With the help of Dutch envoy Marcellus de Bochouwer, King Senarat of Kandy commissioned a fleet of 3 war galleys and 3 yachts under the Admiralty of a nephew of Kuruvita Rala, the prince of Uva.

They sailed from Koddiyar bay and managed to engage and inflict losses on Portuguese shipping around Ceylon and along the coast line from Cape Comorin to Calicut.

After the death of King Vimaladharmasuriya I in 1604, the kingdom of Kandy became politically unstable due to a succession struggle which ultimately resulted in Senarat's ascension to throne.

[2] On the other hand, developments in the other regions of Portuguese Asia kept both Lisbon and Goa temporarily occupied, saving Kandy being an easy target for conquest.

[5] Wars of Achem, Malacca[5] and destruction of the fleet of Conde de Feira D Joao Pereyra Frojas with 9000 men in 1608,[6] diverted manpower from Portuguese Ceylon.

He arrived in Kandy on 8 March 1612 and on behalf of States General of Holland he made an agreement "to help the king when his realms were invaded by the Portuguese, in return for a fort at Kottiyar, all assistance for its erection and defence and all facilities and monopoly of trade".

[12] The state of the Kandy by this time is evident by a claim made by Bochouwer writing to the Dutch Governor of Pulicat "it is not possible that the king can hold out… until the coming year".