action of prosecuting a
vigorous propaganda of Catholicism, St Francis Xavier being the most
notable of the missionaries who at this time laboured in the island.

The fanatical zeal and the masterful attitude of the Portuguese were a
constant source of dissension with the native rulers, and when the
Dutch, under Admiral Spilberg, landed on the east coast in 1602 and
sought the alliance of the king of Kandy in the interior of the island,
every inducement was held out to them to aid in expelling the
Portuguese. Nothing seems to have come of this until 1638-1639, when a
Dutch expedition attacked and razed the Portuguese forts on the east
coast. In the following year they landed at Negombo, without however
establishing themselves in any strong post. In 1644 Negombo was captured
and fortified by the Dutch, while in 1656 they took Colombo, and in 1658
they drove the Portuguese from Jaffna, their last stronghold in Ceylon.

Pursuing a wiser policy than their predecessors, the Dutch lost no
opportunity of improving that portion of the country which owned their
supremacy, and of opening a trade with the interior. More tolerant and
less disposed to stand upon their dignity than the Portuguese, they
subordinated political to commercial ends, flattered the native rulers
by a show of deference, and so far succeeded in their object as to
render their trade between the island and Holland a source of great
profit. Many new branches of industry were developed. Public works were
undertaken on a large scale, and education, if not universally placed
within the reach of the inhabitants of the maritime provinces, was at
least well cared for on a broad plan of government supervision. That
which they had so much improved by policy, they were, however, unable to
defend by force when the British turned their arms against them. A
century and a half had wrought great changes in the physical and mental
status of the Dutch colonists. The territory which in 1658 they had
slowly gained by undaunted and obstinate bravery, they as rapidly lost
in 1796 by imbecility and cowardice.

The first intercourse of the English with Ceylon was as far back as
1763, when an embassy was despatched from Madras to the king of Kandy,
without, however, leading to any result. On the rupture between Great
Britain and Holland in 1795, a force was sent against the Dutch
possessions in Ceylon, where the opposition offered was so slight that
by the following year the whole o