第124章

How this King,during his own lifetime,raised to be King his son,being of the age of six years.

After the King had made an end of this,and had obtained so great a victory over his enemies,perceiving that he was already advanced in years,desiring to rest in his old age and wishing his son to become King when he died,he determined to make him King during his lifetime,the boy being six years old and the King not knowing what would happen after his death.Wherefore he abdicated his throne and all his power and name,and gave it all to his son,and himself became his minister,and Salvatinica[575]who had held that office became his counsellor,and he made one of the latter's sons a great lord among them.And so far did King Crisnarao go that after he had given the kingdom to his son,he himself did obeisance to him.With these changes the King made great festivals which lasted eight months,during which time the son of the King fell sick of a disease of which he died.

After his death Crisnarao learned that his son had died by poison given him by the son of Sallvatinica,and in his anger,being certain that this was so,he sent to call Salvatinica and his son and Guandaja,brother of Ssallvatinica,and many other captains relatives of Ssallvatinica,and made them a speech at the time of the salaam,there being present many chiefs and principal persons of the kingdom,and relations of Ssallvatinica;he addressed him thus:--"I held thee always as my great friend,and now for these forty years thou hast been governor in this kingdom,which thou gavest me;yet I am under no obligation to thee for that,because in doing so thou didst act in a way contrary to thy duty.Thou wert bound,since thy lord the King my brother commanded so,to put out mine eyes;yet thou didst not carry out his will nor obey him,but instead thou didst cheat him and the eyes of a goat were put out,wherefore,since thou didst not fulfil his command,thou wert a traitor,and thy sons with thee for whom I have done so much.Now I have learnt that my son died of poison given to him by thee and thy sons,and for that ye are all here made prisoners."With these words he arose and laid hands on them and seized them,and in doing so called for aid from many Portuguese who were then in the country with horses,asking them to come to his aid;and after he had seized the men,father and sons,they remained three years in prison.And he made minister a son of Codemerade,the same who had killed the son of King Narsymga in the city of Penagundy in the garden by treachery,by command of the King his father,as has already been told in this history.[576]

And soon afterwards Danayque,son of Salvatinica,escaped from prison and betook himself to a mountain range in which dwelt nobody but robbers and highwaymen,and in this there was a fortress where dwelt a captain,his relative,who received him and helped him in all that he could,and from there he made such war on the King Crisnarao that he was driven to send against him much people,and as captain of the army he sent his minister Ajaboissa,who invested the place on all sides and took him therein and brought him prisoner to the King.After he had so come the King commanded him to be brought before him,with Sallvatinica his father and another brother of his who was kept in the prison,and he sent them to the place of executions and there had their eyes put out,for in this country they do not put Brahmans to death but only inflict some punishment so that they remain alive.So he put them in prison again,and there Timadanayque died,and Salvatinica his father remained in the prison with his other son Gamdarja.[577]