94 Geography 9 Voyages, and Travels* 



differ from them in feveral important points, fuch as the 

 mortality of the foul, which Boudhoo admits after a multi- 

 tutle of tranfmigrations; whereas the Brachmans admit the 

 fame tranfmigrations, and conclude with eliabliiTiing the 

 immortality of the purified foul. Tile work, then, contains 

 a defcriptioh of the manners, cufloms, and government of 

 the ifland; account of an embafly to Candia, the capital of 

 the kingdom, in the interior of the i (land, on which occafion 

 M.-de 1. ferved as interpreter; a letter to the governor on 

 captain Syines's embafly. to Ava ; a differtation on the agri- 

 culture, natural hiftory, mineralogy, botany, &C. of the 

 ifland ; with an account of 3000 infects and other animals 

 prepared and dried, and a collection of 506 drawings of 

 plants and animals fent to the Eaft India companv. This 

 work contains alfo different memoirs on the operations of the 

 governor in regard to labours with which M. de I. was 

 charged. That on the cultivation of the cinnamon ftates, 

 that a wood 15 miles in circumference became a garden in 

 .18 months: it produced 800 bales of cinnamon : at prefent 

 it produces 3000, which are worth to the Eaft India com- 

 pany 60,000 1. fterling. A memoir on the pearl flfhery in 

 the gulph of Mannar, where M. de T. fuperintended the ex- 

 traction of the pearls laft year in the month of March. Two 

 hundred and fifty boats* with divers, were employed in the 

 iifliery: thefe boats bring the oyfters every day on more', 

 where they are fuffered to rot for about a week ; they are 

 then warned, after which the fifh is boiled and expofed to 

 dry. This matter is then winnowed by women, and the 

 pearls are extracted. In the midft of this air, which might 

 be expected to be rendered poifonous by the flench, the 

 people employed find no more inconvenience than if they 

 breathed the purefl air. A memoir on the hunting of ele- 

 p]>ants, which fliows, that of 200 of thefe animals caught 

 during one of thefe hunting excurfions, 160 perifh by dif* 

 agreeable accidents in confequence of the bad method em* 

 ployed : no more than forty remain to be tamed, though, by 

 iimpler means, the lofs might be reduced to eight or ten. 

 A journey to the foutbward part of the ifland to examine the 

 faline marflies it contains, and to difcover the beft method of 

 improving the production of fait. In confequence of the to- 

 pographical obfervations made by M. dc I. during the courfe 

 of this journey he has been appointed furveyor-general of the 

 ifland ; and fifteen furveyors, in live divifions, are now em- 

 ployed in making plans, and in other operations neceflary 

 for the conftrudtion of a general map, which is to be finiflied 

 in two years. 



EARTH-* 



