disavas, each administered by the eponymous disava, with military and judicial powers. The tax system was also reformed and the old system of tributes replaced with fixed mandatory payments. The original military system of castes and levies however, remained organized under the local mudaliar commanders, who assisted the Portuguese troops. Dom Jerónimo also encouraged missionary work by the Jesuits, Augustinians and Dominicans in addition to the Franciscans. Nevertheless, the defeat at Danture sparked a number of uprisings in Kotte which Dom Jerónimo had to defeat before he could move on Kandy. He considered the defeat of Kandy an utmost priority to secure Sri Lanka and secured Kotte first with the construction of fortified encampments in Matara, Sabaragamuwa, Manikkadawara, and Malwana, where he established the army HQ. By 1603, Kotte was firmly secured and Dom Jerónimo led his troops into Kandy through the mountain pass, where he seized the Kandian fort at Balana and proceeded towards the city of Kandy itself. However, the kingdom could not be subjugated then due to a rebellion among the Lascarins, and was forced to return to Colombo. Unable to capture Kandy, Dom Jerónimo adopted a policy of first weakening Kandy through devastating raid warfare by land, twice every year, at harvest time, resorting to light contingents of troops, while blockading the eastern Kandian ports of Trincomalee and Batticaloa by sea, between 1604 and 1612 with considerable success. This coincided with a succession crisis in Kandy after the death of King Vimaladharmasuryia in 1604, that was only solved months later with the succession of his cousin Senarat to the throne. Senarat proved to be an unpopular ruler and unable to prevent the Portuguese from causing great devastation upon Kandian villages and crops. In 1612, Dom Jerónimo was appointed as the next viceroy of Portuguese India and was succeeded in Sri Lanka by Dom Francisco Meneses (1612–1614), Manuel Mascarenhas Homem (1614–1616), and Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira (1616–1618). Because of his great experience in Sri Lanka, as viceroy Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo kept the Portuguese garrisons well supplied and reinforced, which caused the depopulation of Kandy on account of the systematic Portuguese raids. Rebellions, peace treaty and conquest of Jaffna (1616–1621) Uprisings in Portuguese territory The taxes imposed by the Portuguese, and the desecration of Buddhist temples by missionaries caused great discontent among the Sinhalese peasantry and in late 1616 an uprising broke out in Sabaragamuwa. Disava Filipe