t 
~ 
PERCIVAL’S ACCOUNT OF CEYLON. 
Volume. The fourth and fifth parts are 
vocabularies of the Timman¢e, Bullom 
and Soosoo languages. 
38 
The two maps are tolerably well exe- 
cuted. Of the other engravings, the 
less that is said the better. 
Art. VII. An Account of the Island of Ceylon, containing its History, Geography, Na- 
tural History, Manners and Customs of its various Inbabitants ; to which is added the 
Journal of aa Embassy to the Court of Candy. 
Illustrated by a Map and Chart. By 
“Roperr Peacivar, Esg. of His Majesty's Nineteenth Regiment of Foot Quarto 
g afcsry 8 
pp- 420. 
CIVILIZATION, like charity, be- 
gins at home: it cannot be expected that 
a government should extend towards the 
colonies it has established, or the coun- 
tries it has subdued, that unfettered free- 
~dom and enlightened policy, which it 
withholds from its own subjects: But 
the long-neglected truth now begins to 
be attended to, that the loyalty, and fide- 
lity, and attachment of a people are 
better secured by a system of concili- 
ation than by a system of terror; and 
that a liberal policy is more conducive 
to the interests of both parties than an 
oppressive one. We have reason to 
hope that this wise and humane system 
will be adopted throughout our vast em- 
pire in the east; the college, which has 
recently been established at Calcutta un- 
der the auspices of Marquis Wellesley, 
is intended to promote the study of the 
oriental languages, and by that means 
to facilitate an intimate acquaintance 
with the genius, the character, the man- 
ners, the usages, the prejudices, and 
propensities of the different people sub- 
mitted to our governance, as being es- 
sential to the enactment of wise laws, 
and the administration of equal justice. 
In this career of conquest, whether in 
America or the east, the Portugueze ad- 
venturers had no other object in view 
_ than to agprandize their nation, and 
_ enrich themselves in the shortest and 
Most summary manner. When Albu- 
querque succeeded in the conquest of 
Ceylon, instead of maintaining a friendly 
. ourse with the natives, and induc- 
_ ing them to assist in the cultivation of 
the island, every species of insult and 
” avarice ; buttheir manners and customs 
_ ‘were trampled upon, and their religious 
barbarity was practised towards them. 
Not only was any little wealth they pos- 
sessed seized by the rapacious grasp of 
derived every advantage from the mu- 
tual animosities of the petty princes of 
the island, were fruitless and without 
hope. 
At this period, however, they had the 
offer of very powerful assistance from 
the Dutch, who had “‘no sooner sucs 
ceeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke, 
than their commercial and enterprising 
spirit led them to explore every coast m 
the known world in search of opulence.” 
In the year 1603, the Dutch admiral, 
Spilberg, approached their coasts, and 
the natives, from their hatred of the Por- 
tugueze, gave him a_ very favourable 
reception. During the constant wars 
in which the princes of the island had 
been engaged, the king of Candy had 
acquired such a superiority, that at the 
arrival of the Dutch, he was looked 
upon as emperor of Ceylon. He ac- 
cepted the proffered alliance, and offered 
every tacility to the Dutch, who, atter a 
long continued siege, took possession of 
Columbo, in the year 1656. Thus ended 
the dominion of the Portugueze in Cey- 
lon, exactly a century and a half after 
the first arrival of their countrymen in 
the island. 
So great was the joy of the Ceylonese 
at their deliverance, that the king of 
Candy willingly paid the Dutch the ex- 
pences of their armaments in cinnamon, 
and conferred upon them the principal 
possessions from which they had expelled 
the Portugueze; “‘ among these, were 
the port of Trincomalee, and the for- 
tress of Columbo: the former of these, 
which lies on the north-east part of the 
island, is that harbour which renders 
Ceylon the most valuable station in the 
Indian ocean.” Columbo was built ori- 
ginally by the Portugueze, in the south- 
west part of the island, in the heart of 
that tract most celebrgted for the pro- 
# Opinions were not merely insulted, but 
_ even persecuted with the most wanton 
_ eruelty. A desulrory, but sanguinary 
_ warfare continued for nearly a century ; 
and the unhappy natives found, that 
their struggles against the discipline and 
_ “eoucerted pians of the Portugueze, who 
» 
duction of cinnamon, as the most com- 
modious station for collecting that sta- 
ple production of the country. It is now 
ibe European capital of Ceylon. 
For some time, the Dutch bore their 
honours ‘so meekly, that the Ceylonese 
looked upon them without jealousy, and, 
an D2 
ad 
