the present number of
people upon the island, while some authorities place the possible
aggregate much higher than we have named, basing their calculation
upon the extraordinary size and number of the "buried cities," one of
which is reputed to have contained three million inhabitants, and over
four hundred thousand organized fighting men, whose weapons were bows,
arrows, and spears.

For the sake of completeness, it may be mentioned that the
geographical situation of Ceylon is between the sixth and tenth
degrees of north latitude, Point de Galle, in the extreme south, being
six degrees from the equator, and Point Pedro, in the farthest north,
a trifle less than ten. Dondra Head is a few miles farther southward,
and actually forms the extreme point of the island in that direction,
but Point de Galle, so much better known, is generally named to
represent the position. In the olden time, the former was a more
popular resort than the latter, a fact which some grand ruins clearly
establish; indeed, Dondra was the site of the Singhalese capital
during a part of the seventh century. A substantial and costly
lighthouse has lately been erected here by the English government.

By turning for a moment to any good modern map, the reader will
greatly facilitate the ready understanding of these pages.

Lying thus just off the southern point of India, at the entrance of
the Bay of Bengal, Ceylon stands, as we have intimated, in the same
relation to it that Madagascar does to Africa, forming a link of the
powerful chain of fortified outposts which England has shrewdly
established to maintain an open route to her Indian possessions. This
cordon, beginning at Gibraltar, extends to Malta, Aden, Ceylon,
Penang, Singapore, and Hongkong, thus dominating the southern coast of
Asia, and insuring the maintenance of British power in the East. Of
those named, Ceylon is the most central British military garrison.
Colombo, the capital, is situated nine hundred miles from Bombay, six
hundred from Madras, fourteen hundred from Calcutta, and sixteen
hundred from Singapore. With all these places it has constant steam
communication. Sir Henry Ward, then governor of Ceylon, sent an entire
infantry regiment to Calcutta at one day's notice, when the outbreak
known as the Indian mutiny occurred in 1857. These troops were the
first reinforcement to arrive on the scene at that critical period.
Touching the matter of home connection, Colombo is nearly seve