The Portuguese, very often were not quite concerned about their
safety. They were only
worried about fighting when attacked. By this, they lost both time and safety. This was quite
evident to the whole world. The citizens were on the side of the Portuguese, all this time, because of King Dharmapala. They were made to understand that the Portuguese were
fighting to save the
King of Kotte.
King Mayadunne, who knew about this, wanted to destroy Don Juan Dharmapala.
He decided to poison King Dharmapala who was in the Fort of Colombo. To achieve this end, he bribed a Portuguese national and asked him to poison the king. A jar of poison was given to him to use for
this purpose. This man,
accepted the bribe and threw away the poison.
He added some grape wine into the same jar and
gave it to the king.
A small portion of the
poison had remained at
the bottom of the jar.
When King Dharmapala drank the grape juice, this little poison got into his system. He fell badly ill. His teeth fell out and he could not talk clearly.
Gradually King Dharmapala’s condition worsened. He stopped meeting the public. He was now a lonely character, helplessly depending on the Portuguese. Annually he received a salary of 2000 ‘serapin’ (a unit of money used at that time). In
addition to this he got a small income from a few villages around Colombo. He had to live like this without exercising any power over his country.
Though the king himself was dependent on others, he was troubled by the people who asked for loans and gifts. They were mostly Portuguese soldiers and captains. The Portuguese king got to know about this. He strictly prohibited this type of vexation. King Dharmapala who was
helpless, requested
permission from the King of Portugal, the power to export cinnamon. In the past it was this king who had the power to export cinnamon. Instead of granting this right, the Portuguese king only increased his allowance.
King Dharmapala who was not
discouraged, tried to achieve his end by approaching the King of Portugal through the Pope. This too failed. Though the king led a very sad life, he was quite concerned about his looks. He dressed himself in Portuguese style and spoke the Portuguese language. He had a private secretary and there was a small
platoon of soldiers too – as his guard.
He lived in a
palace in Colombo.
Though all his powers were gone, the people still loved and respected him because he was one of the kings of the Sinhala lineage of kings. He of course showed a lot of faith in the Catholic religion that he belonged to now. He had a fear that there would be an
opposition to this new
religion. Hence though powerless, he had some satisfaction in living among the Portuguese.
At the time, King Dharmapala embraced the Catholic religion, he entrusted the Franciscan Priests with the task of establishing and
maintaining all ‘vihara’ and ‘devalagam’, schools and other educational institutions. Once his second wife too passed away, he got married again to a princess named Issabella. Even from his third marriage, he did not get any children. As King Mayadunne and his son Prince Rajasinghe were against him, he always lived in fear.
He began to
ponder, that if the Kotte Kingdom fell into the hands of these two, there would be a threat to the Catholic religion. He had a feeling of gratitude towards the Portuguese, who shed blood to protect the kingdom for him. It is these reasons that made him accept the requests of the Franciscan priest. He began to have faith in that sect. |
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