touched, by God's grace, and by virtue of the body of Christ which I carried with me, and through the merits of the glorious Virgin and St. Clare.' And having brought all the Christians to penitential mourning, even whilst the gale still blew we made sail, committing ourselves to the Divine guidance, and caring only for the safety of souls. Thus led by the Divine mercy, on the morrow of the Invention of the Holy Cross we found ourselves brought safely into port in a harbour of Seyllan, called PERVILIS,3 over against Paradise. Here a certain tyrant, by name Coya Jaan,4 a eunuch, had the mastery in opposition to the lawful king. He was an accursed Saracen, who by means of his great treasures had gained possession of the greater part of the kingdom.
At first he put on a pretence of treating us honourably, but by and bye, in the politest manner and under the name of a loan, he took from us 60,000 marks; in gold, silver, silk, cloth of gold, precious stones, pearls, camphor, musk, myrrh, and aromatic spices, gifts from the Great Kaam and other princes to us, or presents sent from them to the Pope. And
1 St. Clara was the townswoman, disciple, and feminine reflexion of St. Francis.
2 3rd May.
3 Meinert and Kunstmann translate Pervilis as if it were a Latin adjective. But the name is perfectly Ceylonese in character; e.g. Padaville and Periaville are names found in Tennent's Map, though not in positions suited to this. From the expression " over against Paradise," and the after mention of Cotta, we may see that it was somewhere not far from Columbo. And a passage in Pridham enables me to identify the port as Barberyn, otherwise called BERUWALA, near Bentotte and the mouth of the Kaluganga. This is now a large fishing village, with a small bay having an anchorage for ships, and a considerable coasting trade. (Historical, etc., View of Ceylon, pp. 619-20.)
4 Coya or Coja Jaan represents, I presume, Khwcdja Jandn. Now this was the title of the Wazir of Dehli ; and Ibn Batuta, in reference to a time only a year or two before our author's arrival in Ceylon, mentions as an instance of the arrogance of Nasiruddin the new Sultan of Maabar, that he ordered his Wazir and admiral to take the same title of Khwdja Jandn. Others may have followed the fashion, for it seems probable that our author's accursed Saracen was that " Wazir and Admiral Joiasti" whom Ibn Batuta found in power at Columbo. (Ibn Batuta, iv, 185 ; 204.)
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