he same race as
the people of Dekkan. They were demon and snake worshippers, and very
barbarous. In the sixth century B.C. they were conquered by Wijayo, a
native of India, who first introduced Buddhism among them, which
religion was afterwards established by his successors. From the vast
ruins and other gigantic works which are found scattered over the
country, there can be no doubt that Ceylon was for long inhabited by a
civilised and highly intelligent people.

Marco Polo visited it in the thirteenth century, and described it as the
finest country in the world. In A.D. 1505 the Portuguese, having
doubled the Cape of Good Hope, arrived there, and found the country in a
declining state, owing to intestine wars and the invasion of foreign
enemies. The Singhalese king besought their assistance, which having
afforded, they began in 1518 to fortify themselves in Colombo and Galle,
and finally possessed themselves of the greater part of the sea-coast,
shutting up the King of Kandy in the interior. In 1632 the Dutch,
uniting with the King of Kandy, in their turn drove them out and held
the country, though engaged in constant hostilities with the natives
till 1796, when the British (Holland having fallen into the power of
France) took possession of Colombo, Galle, Trincomalee, and other towns
on the coast. We, however, became involved, as had our predecessors, in
hostilities with the King of Kandy, and this led to the capture of his
capital in 1803. We, however, allowed the king to retain nominal
possession of his capital till 1815, when, in consequence of his
repeated acts of cruelty, the chiefs invited us to depose him, and the
whole island has ever since been under British sway, except during a
serious insurrection which lasted from 1817 to 1819, and various other
less important attempts at insurrection which have happily without
difficulty been quelled.

Such was a rapid sketch Mr Fordyce one day gave me of the country at
large. He remarked, however, that in his mind an especial interest is
attached to Galle. He considered it the most ancient emporium of trade
existing in the world, for it was resorted to by merchant-ships at the
earliest dawn of commerce. It was the "Kalah" at which the Arabians, in
the reign of the great Haroun Al-Raschid, met the trading junks of the
people of the Celestial Empire, and returned with their spices, gems,
and silks to Bassora. It was visited by the Greeks and Romans, and by