224 MRS COL. WALKER’S TOUR IN CEYLON. 
* My Dear Sır WILLIAM, 
* You were kind enough to give my little 
journal of our excursion to the top of Adam's Peak so 
flattering a reception, that I felt inclined, on my return from 
a tour which Colonel Walker and I made in February and 
March, to communicate to you the result of our observations 
and remarks during our progress through parts of the island, 
till then unknown to us, and indeed, in some places, not. 
previously visited by any European. Various circumstances 
have hitherto prevented my putting this intention in execu- 
tion; amongst others, the extreme heat of Colombo his 
season quite incapacitated me for any exertion either bodily 
or mental; and now that the change of monsoon has 
the atmosphere, I find the time that has elapsed. since my 
return, has so much weakened the interest of the subject, even 
in my own estimation, that I fear I cannot hope to render 
it amusing or interesting to others. Besides this, there is the 
awful idea presenting itself to my imagination, that my lucu- 
brations may appear in print! which, however foolish it may 
be, does influence me in some degree. And the very attempt 
at doing something better may deprive my little narrative 
of the only merit my Adam's Peak Journal could pretend to 
viz., that of having no pretensions whatever, having literally 
been written entirely for my own amusement, without an ides 
of its ever meeting any eye save my own. I shall, howeveh 
as you formerly expressed a wish for such communications 
look over the journal, or rather notes, kept on our excursions 
and give you whatever may appear worth transcribing. — 
. * We left Colombo on the 26th of January, and bent our 
course towards Point de Galle, tbe southernmost extremity 
of Ceylon; this route is too well known to admit of any 
thing new being said on the subject. The road runs almost 
the whole way close to the sea, and is mostly through a con- 
tinued. Cocoa-nut forest. The country is populous, 
_ being straggling villages on each side of the road ;. yet, if you 
except the cocoa-nut -Plantatins there is little cultivation 19 
