36 
were eager, by their good offices, to 
shew their gratitude to the guardians of 
their coasts, for such was the humble 
appellation which the Dutch assumed. 
The most friendly intercourse was kept 
wp with the natives, who parted with the 
natural productions of the island on very 
easy terms, affording the greatest com- 
mercial advantages to the new’ settlers. 
Ere long, however; thé cloven-foot of 
avarice appeared: the Dutch began not 
only to push their posts farther and far- 
ther into the interior, and to seize upon, 
every spot which appéared well adapted 
to cultivation ; they also encreased their 
demands upon the king for the protec- 
tion they afforded him, and he soon 
found that all the cinnamen which grew 
in his dominions was insufficient to gra- 
tify the guardians of his coasts. Fnraged 
at their repeated extortions, he at lust 
fell. suddenly upon. their settlements, 
where he committed the greatest devas- 
tations. This breach was followed by 
alone course of hostilities, in which the 
Dutch, though generally victorious, 
were the greatest losers ; for the incur 
sions of the natives into their cultivated 
possessions onthe coast frequently de- 
stroyed the labours of years. The 
Dutch governors saw the ruinous. sys- 
tem they were pursuing, and endea 
‘youred to restore sci: e ; but the 
calm was of no long duration. "The 
renewed oppressions on the part of the 
Dutch were the constant signal tor the 
renewal of hostilities between them and 
the natives, who, in the course of a long 
warfare, bedame brave and dexterous, 
and often repulsed their enemies even in 
close combat. ‘T'wice, indeed, the king 
was driven from his capital of Candy, 
but he found refuge and security in the 
impenetrable mountains of Digligey, 
whence he could, with impunity, sux- 
prise and cut off the enemy’s stores and 
convoys of provision till they shauld, of 
their own accord, abandon his domi- 
nions. 
Mr. Percival; from-whose brief in- 
troductory account of the successive 
changes which the island has undergone 
since it came into the possession of 
Furopeans, we are selecting these par- 
ticulars in common with many others, 
at first felt surprise, that a tract of land, 
‘cut off from all external supplies, and 
every where surrounded by European 
‘settlements, should have defied. every 
attack of its enemies. But the whole 
country is high and mountainous ; the 
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS 
approaches are. steep, narrow, and 
scarcely accessible, except by persons on 
foot. The thick jungles and woods. 
every where obstruct the view, and they 
are only penetrable by natrow and in- 
tricate paths, known but to the natives 
themselves, whose conseious inferiority 
to the Europeans in the open field, leads 
them to concealment among the bushes, 
whence they fall* suddenly upon. the 
enemy, and hastily retreat. from. one 
position to another before he has an op- 
portunity of observing the course they 
have taken.. By this mode of warfare, 
the Dutch suffered.as much ,after their 
victory as. before; the. effects of the 
climate ton, which, in the interior, is 
very unwholesome to Europeans, in 
consequence of the immense woods 
which cover the whole face of the coun+ 
try, the heavy dews of, night, and the 
uitense heat of day, unrefreshed by sea- 
breezes, were severely felt by the Dutch 
troops. ' 
These causes, together with the en- 
thusiastic’ attachment of the Ceylonese 
to their own mountains, and their deep- 
rooted antipathy to the foreign nations 
who had successively invaded their an~ 
tient territory, combined to. frustrate 
the attempts ot the Dutch at ferming a 
settlement in the interior of the island. 
The last great war which was carried 
on with the natives was about the mid- 
dle of the last century; Candy .was 
taken, anda treaty was agreed onin the 
year 1766; by which, the king was vir- 
tually a prisoner in his own dominions. 
the tributes which he paid were so va- 
rious and oppressive, that the Dutch had 
a monopoly of all the valuable produc- 
tious of the island. . The. terms, indeed, 
were so harsh and degrading, that the 
Candians were exasperated against their 
oppressors, and nourished the most ine 
yeterate hatred. ny 
Such was the situation in which affairs 
stood between the Dutch and the,native 
Ceylonese towards the commencement 
of the late war; no .other European 
power had acquired permanent footing 
in the island since the expulsion. of the 
Portugueze, about one hundred and forty 
years before. The attempt, which we 
made to reduce the island.under Sir 
Edward Hughes, at the latter end of the 
American. war, was unsuccessful, but 
the importance of it to Great Britain is 
so great, that on the first rupture with 
the Dutch, there could be no doubt but 
that we should attempt the reduction of 
