An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies

Yours, &c.

The Ambassador upon the receipt of this, desired to speak with me. Upon whom I waited, and he after some Speech with me told me he would send word into France of it, and gave me Thanks for this my Kindness to his Countreymen.

An inquiry into the reason of this King’s detaining EuropæansIt may be worth some inquiry, what the reason might be, that the King detains the Europæan People as he does. It cannot be out of hope of Profit or Advantage; for they are so far from bringing him any, that they are a very great Charge, being all maintained either by him or his People. Neither is it in the power of Money to redeem any one, for that he neither needs nor values. Which makes me conclude, it is not out of Profit, nor Envy or ill will, but out of Love and Favour, that he keeps them, delighting in their Company, and to have them ready at his Command. For he is very ambitious of the Service of these Men, and winks at many of their failings, more than he uses to do towards his Natural Subjects. The King’s gentleness towards his white Soldiers.As may appear from a Company of White Soldiers he hath, who upon their Watch used to be very negligent, one lying Drunk here and another there. Which remisness in his own Soldiers he would scarce have indured, but it would have cost them their lives. But with these he useth more Craft than Severity to make them more watchful.

They watch at his Magazine.These Soldiers are under two Captains, the one a Dutch man and the other a Portugueze. They are appointed to Guard one of the King’s Magazines, where they always keep Sentinel both by Day and Night. This is a pretty good distance from the Court, and here it was the King contrived their Station, that they might swear and swagger out of his hearing, and that no body might disturb them, nor they no body. The Dutch Captain lyes at one side of the Gate, and the Portugueze at the other.

How craftily the King corrected their Negligence.Once the King to employ these his white Soldiers, and to honour them by letting them see what an assurance he reposed in them, sent one of his Boys thither to be kept Prisoner, which they were very Proud of. They kept him two years, in which time he had learnt both the Dutch and Portugueze Language. Afterwards the King retook the Boy into his Service, and within a short time after Executed him. But the King’s reason in sending this Boy to be kept by these Soldiers was, probably not as they supposed, and as the King himself outwardly pretended, viz. To shew how much he confided in them, but out of Design to make them look the better to their Watch, which their Debauchery made them very remiss in. For the Prisoners Hands only were in Chains, and not his Legs; so that his possibility of running away, having his Legs at liberty, concerned them to be circumspect and wakeful. And they knew if he had escaped it were as much as their lives were worth. By this crafty and kind way did the King correct the negligence of his white Soldiers.

The King’s Inclinations are towards white Men.Indeed his inclinations are much towards the Europæans; making them his great Officers, accounting them more faithful and trusty than his own People. With these he often discourses concerning the Affairs of their Countreys, and promotes them to places far above their Ability, and sometimes their Degree or Desert. The colour of white honoured in this Land.And indeed all over the Land they do bear as it were a natural respect and reverence to White Men, in as much as Black, they hold to be inferior to White. And they say, the Gods are White, and that the Souls of the Blessed after the Resurrection shall be White; and therefore, that Black is a rejected and accursed colour.

Their Privilege above the Natives.And as further signs of the King’s favour to them, there are many Privileges, which White Men have and enjoy, as tolerated or allowed them from the King; which I suppose may proceed from the aforesaid Consideration; as, to wear any manner of Apparel, either Gold, Silver, or Silk, Shoes and Stockings, a shoulder Belt and Sword; their Houses may be whitened with Lime, and many such like things, all which the Chingulayes are not permitted to do.

The King loves to send and talk with them.He will also sometimes send for them into his Presence, and discourse familiarly with them, and entertain them with great Civilities, especially white Ambassadors. They are greatly chargeable unto his Countrey, but he regards it not in the least. So that the People are more like Slaves unto us than we unto the King. In as much as they are inforced by his Command to bring us maintenance. Whose Poverty is so great oftentimes, that for want of what they supply us with, themselves, their Wives, and Children, are forced to suffer hunger, this being as a due Tax imposed upon them to pay unto us. Neither can they by any Power or Authority refuse the Payment hereof to us. For in my own hearing the People once complaining of their Poverty and Inability to give us any longer our Allowance, the Magistrate or Governor replied, It was the King’s special Command, and who durst disannul it. And if otherwise they could not supply us with our maintenance he bad them sell their Wives and Children, rather than we should want of our due. Such is the favour that Almighty God hath given Christian People in the sight of this Heathen King; whose entertainment and usage of them is thus favourable.

How they maintain Christianity among them.If any enquire into the Religious exercise and Worship practised among the Christians here, I am sorry I must say it, I can give but a slender account. For they have no Churches nor no Priests, and so no meetings together on the Lord’s Dayes for Divine Worship, but each one Reads or Prays at his own House as he is disposed. They Sanctifie the Day chiefly by refraining work, and meeting together at Drinking-houses. They continue the practice of Baptism; and there being no Priests, they Baptize their Children themselves with Water, and use the words, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and give them Christian Names. They have their Friends about them at such a time, and make a small Feast according to their Ability: and some teach their Children to say their Prayers, and to Read, and some do not.

In some things they comply with the worship of the Heathen.Indeed their Religion at the best is but Negative, that is, they are not Heathen, they do not comply with the Idolatry here practised; and they profess themselves Christians in a general manner, which appears by their Names, and by their Beads and Crosses that some of them wear about their Necks. Nor indeed can I wholly clear them from complyance with the Religion of the Countrey. For some of them when they are Sick do use the Ceremonies which the Heathen do in the like case, as in making Idols of clay, and setting them up in their Houses, and Offering Rice to them, and having Weavers to Dance before them. But they are ashamed to be known to do this; and I have known none to do it, but such as are Indians born. Yet I never knew any of them, that do inwardly in Heart and Conscience incline to the ways of the Heathen, but perfectly abhor them: nor have there been any, I ever heard of, that came to their Temples upon any Religious account, but only would stand by and look on; An old Priest used to eat of their Sacrifices.without it were one old Priest named Padre Vergonce, a Genoez born, and of the Jesuits Order who would go to the Temples, and eat with the Weavers and other ordinary People of the Sacrifices offered to the Idols: but with this Apology for himself, that he eat it as common Meat, and as God’s Creature, and that it was never the worse for their Superstition that had past upon it. But however this may reflect upon the Father, another thing may be related for his Honour. There happened two Priests to fall into the hands of the King; on whom he conferred great Honours; for having laid aside their Habits they kept about his Person, and were the greatest Favourites at Court. The King one day sent for Vergonse, and asked him, if it would not be better for him to lay aside his old Coat and Cap, and to do as the other two Priests had done, and receive Honour from him. He replied to the King, That he boasted more in that old habit and in the Name of Jesus, than in all the honour that he could do him. And so refused the King’s Honour. The King valued the Father for this saying. He had a pretty Library about him, and died in his Bed of old Age: whereas the two other Priests in the King’s Service died miserably, one of a Canker, and the other was slain. The old Priest had about Thirty or Forty Books, which the King, they say, seized on after his Death, and keeps.

The King permitted the Portugueze to build a Church.These Priests, and more lived there, but all deceased, excepting Vergonse, before my time. The King allowed them to build a Church; which they did, and the Portugueze assembled there, but they made no better than a Bawdy-house of it; for which cause the King commanded to pull it down.

Although here be Protestants and Papists, yet here are no differences kept up among them, but they are as good Friends, as if there were no such Parties. And there is no other Distinctions of Religion there, but only Heathens and Christians: and we usually say, We Christians.

FINIS

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Speed’s Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland, and of Foreign Parts.

Dr. Cave’s Lives of the Primitive Fathers.

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Sir Tho. Herbert’s Travels into Persia, &c.

Holyoak’s large Dictionary, Latin and English.

Sir Richard Baker’s Chronicle of England.

Causin’s Holy Court.

Wilson’s compleat Christian Dictionary.

Bishop Wilkin’s Real Character, or Philosophical Language.

Pharmacopoeia Regalis Collegii Medicorum Londineisis reformata.

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Judge Vaughn’s Reports in Common Law.

Cave Tabula Ecclesiasticorum Scriptorum.

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Bishop Nicholson on the Church Catechism.

The Compleat Clerk.

History of the late Wars of New England.

Dr. Outram de Sacrificiis.

Bishop Taylor’s Disswasive from Popery.

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Parkeri Disputationes de Deo.

History of the future State of Europe.

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Dr. Sherlock’s Visitation-Sermon at Warrington.

Dr. West’s Assize-Serm. at Dorchester, 1671.

Lord Hollis’s Relation of the Unjust Accusation of certain French Gentlemen charged with a Robbery, 1671.

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Dr. Burnet’s Vindication of the Ordination of the Church of England.

Bishop Wilkin’s Natural Religion.

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Dr. Ashton’s Apology for the Honours and Revenues of the Clergy.

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Dr. Cave’s Primitive Christianity, in three Parts.

Allen’s Discourse of two Covenants, 1672.

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Buckler of State and Justice against France’s Design of Universal Monarchy.

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William’s Sermon before the Lord Mayor, Octob. 12. 1679.

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The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits, Seminary Priests, &c. explained by divers Judgments and Resolutions of the Judges; with other Observations thereupon, by William Cawley Esq; Fol.

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FINIS