CliAP. II.] 



DUTCH TEADE. 



55 



other places on the north-west coast of the island, for a.d. 

 transmission to Siu'at.^ IQG4:. 



Cinnamon-oil, pepper and cardamoms were sent to 

 Amsterdam ; timber and arrack to Batavia ; and jaggery 

 (the black sugar extracted from the Palmyra and 

 Kitool palm trees) to Malabar and Coromandel.'-^ The 

 cultivation of mdigo was imsuccessfLilly attempted 

 in the Seven Corles, in 1646 ^ ; and some years later 

 silk was tried, but with no satisfactory result, at Jaff- 

 napatam.^ 



Very few of the articles which form at the present 

 day the staple exports of Ceylon appear in the com- 

 mercial reports of the Dutch Governors. As to coffee, 

 although the plant had existed from time immemorial 

 on the island (having probably been introduced from 

 Mocha by the Arabs), the natives were ignorant of the 

 value of its berries, and only used its leaves to flavour 

 their ciu-ries, and its flowers to decorate their temples. 

 It Avas not till nearly a century after the arrival of 

 the Dutch that one of their Governors attempted to 

 cultivate it as a commercial speculation ; but, at the 

 point when success was demonstrable, the project 

 was discountenanced by the Government of Holland, 

 with a view to sustain the monopoly of Java ; — as the 

 growth of pepper had been discouraged some years 

 before, to avoid interference with its collection in Ma- 

 labar.^ Cotton grew well in the Wanny, but as the 



^ Choya has long since ceased to 

 he collected in Ceylon. It is too 

 bulky an article to be carried pro- 

 fitably to Europe, and there is no 

 pui-pose to wliicli it is applicable that 

 cannot be more cheaply accomplished 

 bv madder. (Bancroft on Permanent 

 Colours, vol. ii. p. 282.) The Dutch 

 required the delivery of a given 

 quantity of choya as a ti-ibute from 

 the Singhale.se of the coast. 



* Valentyn, ch. xiii. p. 174. 



^ Ihid., ch. xii. p. 134. 



* In 1664, VALEifTYif, ch. xiii. p. 

 173, ch. xiv. p. 194. 



^ See the liepoii of Governor 

 Schreuder, Appendix to Lee's Ri- 

 beyro, p. 192-3. M. Btirxaxd, iu 

 his 3Ie>noir, says, " Coffee succeeded 

 very well in the western parts of the 

 island. It was superior in quality to 

 the coffee of Java, and approached 

 near to that of Arabia, whence the 

 first coffee plants came." — Asiat, 

 Journ, vol. xii. p. 444. 



E 4 



