Travels in India (Tavernier) 149.2.3

149.2.3

I did not find anything remarkable in this town, and there remains scarcely anything but the ruins, and mines, and the marks which the cannons made when the Dutch besieged it and drove away the Portuguese. The Company gave land and sites for building to those who wished to dwell there, and had already erected two good bastions, which command the port. If it had accomplished the design which it then formed, it would have made of this town a fine place. The Dutch, before they had captured all the settlements which the Portuguese had in the Island of Ceylon, from whence they have been entirely driven, persuaded themselves that the trade of this island would yield them enormous sums if they were sole masters. This might have happened if they had kept to the agreement which they had made with the King of Kandy — who is the King of the country — when they began to make war with the Portuguese. But they broke faith with him, and that gave them a very bad character in these parts.