English were come to his country, and had commanded him to assist us as we should desire; and had sent a letter to be delivered to none but to the Captain himself."
We were then some twelve miles from the seaside. Our reply was, "That the Captain could not leave his ship to come so far; but if he pleased to come down to the seaside himself, the Captain would immediately wait upon him to receive the letter." Upon which, the Dissauva desired us to stay that day; and on the morrow, he would go down with us: which being a small request; we, unwilling to displease him, consented to.
The same day at evening, the Dissauva sent two of his chief captains to the house where we lay, to tell us "That he was sending a present to the Captain, and if we pleased we might send a letter to him: that he would send the present in the night; and himself, with us, follow the next morning." At which, we began to suspect, and accordingly concluded to write and advise the Captain not to adventure himself nor any other on shore, till he saw us. We having written a letter to this purpose, they took it and went away; but never delivered it.
The next morning, the present (which was cattle, fruit, &c.) was brought to the seaside and delivered to the Captain; the messengers telling him withal, that we were upon the way coming down with the Dissauva, who desired his company on shore, against his coming; having a letter from the King to deliver into his own hand. Hereupon the Captain mistrusting nothing, came up with his boat into a small river; and being come ashore, sat down under a tamarind tree[*[1], waiting for the Dissauva and us. In which time, the native soldiers privately surrounded him and his men having no arms with them: and so he was seized on, and seven men with him; yet without any violence or plundering them of
- ↑ Sir JAMES EMERSON TENNENT, K.C.G., in a tour through the northern forests of Ceylon in February 1848, thus— "At Cottiar, . . . we halted by the identical tamarind tree, under which, two centuries before, Captain ROBERT KNOX—the gentlest of historians, and the meekest of captives—was betrayed by the Kandyans; and thence carried into their hills: to be detained an inoffensive prisoner, from boyhood to grey hairs. But to that captivity, we are indebted for the most faithful and life-like portraiture that was ever drawn of a semi-civilised, but remarkable people." —Ceylon. ii. 478. Ed. 1859.
