Siege of Galle

01The Dutch come west

Galle had a good natural harbour on the south coast of Lanka, and the Portuguese had walled it on the landward side. The Dutch, with Rajasinha II’s alliance and with their own fleet controlling the sea, sent Willem Jacobszoon Coster with ships and troops. They landed in March 1640, set up batteries and pounded the bastions. A breach was made within days, and the Dutch went in by assault, fighting through the streets.

02Galle under the Dutch

Many of the Portuguese garrison were killed in the storm and the rest taken prisoner. Coster himself was killed soon after in a quarrel with the Kandyans, a sign of the strains in the alliance. Galle became the Dutch headquarters in Lanka for the next fifteen years. They rebuilt its walls on a grand scale after 1663, and the Galle Fort they left is now a World Heritage Site, with its old streets still lived in.