NOTES. 41 



NOTES. 



1. Some Pioneers of Natural History in Ceylon. — I should 

 not have omitted the name of Jacob Burnand, an " Opper- 

 coopman," or, to give this title its English equivalent, a 

 " Senior Merchant " in the Dutch East India Company's 

 service, whose name was, in Bennett's time, " deservedly 

 remembered " in Ceylon, " for he was distinguished both by 

 his zeal for the welfare of the Island through the introduction 

 of the culture of valuable exotics from the Malay Peninsula 

 and the Dutch Islands of Java, Banda, and Amboyna, and by 

 his botanical acquirements." {Ceylon and its Capabilities, 

 p. 218.) A Swiss by birth, he arrived in Ceylon in 1778 ; was 

 Chief of the Batticaloa District, and subsequently Desawa of 

 Jaffna, and died on March 3, 1816, at Colombo. He -s^Tote 

 for Governor Sir Thomas Maitland in 1809, a memoir on the 

 " Ancient and Modern State of the Island of Ceylon and its 

 Agriculture, &c.," which Sir Alexander Johnston thought 

 so highly of that he made a translation of it for Lord 

 Londonderry, then Secretary of State for the Colonies. The 

 translation is published in the Monthly Literary Register, 

 Vols. III. and IV. (1895-6). 



I think, too, that of the British period, Joseph Jonville 

 and Major-General Hay Macdowall deserve some notice. 

 Jonville was the first SuiDcrintendent of the Botanical Garden 

 started by Governor North, first at PeUagoda or " Ortafoula," 

 and later, owing to JonviUe's condemnation of the first 

 site, at Slave Island (" Kew "). Of him Viscount Valentia 

 remarked : — " Mr. Jonville, a Frenchman, is possessed of 

 considerable talents, and very great knowledge of several 

 branches of natural history." [Voyages and Travels, p. 316.) 

 In April, 1801, he wTote a " Report on the Pearl Fisheries in 

 the time of the Dutch and of the British." He arrived at the 

 end of 1798, or beginning of 1799, but left within four or five 

 years, having held, besides his first appointment, those of 



G 6(2)13 



