•mt MtUMtzmm op jwhjh zx csmm, 1636 - 3.6^" ft.», (XXBIi&'/iRafiNfc Stools £i*iio&t<?4 for fcba d»g*o© of i h.D. of thi l^uwrsity of London - 1<?53* ProQuest Number: 11010382 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11010382 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 CONTENTS IHDEODUCTION pp. i-xx CHAPTER 1 Proa the Arrival of the Portuguese up 1-21 to the Accession of Raja Sinha. CHAPTER 2 The Alliance between Raja Sinha and the 22-42 Dutch. CHAPTER 3 The Policy of the Dutch. 4-3-54 CHAPTER A A Period of Stalemate. The Mission of 95-140 Boreel. CHAPTER 5 The Dutch become a Territorial Power. 141-178 The Conclusion of the Truce. CHAPTER 6 The Period of the Truce. 179-242 CHAPTER 7 Aims and Methods of Dutch Administration. 243-267 CHAPTER 8 Expulsion of the Portuguese. Dutch 268-319 Power Predominant. GLOSSARY xxi-xxii BIBLIOGRAPHY xxiii-xxx MAPS INTRODUCTION The present work is chiefly based on the documents concerning Ceylon which are preserved in the Kolonial Archief section of the Algemeen Rijksarchief at the Hague# They consist, in the main, of three series - 1# Overgekomen Brleven En Papieren. 2# Batavlaesch Vitgaende Briefboek and 3* Brieven van de Vergaderingh van Seventhienen Naer Indien. Of these, the first-mentioned is by far the most volu­ minous and the most important - at least so far as this thesis is concerned. This series consists of documents, which the Governor-General and Council sent to their superiors along with the Generale Missive or annual report. In the Generale Missive, the Batavian authorities review (among other things) the events and developments which have taken place in Ceylon since their previous Generale Missive. This review is often quite detailed, but sometimes sketchy. Nevertheless, whether detailed or sketchy, it is almost invariably an indispensable source for the history of the period covered by it. Generally, of greater importance than this review of Ceylon affairs are the originals or copies of letters, reports* etc. sent from Ceylon to Batavia and thence, along with the Generale Missive, to the Netherlands. Although, unfortunately, all the documents sent from Ceylon have not been dispatched to the Netherlands, yet, those sent are in sufficient number to give a fuller and ii truer picture of happenings in Ceylon than is given in the Generale Missive* The second series of documents, the Bataviaesch Vitgaende Briefboek, contains (among other things) letters and instruc­ tions etc. from the Governor-General and Council to Ceylon, and to their subordinates proceeding to that island on various missions. This series though less voluminous and not so important as the first, is nevertheless invaluable and indis­ pensable. Sometimes the letters and instructions contained in this series are so wide in their scope and ramifications that with their aid many gaps in matters connected with Ceylon can be filled up. Moreover, for a study of Dutch policy, this series is probably the most important of all. The third series, the Brieven van de Vergaderingh van Seventhlenen naer Indien, contains, as its name indicates, letters from the Heeren XVII to Batavia. These letters are chiefly important for a study of Dutch policy; they often serve to remind the reader that profit and commercial advantages were always meant to be the real touchstones of any policy in the island (or elsewhere). All these documents contain various shortcomings which have to be carefully noted if wrong and hasty conclusions are to be avoided. For instance, letters written on the same subject either to one and the same person or to different persons, sometimes contain contradictory instructions. The iii explanation for this was given by the Governor-General and a ) Council to the Directors, thusr "That in our local letters we write to the Directors and merchants of the Company and, sometimes, to native princes ideas which are far removed from our resolutions, such as, that Muscat is going to be conquered, and coming victorious from there we shall attack Diu, Daman and other Portuguese forts; that • ••• we shall assist Bantam Jmd against Mataram, and Mataram against Bantam etc. - we request Your Honours to accept such ideas and projects in our letters .... which do not agree with our resolutions as being inventions made in order to throw our enemy into confusion." Another reason for these contradictory statements appears, however, to have been due to a desire on the part of the writers to safeguard themselves in the event of matters turning out contrary to expectation. In fact, in their desire to safeguard themselves from criticism and reproach, the Governor- General and Council, in particular, are at times found to be making absolutely false denials and statements; but these are, generally speaking, so cleverly framed that only a thorough study of all the available materials can get at the truth. 1. 9 Dec. 16379 in Kolonial Archief No. 103U pp. 35-36 iv The most notable shortcoming - and the one most to be guarded against - in the reporting of the Dutch Company is the fact that the "other fellow* - whether Raja Sinha or the Portuguese or the "Engelsche vrtjhen" - is almost invariably said to be a rascal and a cheat, whose actions are thoroughly Machiavellian. This manner of reporting, it must be noted, is seldom absent, to a lesser or greater extent, in the official correspondence of all countries at all times; if the Sinhalese archives had survived I doubt not that JLt^would have been in fitting company when placed beside the Dutch East India Company's archives. The unfortunate fact, however, is that this characteristic of the Dutch Company's reporting has been too often overlooked. In a way, this is not surprising, because the charges of Machiavellianism made against the "other fellow" are often accompanied by solemn (though on close analysis, false) protestations and explanations of the Company’s own uprightness, and the difficulty for the "open-hearted (1) Netherlander" to act contrary to his conscience. Nevertheless, despite these drawbacks, the Company's records at the Hague still remain, on the whole, the most copious grid the best material for a study of the period surveyed 1. Cf. for illustrations of some of these points seef-siw.i56 the present work. V In this thesis. There can, perhaps, be no better testimony to their value than that it is possible, after all, to get a fair picture of the "other fellow’s" ideas and actions, even if this has to be obtained by the most exhaustive research. As far as I know only three writers have hitherto made any considerable use of these records for a study of even a part of the subject dealt with in this thesis. Of these, the first in point of time and, indeed, of importance, has been W. van Geer, who utilised the documents for the years 1638-U5 for his doctoral thesis, De Opkomst van het Nederlandsch Ge&ag over Ceilon (Leiden, 1895). Van Geer’s thesis suffered from certain defects, which were due to no fault of his, but were merely the result of its being a pioneer work. For instance, his only Portuguese source was Ribeiro, and he naturally had not access to Raja Sinha’s correspondence preserved in the Ceylon archives and published by Donald Ferguson in 190U; nor had he at his disposal the works of scholars such as Dr. P.E. Pieris and H.W. Codrington who dealt with the Portuguese side of the story. There are, however, other defects in Van Geer’s work which must be ascribed to the writer’s own shortcomings. He has often overlooked vital facts and documents; sometimes he contradicts what is stated in the documents (even where the relevant document is given among his appendixes); sometimes he supplies details by mere guess-work, which, unfortunately, has proved wrong; moreover, he sometimes accepted at their Vi face-value, the tendentious or false statements of the Dutch Company’s officials. (1) When all this is said and done, however, the fact remains that Van Geer’s work is still the best available on his subject; no other writer has a fuller (2) account or a more impartial one. In his well-known work De Oost-Indische Conrpagnie als Zeemogendheid in Azie, Rijswick (Z.H.) 1927, N. MacLeod has devoted some attention to a study of matters connected with Ceylon in the years 1638-50. He is the second writer, in point of importance, who has used a considerable number of the Company’s records at the R1jksarchief for a study of part at least of the subject covered in this thesis. As he was primarily interested in the V.O.C. as a sea-power, and was to*'}/ , 1. Cf. on the above pointssov».v8*'I*S9M^ 0Cl1,,,,*,t,‘*»191 of the present work. 2. The fact that none of the three Ceylon writers, who avowedly utilised his work, were able to maintain the degree of impartiality shown by him, is a good testimony to the merits of Van Geer's work.