ABSTRACT
T HE century and a half of Dutch rule in Ceylon was fastdrawing to a close in weakness and decay. The DutchEast India Company was bankrupt, and its power was only a shadow of what it had been. Since about I739 the annual expenditure of Ceylon had exceeded the revenue, and the maintenance of the island had been a drain upon the Company's resources. The officials were underpaid and were allowed to make up the deficiency by private trading, with the result that private took precedence over public interests, and maladministration was widespread. During the preceding generation two able and honest governors, Falck and Van der Graaf, had attempted to introduce reforms, but without much success. The Dutch officials sent to Ceylon were not, speaking euphemistically, of the most desirable kind: I Ceylon was treated as a convenient spot where blockheads, libertines, and bankrupts, who had influence with the Directorate, could easily be dumped.' I I Dry rot had set in among the Hollanders. That retribution which so surely awaits the commercial race which had no ideal beyond the exploitation of the country of another for its own aggrandisement, had fallen upon the men. The one aim of the Hollander was the speedy acquisition of wealth.... If Captain Robert Percival ... is to be believed, the Hollander began his day with gin and tobacco, and he ended it with tobacco and gin. In the interval he fed grossly, lounged about, indulged in the essential siesta, and transacted a little business.' 2
The Dutch had failed to win the attachment of the Sinhalese, and in their day of trial they were unable to rely on the assistance of their subjects. Dutch rule had been free from the atrocious cruelties which marked the Portuguese, but I it is painfully observable that no disinterested concern was ever manifested, and no measures directed by them for the elevation and happiness of the native population'.3 The Sinhalese peasant
] 'had a fair measure of personal security, and a reasonable likelihood of even-handed justice'. He 'had the certainty that some portion at least of his labour would enure to his own benefit'. His poverty, however, was still very great: nearly all the trade was in the hands of the Dutch burghers, and the Company was a hard task-master. The Dutch attitude towards the Sinhalese was 'that their chief mission in life was to secure dividends for the Company'.!
