t of
the present edition, that no sufficient time has been allowed for the
discovery of errors or defects; and the work is re-issued almost as a
corrected reprint.
In the interim, however, I have ascertained, that Ribeyro's "Historical
Account of Ceylon," which it was heretofore supposed had never appeared
in any other than the French version of the Abbe Le Grand, and in the
English translation of the latter by Mr. Lee[1], was some years since
printed for the first time in the original Portuguese, from the
identical MS. presented by the author to Pedro II. in 1685. It was
published in 1836 by the Academia Real das Sciencias of Lisbon, under
the title of "_Fatalidade Historica da Ilka de Ceilao_;" and forms the
Vth volume of the a "_Collecao de Noticias para a Historia e Geograjia
das Nacoes Ultramarinas_" A fac-simile from a curious map of the island
as it was then known to the Portuguese, has been included in the present
edition.[2]
[Footnote 1: See Vol. II. Part vi. ch. i. p.5, note.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid. p. 6.]
Some difficulty having been expressed to me, in identifying the ancient
names of places in India adverted to in the following pages; and
mediaeval charts of that country being rare, a map has been inserted in
the present edition[1], to supply the want complained of.
[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. p. 330.]
The only other important change has been a considerable addition to the
Index, which was felt to be essential for facilitating reference.
J E.T.
INTRODUCTION.
There is no island in the world, Great Britain itself not excepted, that
has attracted the attention of authors in so many distant ages and so
many different countries as Ceylon. There is no nation in ancient or
modern times possessed of a language and a literature, the writers of
which have not at some time made it their theme. Its aspect, its
religion, its antiquities, and productions, have been described as well
by the classic Greeks, as by those of the Lower Empire; by the Romans;
by the writers of China, Burmah, India, and Kashmir; by the geographers
of Arabia and Persia; by the mediaeval voyagers of Italy and France; by
the annalists of Portugal and Spain; by the merchant adventurers of
Holland, and by the travellers and topographers of Great Britain.
But amidst this wealth of materials as to the island, and its
vicissitudes in early times, there is an absolute dearth of information
regarding its state and progress during mo
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