[Offer him passage in their Ships.] The General’s youngest Son being to go home Admiral of the Ships this year, the General kindly offered us passage upon their Ships, promising me Entertainment at his Son’s own Table, as the Governor of Columbo had given me in my Voyage hither.  Which offer he made me, he said, That I might better satisfie their Company in Holland concerning the Affairs of Ceilon, which they would be very glad to know.

[Come home from Bantam in the Caesar.] At this time came two English Merchants hither from Bantam, with whom the General was pleased to permit us to go.  But when we came to Bantam, the English Agent very kindly entertained us, and being not willing, that we should go to the Dutch for Passage, since God had brought us to our own Nation, ordered our Passage in the good Ship Caesar lying then in the Road, bound for England, the Land of our Nativity, and our long wished for Port.  Where by the good Providence of God we arrived safe in the Month of September.

CHAP.  XIII.

Concerning some other Nations, and chiefly Europaeans, that now live in this Island.  Portugueze, Dutch.

Having said all this concerning the English People, it may not be unacceptable to give some account of other Whites, who either voluntarily or by constraint Inhabit there.  And they are, besides the English already spoken of, Portugueze, Dutch, and French.  But before I enter upon Discourse of any of these, I shall detain my Readers a little with another Nation inhabiting in this Land, I mean, the Malabars; both because they are Strangers and derive themselves from another Countrey, and also because I have had occasion to mention them sometimes in this Book.

[Concerning Malabars that inhabit this Island.  Their Territories.] These Malabars then are voluntary Inhabitants in this Island, and have a Countrey here; tho the Limits of it are but small:  it lyes to the Northward of the King’s Coasts betwixt him and the Hollander.  Corunda Wy River parts it from the King’s Territories.  Thro this Countrey we passed, when we made our Escape.  The Language they speak is peculiar to themselves, so that a Chingulays cannot understand them, nor they a Chingulays.

[Their Prince.] They have a Prince over them, called Coilat wannea, that is independent either upon the King of Cande on one hand, or the Dutch on the other, only that he pays an acknowledgment to the Hollanders.  Who have endeavoured to subdue him by Wars, but they cannot yet do it:  yet they have brought him to be a Tributary to them, viz.  To pay a certain rate of Elephants per annum.  The King and this Prince maintain a Friendship and Correspondence together.  And when the King lately sent an Army against the Hollanders, this Prince let them pass thro his Countrey; and went himself in Person to direct the King’s People, when they took one or two Forts from them.