In the first chapter the hiftory of this fettlement is briefly traced from its first conqueft by the Portuguefe in 1505, whofe cruelty and fanaticifm exafperated the natives, and led them to favour the attacks of the Dutch, who eftablifhed their dominion in the island in 1656, to its reduction by the English in 1795. While Ceylon was in poffeffion of the Dutch they had numerous wars with the Candians, from whom they, fucceffively, wrefted many valuable portions of territory; until, at length, the latter were entirely driven from the vicinity of the fea coaft, and retired to their almoft impenetrable woods and fastneffes in the interior, where they ftill remain, preferving, and not without reafon, the utmost dread and jealousy of their European neighbours. The fucceeding chapters give an accurate defcription of that part of Ceylon, comprehending the whole of the fea coaft, which is in our poffeflion; then follows an account of the native Ceylonefe; and of a race of favages, who refide in the woods, called Bedahs or Vaddubs; then comes a defcription of the king of Candy's dominions; and the last chapters are devoted to the natural history of the island. The whole is written with impartiality and intelligence; the author having evidently aimed rather to be authentic, useful, and perfpicucus in his narrative, than eloquent, elaborate, or profound. We fhall felect fome few paffages, that our readers may be enabled to form a judgment of the degree of information and amusement which they may expect to derive from a perufal of this volume. Our first extract thall be Captain Percival's account of the pearl fishery, in the bay of Condatchy, which affords occupation to fome thousands of perfons, during the feafon, which begins in February and ends in April. The boats employed in this fifhery carry twenty men, ten of whom are divers and ten boatmen, befides a chief, who acts as pilot. Five only dive at a time; when these come up, the five others go down, and leave them to recruit their strength. "In order to accelerate the delcent of the divers, large ftones are employed: five of thefe are brought in each boat for the purpofe; they are of a reddish granite, common in this country, and of a pyramidal fhape, round. at top and bottom, with a hole perforated through the maller end fufficient to admit a rope. Some of the divers ufe a fione fhaped like a half-moon, which they faften round the belly when they mean to delcend, and thus keep their feet free. "These people are accustomed to dive from their very infancy, and fearlefsly defcend to the bottom in from four to ten fathom water, in fearch of the oyfters. The diver, when he is about to plunge, feizes the rope, to which one of the ftones we have defcribed is attached, with the toes of his right foot, while he takes hold of a bag of net-work with thofe of his left; it being cufiomary among all the Indians to ufe their toes in working or holding as well as their fingers, and fuch is the power of habit that they can pick up even the fmalleft thing from the ground with their toes as nimbly as an European could with his fingers. The diver thus prepared, feizes another rope with his right hand, and holding his noftrils fhut with the left, plunges into the water, and by the affiftance of the ftone fpeedily reaches the bot tom. tom. He then hangs the net round his neck, and with much dexterity, and all poffible dispatch, collects as many oyfters as he can while he is able to remain under water, which is ufually about two minutes. He then refumes his former pofition, makes a fignal to thofe above by pulling the rope in his right hand, and is immediately by this means drawn up and brought into the boat, leaving the ftone to be pulled up afterwards by the rope attached to it. "The exertion undergone during this procefs is fo violent, that upon being brought into the boat, the divers difcharge water from their mouth, ears, and ro trils, and frequently even blood. But this does not hinder them from going down again in their turn. They will often make from forty to fifty plunges in one day; and at each plunge bring up about a hundred oyfters. Some rub their bodies over with oil, and ftuff their ears and nofes to prevent the water from entering; while others ufe no precautions whatever. Although the ufual time of remaining under water does not much exceed two minutes, yet there are infiances known of divers who could remain four and even five minutes, which was the cafe with a Caffree boy the last year I vifited the fishery. The longest inftance ever known was that of a diver who came from Anjango in 1797, and who abfolutely remained under water full fix minutes." The only caufe of dread to the diver during this terrific operation, is the ground fhark; and with a view to avoid his attacks they confult their conjurer before they begin to dive, and pay a religious attention to all his directions. Thefe directions, however, as our readers will naturally suppose, are not always efficacious; and when, in fpite of them, any diver meets with an accident, the ingenuity of the conjuror is exercised in the invention of a plaufive excufe for the failure. "The address of these fellows in redeeming their credit, when any untoward accident happens to falfify their predictions, deferves to be noticed. Since the island came into our poffeffion, a diver at the fishery one year loft his leg, upon which the head conjurer was called to account for the difafter. His anfwer gives the most ftriking picture of the knowledge and capacity of the people he had to deal with. He gravely told them, that an old witch who owed him a grudge, had just come from Colang on the Malabar coaft, and effected a counter conjuration, which for the time rendered his fpells fruitless; that this had come to his knowledge too late to prevent the acci dent which had happened, but that he would now flew his own fuperiority over his antagonist by enchanting the fharks and binding up their mouths, fo that no more accidents fhould happen during the feafon. Fortunately for the conjurer the event aniwered his prediction, and no further damage was fuftained from the fharks during the fiery of that year. Whether this was owing to the prayers and charms of the conjurer, I leave my European readers to decide; but certainly it was firmly believed to be the cafe by the Indian divers, and he was afterwards held by them in the highest esteem and veneration, His merits however in this tranfaction might be difputed, for there are many feafons in which no fuch accidents occur at all. The appearance of a fingle fhark is indeed fufficient to spread difmay among the whole body of divers; for as foon as one of them fees a fhark he inftantly gives the alarm to his companions, who as quickly communicate it to the other I 2 other boats; a panic fpeedily feizes the whole, and they often return to the bay without fishing any more for that day. The tharks which create all this alarm fometimes turn out to be nothing more than a fharp ftone on which. the divers happen to alight. As falle alarms excited in this manner prove very injurious to the progrefs of the fishery, every means is employed to afcertain whether they are well or ill founded; and if the latter be the cafe, the authors of them are punished. Thefe falfe alarms occurred more than once in the courfe of the laft two or three feafons." The following is the mode obferved in extracting the pearls from the oyfters. "As foon as the oysters are taken out of the boats, they are carried by the different people to whom they belong and placed in holes or pits dug in the ground to the depth of about two feet, or in fmall fquare places cleared and fenced round for the purpofe; each perfon having his own feparate divifion. Mats are fpread below them to prevent the oysters from touching the earth; and here they are left to die and rot. As foon as they have paffed through a state of putrefaction, and have become dry, they are easily opened without any danger of injuring the pearls, which might be the cafe if they were opened fresh, as at that time to do fo requires great force. On the fell being cpened, the oyfter is minutely examined for the pearls: it is ufual even to boil the oyster, as the pearl, though commonly found in the fhell, is not unfrequently contained in the body of the fish itself. "The french occasioned by the oysters being left to putrefy is intolerable; and remains for a long while after the fiery is over, It corrupts the atmosphere for several miles round Condatchy, and renders the neighbourhood of that country extremely unpleafant till the monfoons and violent fouth-west winds fet in and purify the air. The naufeous fmell however is not able to overcome the hopes of gain: for months after the fishing feason, numbers of people are to be feen earneftly fearching and poring over the fands and places where the offers had been laid to putrefy; and fome are now and then fortunate enough to find a pearl that amply compenfates their trouble in fearching after them. In 1797 while Mr. Andrews was collector, a Cooly, or common fellow of the loweft clafs, got by accident the most valuable pearl feen that feason, and fold it to Mr. Andrews for a large fum. "The pearls found at this finery are of a whiter colour than those got in the gulph of Ormus on the Arabian coaft, but in other respects are not accounted to pure or of fuch an excellent quality; for though the white pearls are more efteemed in Europe, the natives prefer thofe of a yellowish or golden' call. Off Tutucoreen, which lies on the Coromandel coast, newly oppoîte to ondatchy, there is another fithery; but the pearls found there are much inferior to thole two fpecies I have mentioned, being tainted with a blue or greyh tinge." The scene difplayed during the fishery, as described by the author, exhibits no bad fpecimen of Indian manners. Before we leave the bay of Condatchy, it may be amusing to take a view of the various objects which most attract the attention of a firanger during the pearl fiery. The remarkable diiplay of Indian manners, which are here feen in all their varieties, is, perhaps, the moft ftriking of thefe. Every caft has its reprefentatives; the arts practifed by fome, the cere monies monies performed by others, and the appearance of all, prefent the richest repaft to the curiofity of an European. In one place he may fee jugglers and vagabonds of every defcription practising their tricks with a degree of fupplene's and fkill, which appear fupernatural to the inhabitant of a cold climate; in another he may obferve Fakeers, Brahmins, Priefis, Pandarams, and devotees of ever fest, either in order to extort charity, or in confequence of fome vow, going through the most painful operations with a degree of obftinate resolution, which I could fcarcely have believed or even conceived, had I not been an eye-witnefs. I hope it will not be thought an improper digreffion from my narrative, if I mention a few of thole circumstances which moft attracted my notice: they are not particularly connected with a defcription of Ceylon, but they will certainly afford one fource of amufement to the traveller who vifits it.' "The most painful acts of penance which the Indians undergo, are in order to regain their caft, when they have lost it either by eating things forbidden by the rules of their feet, or by having fuch connection with people of a different defcription as is fuppofed to defile them. In this itate they are held in abhorrence by perfons of their own fect, debarred from all intercourse with them, and prohibited even to touch them. From fuch a dreadful ftate of defilement they can be purified only by paying a large fum of money, or by undergoing the most incredible penances. Among those which I obferved, I thall mention a few of the most remarkable. One of them will vow to hold his arm elevated over his head for a certain number of years, without once letting it down; and this he will actually continue to do, till the arm can never afterwards be recovered to its natural pofition. Another will keep his hand fhut till the nails on his fingers abfolutely grow into the fleth, and appear quite through at the back of his hand. Many never fuffer their hair to be combed, or their beards to be fhaved: in this ftate the hair of their heads, which is of a brown or burnt colour, gets matted, and appears not unlike the mops we ufe in Europe; or hangs down in long dishevelled ftrings, fimilar to that which grows on a fpecies of French lap-dogs. Some will vow never to lie down; while, at the fame time, they wear round their necks a large iron inftrument not unlike a gird-iron without a handle. 66 But one of the most extraordinary of these ceremonies which I have witnessed is, fwinging for their caft, as it is termed. A very high and ftrong poft, or cocoa-tree, is planted firmly in the ground, crollways; on its top, another beam is placed in fuch a manner as to turn round on a pivot, and made faft to the upright poft by ropes reeved through both, like the yards to the maft of a hip and from the end of the tranfverfe beam, ropes and pullies are fufpended to hoist up the devotee. He then is brought out, attended by a number of people dancing before him; and is led thrice round the fwinging poft by the Brahmins and his relations, with loud fhouts, accompanied by mulic. In the mean time a theep is facrificed, and the blood sprinkled about on the furrounding multitude, who are eager that it fhall fall upon them. Barren women, in particular, are anxious to catch the drops, in hopes of being by this means rendered fruitful; and with a view to fecure the efficacy of this charm, they contrive to work themselves up, during the ceremony, to the highest pitch of religious delirium, tearing their hair and fhrieking in the most dreadful manner. After the facrifice is performed, the devotee is placed on his belly flat on the ground; and two very large hooks, which have been previously fixed to the ropes fufpended I. 3 from from the end of the cross-beam, are inferted deep into the flesh of his back juft under the fhoulders: other ropes are alfo placed under his breast and acrofs his thighs, to help to fuftain the weight of his body. He is then by means of the ropes and pullies, hoified up to the cross tree, immediately under which he continues fufpended; and in this position he is drawn round the poft two or three times. During this painful ceremony he repeats a certain number of prayers, and continues to throw among the crowd flowers which he had taken up with him for the purpofe; these are confidered as facred relicks, which will keep away all difeafe, and enfure happiness ever after; and the furrounding multitude fcramble for them as eagerly as an English mob for money thrown among them." This ceremony is by no means unfrequent, and I have had occafion to be prefent at more than one, during my flay in Ceylon. The laft I faw performed was at Columbo in 1799, when the crofs beam broke, and the man falling to the ground was killed on the spot. A moor of the Moply caft had previoully obferved to the crowd, who were principally Malabars of the fame fect with the devotee, that the timber was not ftrong enough to bear the man, and would certainly break. This proving actually to be the cafe, the Malabars affirmed that the Moor had by his prediction bewitched it; and in revenge they attacked him with fuch fury, that he would certainly have been killed, had not I with a few other European officers and Sepoys whom curiofity had brought to the fpot, interfered and refcued him out of their hands." In the account of the capture of Ceylon by the English, the pufillanimity and bafenefs of the Dutch appear in a very prominent point of view. After a minute description of the capital, Columbo, the author obferves "Columbo taken all together is, for its fize, one of the most populous places in India. There is no part of the world where fo many different languages are ipoken, or which contains fuch a mixture of nations, manners, and religions. Befides Europeans, and Cinglele, the proper natives of the ifland, you meet (cattered all over the town almost every race of Afiatics: Moors of every clafs, Malabars, Travancorians, Malays, Hindoos, Gentoos, Chinese, Perlians, Arabians, Turks, Maldivians, Javians, and natives of all the Afiatic ifles; Perfees, or worshippers of fire, who would fooner have their houfes burnt and themfelves perih in the flames, than employ any means to extinguifh it. There are alto a number of Africans, Cafrees, Buganefe a mixed race of Africans and Afiatics; befides the half-cafts, people of colour, and other races which proceed from a mixture of the original ones. Each of thele different claffes of people has its own manners, customs, and Language. The language spoken moft univerfally both by the Europeans and Afiatics who refort to Columbo, is the Portugule of India, a bale corrupt dialect, altogether different from that fpoken in Portugal. It may indeed be confidered as a barbarous compound of a number of Indian languages combined with feveral European, among which the French is very diftinguishable. Though this dialect be confidered as the most vulgar of any, yet it is a very useful and even neceffary acquifition, as in most of the fettlements on the coaft, particularly thofe which have been in the poffeffion of the Durch, it is common to meet with both Moors and Malabars who speak it. On Ceylon it is particularly ufeful to be understood; and indeed with out |