Sir A. Jounston’s Account of a Cingalese Painting on Cloth. 333 
offence against his authority, to quit the interior, and settle near the south- 
west coast of the island, in the district where cinnamon grows to perfection ; 
and there, as the condition upon which they were allowed some government 
lands, to peel and prepare for the government, without pay, as much cinnamon 
annually as it might require. 
The kings of Kandy, so long as they retained the sovereignty of the 
country, exacted rigidly this severe duty from the Chalias: the Portuguese; 
Dutch, and British Governments, as they severally succeeded to that sove- 
reignty, continued to require the same duty from them. In 1809, on being 
appointed Chief Justice and President of his Majesty’s Council on Ceylon, 
I felt it to be my duty to point out to the late Marquis of Londonderry, the 
then Secretary of State for the Colonies, the injustice and impolicy of this 
system ; and urged his Lordship to instruct the local Government of Ceylon, 
instead of exacting forced labour from the Chalias, to pay them as they did 
other free labourers for their labour. Lord Londonderry agreed _ perfectly 
with me upon the subject, but his resignation of office shortly after, prevented 
him from carrying my proposal into effect. Lately, however, in consequence 
of a representation from the Commissioners of Inquiry, his Majesty has made 
an Order in Council, prohibiting the local Government of Ceylon from exact- 
ing forced labour from the Chalias, and directing it to pay them as other free 
labourers are paid, for any service which the Government may require 
from them. 
This painting on cloth forms part of a collection which I made while I 
was on Ceylon, of historical materials for illustrating the history of the 
different castes, and of the different arts which prevail amongst the natives 
of theisland. RaAsA Paxie, the late Mudeliar, or native chief of the Chalias, 
who was one of the best-informed men in Ceylon, and who gave me the 
painting, told me that he believed the original to be the most ancient paint- 
ing in the island, and to represent the three following events which occur- 
red on the arrival of the eight weavers, the ancestors of the Chalias, on 
Ceylon. The first, that of one of the eight having been killed with an 
arrow by a soldier of the king of Kandy as he was in the act of jumping 
out of the vessel into the sea to make his escape, in consequence of his 
being panic-struck at the novel appearance of the Cingalese inhabitants 
of the island, who were standing on the beach. The second, that of the 
peculiar manner in which the seven remaining weavers were, as a mark of 
respect, brought on shore, according to the custom of the country, upon 
