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0090 Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1
Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 / Page 90 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000042
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lXX1V   PRELIMINARY ESSAY.

Cambodia, Siam, and other places, proclaiming at each the imperial edict and conferring imperial gifts. If any of the states refused to acknowledge the Emperor's supremacy they were subdued by force ; and in 1407 the expedition returned to China accompanied by envoys from the different nations. Chingho being sent again next year on a like mission, the Singhalese King tried to entrap and capture him, but Chingho avoided the snare, caught the king, his whole family and officers of state, and carried them prisoners to China. In 1411 the Emperor set the prisoners free, but deposed the misdemeanant king, and appointed another of the party in his place, who was sent back to Ceylon accompanied by a Chinese commissioner to invest him as a royal vassal of the empire. This new king is named by the Chinese Pulakoma Bazae Laclaa, which identifies him as Prakrama Bahu Raja VI, whose reign according to the Ceylonese annals extended from 1410 to 1462. Tribute was paid regularly by Ceylon for fifty years ; apparently therefore throughout the long reign of this prince and no longer. During that time the king is asserted to have been on two occasions the bearer of it in person. Other circumstances mentioned appear to imply that a Chinese Resident was maintained on the island who superintended the administration. The last tribute was paid in 1459. Chinese influence was thus a matter of recent memory on the arrival of the Portuguese in the beginning of the following century, and they found many traces of it remaining.

These events are of course very differently represented in the Ceylonese annals. According to their account the King of .Mahachina landed in the island with an army under the pretence of bringing tribute; the King of Ceylon was then treacherously taken and carried captive to China, etc.'

52. As regards warlike relations between India and China in the middle ages we may mention the Mongol invasion of Bengal " by way of Cathay and Tibet" during the reign of Alauddin Musaüd King of Dehli ; the only invasion of Bengal from that quarter distinctly recorded in history. This took place about 1244, and was defeated by the local officers. Firishta in speaking

1 Tennent, pp. 601-602.

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