ABSTRACT
All the documents printed in this chapter originated within a period of fourteen months between October 1545 and December 1546. They reveal that questions relating to agency (for example, who should take the initiative in a colonial enterprise or who should bear responsibility for the developments that occurred) involve great complexities. The documents illustrate the various interests of different groups of Portuguese in Kandy. The friars were interested in conversion to Christianity, principally by means of converting the ruler. Even within their ranks, however, there were disputes about strategy and widely different estimates of the prospects of success. Other Portuguese were interested in Kandy from motives of economic gain and improving their prospects, and the documents give some idea of the pressures faced by the viceroy in Goa from religious and military entrepreneurs on the frontier. On the other hand, Jayavira, king of Kandy was not inactive either. Some of the documents indicate that he used conversion as a bait to obtain Portuguese military aid to preserve his power. The story becomes even more complicated when the ruler’s elder son makes a bid to get Portuguese support to ensure his succession by claiming that he would be a better Christian than his father.
