546t NOTES. 



(K). The sappan wood is made use of for dyeing cotton cloth of a fine red, or rather a very- 

 deep orange colour ; it is the ctesalpiiiia sajJjmn of Linnceus, and grows spontaneously in many 

 parts of Ceylon. 



(L). The cinnamon generally grows in tlie south-west part of the maritime provinces and in 

 the interior of Ceylon. In the maritime provinces the cultivation and preparation of the cinna- 

 mon are carried on by a particular caste, which consists of between twenty-fow and twenty-live 

 thousand persons, who are said to be descended from seven weavers that were introduced into 

 Ceylon by a Mohammedan merchant of the town of Barbareen, about the end of the twelfth or 

 beginning of the thirteenth century. See Note (R.) 



(IVI). The gems for which Ceylon is celebrated are found, it is believed, in granitic rock. The 

 right of digging for them is farmed out by government, in different farms, and in different parts 

 of the island. 



(N). The coarse filament of the cocoa-nut husk called coire is used throughout India for 

 rope. On Ceylon it is obtained from the cocoa-nut trees, which grow in great luxuriance along 

 the south-west part of the coast from the river Kymcl to tlie river Walleway, forming a belt one 

 hundred and thirty miles in length, and one and a half in breadth. This belt was estimated, in 

 the time when the Dutch governed Ceylon, to contain between ten and eleven millions of cocoa- 

 nut trees, and to produce in addition to a great quantity of cocoa-nut oil and six thousand leaguers 

 of arrack, upwards of three millions of pounds weight of coire. A good tree in that belt was 

 estimated to produce from fifty to eighty, and sometimes one hundred cocoa-nuts in a year, 

 each cocoa-nut being equivalent as food to at least three ounces of rice. 



(O). All the elephants whicli were exported from Point de Galle were caught in ancient, as 

 well as in modern times, in that tract of country which extends from Matura to Tangalle, 

 in the south of Ceylon, and which, from its being famous for its elephants in his days, is described 

 by Ptolemy in the map he made of Ceylon sixteen hundred years ago as tlie elephantum 

 pascim. The trade in elephants from Ceylon, which used to be lucrative, is now completely 

 annihilated, in consequence of all the petty Rajahs, Poligars, and other chiefs in the southern 

 peninsula of India, who used formerly to purchase Ceylon elephants as a part of their state, 

 having lost their sovereignties, and being therefore no longer required to keep up any state of this 

 description. A gentleman who has a coffee plantation at Candy, it is understood, recently 

 introduced the use of elephants in ploughing with great advantage. The number of elephants 

 on Ceylon is so great and the population so small, that it will be of material assistance to the 

 cultivators and manufacturers in the island if these animals can be generally used for labour. 



(P). The ruins of the ancient town of Mantotte, all of which consist of brick, still cover a 

 considerable extent of country. Great numbers of Roman coins of different emperors, particu- 

 larly of the Antonines ; specimens of the finest pottery, and some Roman gold and silver chains, 

 have oeen found in those ruins. 



(Q). The giant's tank, or the great artificial lake called Cattocaree, is the largest tank in the 

 north-west part of the island, and is situated within a few miles of the ruins of the great town of 



