[Footnote 5:  Woo-he[)o]-peen, b. lxviii p. 5.  See also the Ta-tsing y[)i]h-tung, a topographical account of the Manchoo empire, a copy of which is among the Chinese books in the British Museum.  In the very imperfect version of the Rajavali, published by Upham, this important passage is rendered unintelligible by the want of fidelity of the translator, who has transformed the conqueror into a “Malabar,” and ante-dated the event by a century. (Rajavali, p. 263.) I am indebted to Mr. De Alwis, of Colombo, for a correct translation of the original, which is as follows:  “In the reign of King Wijayo-bahu, the King of Maha (great) China landed in Ceylon with an army, pretending that he was bringing tribute; King Wijayo-bahu, believing his professions (because it had been customary in the time of King Prakrama-bahu for foreign countries to pay tribute to Ceylon), acted incautiously, and he was treacherously taken prisoner by the foreign king.  His four brothers were killed, and with them fell many people, and the king himself was carried captive to China.”  DE COUTO, in his continuation of DE BARROS, has introduced the story of the capture of the king by the Chinese; but he has confounded the dates, mystified the facts, and altered the name of the new sovereign to Pandar, which is probably only a corruption of the Singhalese Banda, “a prince.”—­DE COUTO, Asia, &c., dec. v. lib. i. c. vi. vol. ii. part i. p. 51.  PURCHAS says:  “The Singhalese language is thought to have been left there by the Chinois, some time Lord of Zeilan.”—­Pilgrimage, c. xviii. p. 552.  The adventures of Ching Ho, in his embassy to the nations of the Southern Ocean, have been made the ground-work of a novel, the Se-yung-ke, which contains an enlarged account of his exploits in Ceylon; but fact is so overlaid with fiction that the passages are not worth extracting.]

For fifty years after this untoward event the subjection of Ceylon to China appears to have been humbly and periodically acknowledged; tribute was punctually paid to the emperor, and on two occasions, in 1416 A.D., and 1421 A.D., the kings of Ceylon were the bearers of it in person.[1] In 1430 A.D., at a period of intestine commotion, “Ching-Ho issued a proclamation for the pacification of Ceylon,” and, at a somewhat later period, edicts were promulgated by the Emperor of China for the government of the island.[2] In 1459 A.D., however, the series of humiliations appears to have come abruptly to a close; for, “in that year,” says the Ming-she, “the King of Ceylon for the last time sent an envoy with tribute, and after that none ever came again.”

[Footnote 1:  Ming-she, b. vii. pp. 4, 8.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., b. cccxxvii. p. 7.]