The Viceroy made an attempt to take the officers of Kotte, who were captured by the Portuguese to India. When King Dharmapala got to know this, he was deeply disturbed. He tried to save his uncle Thammita. But it was with the greatest difficulty that he could get Thammita released.
That too was by
sacrificing a prince, who even had a claim to the throne of Kotte. Before long, the Commander, Veediya Bandara, became the ruler of Kotte.King Dharmapala was just a nominal head. By this time, Commander Veediya Bandara had begun to hate the Portuguese and even the Christians.
Once he became ruler, his one
ambition was to erase all Portuguese
influence. He devoted all his energy and attention to this matter. This policy of Veediya Bandara won the
affection of his subjects.
Commander Veediya Bandara was delighted with the
support of his
subjects. He even began to attack the Christian churches. This rendered the Christian priests
helpless and made them seek the help of the Portuguese generals.
Once Veediya Bandara was in power, he stopped the payment of tribute to the Portuguese.
The King of Portugal got to know of these activities of Commander Veediya Bandara. The Portuguese Viceroy got frightened. But the fame and
reputation of Veediya Bandara spread all over the country.
This commander was praised by everybody for being a brave ruler. He received a lot of accolades. Even his enemies were trying to be friends and the chief among them was King Mayadunne. Even the King of Jaffna tried to be friendly. Commander Veediya Bandara never had any trust in King Mayadunne of Sitawaka. He had plans of annexing the Sitawaka Kingdom.
That of course, was no easy task. King Mayadunne was a born crafty character who could change his policies, as and when he wanted. He had a huge army which consisted of
war-like warriors. His own son, was a clever
warrior himself.
Due to these
reasons, it was
difficult to attack Sitawaka. As days passed, the Portuguese power too, was on the decline. The number who embraced Christianity, expecting various
benefits, also decreased.
The people who were indifferent to everything, got revived by the actions of Commander Veediya Bandara. They too started harassing the Portuguese. When all this was reported to the King of Portugal, he found fault with the Viceroy. He attributed all this trouble to be the
outcome of the low
behaviour and base deeds of the viceroy.
By this time, the
viceroy had robbed a part of the wealth of King Buwanekabahu.
The King of Portugal got to know about this too. He sent an envoy, ordering the
viceroy to return that
wealth. When this
message was handed to the viceroy, he got
thoroughly frightened. By that time, he had sold half of the stolen items. As such, he could not obey the king’s order. But he knew, that if he were to ignore the king’s order, it would mean his ruin.
He knew he
would have to face
serious repercussions. He had only one way out of this problem. That was to make friends with Commander Veediya Bandara. With this in mind, the viceroy sent an envoy to Commander Veediya Bandara. He was Migel Kutinno, another crafty man. He however, went and met Commander Veediya Bandara.
|
E-mail
