[4] He arrived in Portuguese Ceylon around September 1518, sent by the new governor of the Estado da Índia, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, with the mission - ordered by King Manuel I - to build a stone fortress in Colombo.

[8] The construction of the fortress of Colombo had to be carried out in extremely difficult conditions, subject to constant attacks and siege by the military forces of the Kingdom of Kotte, under the orders of its sovereign, Vijayabahu VI.

Despite the small size of this contingent, which only reached Colombo on 4 October, it could be used for a joint counterattack with Lopo de Brito's forces, causing Kotte's troops to flee.

[5][6] The peace agreement was seen as a defeat at the court of Kotte, contributing to weakening the King's position and generating a plot that would lead to his assassination in 1521, in the so-called Vijayabā Kollaya (The Sack of Vijayabahu).

Lopo de Brito was thus able to complete the construction of the fortress, "a small square, in a triangular shape, and of so much resistance that it was enough to counter the Sinhalese batteries and to repress the strength of the elephants".