44 
of man coincide with the history of that 
event, as recorded in the Bible. 
The priests of Buddou are called Ti- 
rinanxes, and are held in suck high esti- 
mation at the court of Candy, that their 
persons are held sacred, and the king 
himself has no power to punish them, 
even for a conspiracy against his ‘own 
life; they are exempted from all taxes. 
They are, however, placed under cer- 
tain restrictions, and are totally debarred 
from wine and women. Mr. Percival, 
however, tells us a secret, which indeed 
wwe should very probably have guessed, 
namely, that they find an opportunity 
of escaping from these restraints, and 
are fio da to lay aside their order when 
it suits their inclination. The Tiri- 
manxes are elected by the king from 
among the nobles, and are consequently 
men of independent power and influence. 
The priests of the inferior deities are a 
set of lazy impudent vagabonds, who 
five upon the tricks and extortions which 
they practise upon their credulous and 
deluded votaries. ‘The christian priests 
and missionaries often make converts. 
Notwithstanding the general simili- 
tude between the Candians and Cing?2se, 
the independence of the former who retir- 
ed from European invaders into the fast- 
nesses of their native mountains, gives 2 
manliness to their character, which the 
latter, who, from the nature of the coun- 
try which they inhabited, were com- 
pelled to unconditional submission, have 
almost lost. In exchange, however, the 
Cinglese are more humanized and sof- 
tened in their dispositions; they are 
quiet, inoffensive, gentle, and friendly, 
and have scarcely any of the false, trea- 
cherous, and designing arts which are 
often found among the Candians. ‘The 
deportment of the Cinglese denotes, 
however, that he has been a slave tothe 
Europeans, he is submissive, he is ab- 
ject, because he is helpless. The Can- 
dians are haughty, and may justly boast 
of their independence: their mien is lofty, 
their habits are warlike; and they look 
upon the Cinglese as a mean and Ccespi- 
cable race, who ba:ter’ their natural 
rights for peace and protection. 
The interior of the island, owing to 
the jealousy of the Dutch in the first 
place, and the Candians in the second, 
has been little explored by Europeans, 
The Dutch were fearful that some. con- 
nection might be formed injurious to 
their own interests; and it was the ne- 
cessary policy of the Candians to conceal 
‘separated from those of the Europeans, 
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
whatever micht excite the avarice and 
rapacity of the Kuropeans: When Ge- 
neral Macdowal went as embassador to 
Candy, his suite were admitted only by 
torch-light, and. always retired before 
break of day. Mr. P. lived on the is- 
land upwards of three years, and tra- 
versed the interior, even to the capital ; 
but such was the vigilant suspicion of 
the Candians, that during the whole 
progress of the embassy not ore female 
was permitted to be seen! This suspi- 
cion was excited by the conduct of the 
Dutch. The Candians are not jealous, 
but kept their females out of sight from 
a fear of intelligence being comniuni- 
cated to the Europeans. The dominions 
of his Candian majesty are-on all sides 
by almost impevetrable woods and 
mountains. All travelling is performed 
on foot, his majesty suffering no roads 
to be cut, or woods to be cleared, lest 
communication should be made easy. 
Whiat reflections does such a prohibition 
excite? what are we to conceive of that 
system, the cruelty, rapacity, and per- 
fidy of which could have driven the’ pa- 
tive monarch of the island, and his high- 
spirited mountaineers, thus to conceal 
themselves amidst their own impervious 
rocks and pathless jungles, in order to 
avoid beirg hunted down like beasts by 
their inexorable pursuers? There “is 
every reason to hope and to believe, that 
the liberal and humane policy ‘of the 
English government will m time uproot 
this antipathy against the Kuropeans. ° 
The city of Candy itself is a poor mi- 
serable looking place, and the perse- 
verance of the Dutch has more than once 
enabled them to reach it, when the mo- 
narch has been compelled to shelter 
himself in some still wilder and more 
impenetrable retreat. 
The government of Candy is an abso- 
lute despotism; and any resistance to 
the will of the king, without pewer to 
maintain it, is sure to be attended with 
immediate destruction. The Candians 
are divided into casts, which are strictly 
preserved from intermixture: in the ar- 
rangement of them artificers rank be- 
fore husbandmen and soldiers. This 
singular circumstance, says: Mr. P. 
bespeaks a degree of civilization, and a 
‘love for the’ arts, which certainly do not 
correspond with the present state of these 
islanders; but, together with some ar- 
chitectural remains of superior taste and 
workmanship, which have escaped the 
' 
6, 
5 
