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76 Mongol reign in China of the occasional despatch by the Emperors of officers to Ceylon to collect gems and drugs ; and, on three occasions, envoys were sent to negotiate the purchase of the sacred alms-dish of Buddha. Such missions are alluded to by Polo and Odoric. 51. As late as the beginning of the fifteenth century, under the Ming dynasty, the Chinese made a remarkable and last attempt to renew their former claims to honorary allegiance in the maritime countries of the west. In 1405 a mission from China, which had come to Ceylon bringing incense and offerings to the Shrine of the Tooth, was maltreated by the reigning King Wijayabahu VI [1398-1410], who was a native of SolW^ or the Peninsula, and an oppressor of Buddhism 2. The Emperor Ch'eng Tsu [had dethroned his nephew Kien wen (Hwei Ti) who disappeared when his capital. Nan King, was captured and his palace invaded in 1402, and was] indignant at the outrage, and anxious to do something for the re-establish- ment of the declining prestige of China, despatched [the eunuch] Cheng Ho, [commonly known as San Pao T'ai kien, a native of the Yun nan province and] a soldier of distinction, with a fleet of sixty-two ships, and a force [of more than 37,000 soldiers], and armed with credentials and presents, to visit the western kingdoms^. He touched 1 [" The King is of the Soli race, a most earnest beUever in the Buddhist rehgion, and one who treats elephants and cows with a feehng of veneration." (Ma Huan, Journ. China B. R . As. Soc, 1885, p. 212.)] 2 [S. Levy, I.e., p. 437, remarks that the king who treated rudely Cheng Ho at the time of his first visit to Ceylon A lie ku na eul (A-le-ko-nar) is the prince named in the royal list Bhuva- neka Bahu V, who was known under the name of Alagakkonara before his accession to the throne ; this king was of origin Coda, the Sinhalese word for Soli.] 3 [The Emperor Yong lo, fearing that his predecessor Hwei Ti " was concealing himself in some country over the sea, wanted to trace him, and at the same time to display his military force in foreign countries, in order to show that China was rich and strong. In the sixth month of the year 1405, he ordered Cheng Ho, his companion Wang Ching-hung, and others, to go as envoys to the