War and diplomacy in the 17th century

The Siege of Colombo 1630-Part II

- By Gamini Akmeemana

As noted last week, following the destruction of Portuguese captain general Constantino de Sa Noronha’s army at Randeniwela, King Senarat surrounded the fortress city of Colombo in September 1630 with 15,000 men.

The Portuguese defenders had 4,650 men, less than half of them soldiers. But the fortress was defended by forty cannon, while the Sinhalese had only a few small artillery pieces.

The king tried diplomacy first, sending a captured Dominican priest on September 9, 1630 with a peace offer to the new captain general Lancarote de Seixas offering the Portuguese the right to live peacefully if they surrendered. De Seixas refused, and the battle began.

Sinhalese forces had occupied houses within a hundred paces of the fortress walls (a pace is 2-4 feet long), and began exchanging fire. A 17th century musket at best had a range of 50-100 metres against a single target, compared to a modem assault rifle with ranges from 400-800 metres. Fighting therefore was at close quarters. A 17th century artillery gun which defended the fort could have a range of up to 800 metres, a considerable distance at the time, though this varied according to the gun’s size. An Ottoman siege gun could reach targets 2000 metres away. But those were massive compared to the Portuguese cannon, and the few artillery guns the Sinhalese army had were even smaller.

As the Portuguese had only 40 cannon to defend a landward area from today’s Slave Island to the Galle Face and then southwards towards Pettah and the old St. John’s fish market, as well as the harbour, the Sinhalese forces were able to construct stockades close to the fortress walls, from which they could fire into the fort. The Portuguese cannon were fixed on their bastions, and therefore could not be moved at will to fire at mobile targets. Thus, stockades would have been erected in between these artillery posts.