 Upon the arrival of the Portuguese colonizers in the 16th century, larger population of Moors were expelled from cities such as the capital city Colombo, which had been a Moor-dominated city at that time.The Moors were thus migrating towards east and were settled there through the invitation of the Kingdom of Kandy.Robert Knox, a British sea captain of the 17th century, noted that the Kings of Kandy Kingdom built mosques for the Moors.