurgents were so far successful that Matale was aban- doned. Major Delater who had advanced with 100 men from Trincomalee to Nallande in that district, retreating with the garrison of that post into the Seven Korles, after having destroyed his ammunition and the Governor contemplated the concentration of all his detachments in Ouvah, when on the 22nd March part of the expected aid from India arrived. At the same time Sir

B. Brownrigg issued a proclamation declaring the low origin of the pretender (he was a Kandian of the name of Wilbawe, and had been a Buddhist priest), and offering large rewards for the appre- hension of the rebel leaders. At this time also he introduced into the well-affected provinces of Suffragam and the Seven Korles certain changes in the system of government which he had deter- mined upon, and which tended to subvert the influence of the chiefs, in obedience to whom, and even contrary to their own inclinations, the

people had engaged in this insurrection.*

In a despatch of July 24, No. 298, the 298. July 24.

Governor complains greatly of the delay which had occurred in the transmission of the auxiliary force from India, declaring that this delay had deranged his plans much, that disease had appeared in the interval among the troops, and had proved a more destructive foe than the natives. Between April and July 400 fighting men had fallen by it, and on 8th May it had become necessary to evacuate the district of Bintenne.

In Ouvah however the insurrection at this time began to languish, partly owing to the detection of a chief named Millawe in a corre-

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300. July 26.

20. July 20.

303. Aug. 17.

306, Oct. 9.

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spondence with Madugalle and his banishment from the island. The capture of another, named Koliukumla, who in the endeavour to seduce some of the Malay soldiers was taken prisoner by a party of twenty-five in the middle of his followers, of whom thirty-three were slain, and the distress which the inhabitants now began to feel from the destruction of their corn-fields, con- tributed to the same result.

To restore the courage of his followers Keppi- tipola (the late Dessave of Ouvah) determined to inaugurate the pretender with every ceremony for- merly in use on such occasions, as King, which was accordingly done with great pomp on the 1st of May. This coronation and the public exhibition of the sacred relic (a tooth of Buddha), which, as was afterwards discovered, had been stolen from Kándy, and to the possessor of which, as the Kandians imagine, the sovereignty of the island is secured, together with the sickness which, as before- mentioned, began to prevail among the troops, had to a certain extent the effect he desired; and from the increase of this disease matters began to assume a very dark aspect, when Keppitipola with the army he had raised was surprised on the 20th of July in a position in which fighting was unavoidable, and defeated with some slaugh- ter. His followers were completely dispersed, and he himself was only saved from capture by a precipitate and solitary flight.

This defeat appears to have broken, the neck of the insurrection. Several chiefs of Ouvah and Wellassee were captured in the course of the following two months, others surrendered of their own accord. The discouraged Kandians retired in all directions; and in spite of the great mortality among the European troops in Wel lassee, which rendered their withdrawal from that province necessary, the districts of Kotmale and Hewalette were reduced, and Keppitipola, after an unavailing attempt to raise the Seven Korles, was forced to return with the pretended King into Doombera, where they were both treacherously seized by Madugalle in concert with Pelima Talawe.

Pelima Talawe apparently entertained the design of setting up a new pretender of his own;

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