Ceylon and the Portuguese, 1505-1658
THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES CEYLON AND THE PORTUGUESE 1505 - 1658 BY P, E. PIERIS, LITT. D. (Otutab) Ceylon Civil Service, i,6tXfiTXD B7 a. B. NAISri. B. X. (Oioa.) Ceylon Civil Service. AMtMICAN CEYLON MISSION ^RCSS. TELLIPPALAI. CtYLON 1920 DS 1^41 <i^ DEDICATION Dear Lady Blake, I have written this book in the hope that it will awaken in those of your fellow country- men and fellow countrywomen whose hands it may chance to reach, an interest in Ceylon and a desire to understand her people. In that respect you and Sir Henry have set a shining example, and in grate- ful recognition I venture respectfully to dedicate this work to you» Yours sincerely, Kandy, 3rd June. 1920. P» E. PIERIS, "Son of nmn, stand upon thy feet." PREFACE The period of the history cf Ceylon which is covered by the present work has been already dealt with by me in another book which, inasmuch as it was addressed primarily to the people of that country, assumed in the reader a degres of knowledge which no one who has not resided there for many years can have, and was hurdemed with a minuteness of detail which, however novel and interesting to the local student, cannot but weary, if not repel, the general reader„ And yet the story of the Portuguese in Ceylon is of more than local interest, for it depicts for us a characteristic phase of the beginning of European expansion in the East. A hundred and fifty three years after the Portuguese first landed in Ceylon they were expelled from the country, leaving the gloomy word Failure writ large over all their actions.
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