ISBN: 9780217980722

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: It w… More...

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: It was further related to the king that these men possessed an instrument or machine, which belched forth lightning and caused thunder, and that with this they were able to destroy forts, built of marble or iron. The king listened attentively to what was told him, and was not only astonished, but also considerably disturbed. Eventually, however, his curiosity got the better of his astonishment and fear, and he resolved to go to Colombo, in order personally to see these strangers. The white men made a favourable impression upon him, and the king returned to his palace, where he afterwards granted an audience to the newcomers, whom he sent from his presence loaded with gifts. These white men were Portuguese, and they soon settled themselves in the country. The ancient inhabitants of the island, who lived in the open country, were unable to defend themselves against the white men, in as much as they were constantly occupied in resisting the raids of the Indian invaders. But the object of the Portuguese was to enter into trade relations with the Cingalese, and gradually they succeeded in obtaining a large quantity of the valuable products of the island in exchange for their own wares. But, not satisfied with the fact of having established a paying trade, the Europeans began to attempt the conquest of the island. These attempts met with little success. The Cingalese showed themselves a brave and patriotic race, and defended themselves for more than a century against the new invaders, in whom they saw not only the enemies of their nation, but also of their religion. Besides the brave Cingalese, the Europeans found another and still worse enemy in the fever which swept away large numbers of them. Cruelty on the part of the Portuguese only tended to alienate the mind of the inhabita..., libri, Kartoniert / Broschiert<