Chvp. III.] 



EARLY IXTERCOURSE. 



63 



attention was turned to tlie acquisition of Ceylon.^ 

 Tlie vast seaborde of Hindustan afforded so wide a 

 field for enterprise that it was unnecessary to contend 

 witli two European states for the trade of an island off 

 its coast. Fully occupied in the estabhshment of their 

 successive settlements at Surat, Madras, Bombay, and 

 Bengal, and with the quarrels regarding them, which 

 arose with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and French, as 

 well as in tlieir conflicts with the native princes, the 

 attention of the Enghsli was not directed to Ceylon till 

 late in the eighteenth century, when the seizure of the 

 Dutch possessions became essential to the protection of 

 their own, as well as for the humiUation of the only 

 formidable rival who then competed with Great Britain 

 for the commerce of the Indian seas. 



The only intercourse which the Enghsh had pre- 

 viously attempted with the Singhalese Emperor, arose 

 out of the unaccountable passion of Eaja Singha II. for 

 the detention of " white men " as prisoners in his do- 

 minions.''^ Hence Sir Edward AYinter was led, in 1664, 



A.D. 



17GG. 



' From the necessities of tlieir 

 positio7i, the Dutch saw nothing of 

 the interior of Ceylon themselves, 

 and discouraged the travellers of 

 other nations from visiting or de- 

 scribing it. Hence accounts of the 

 island during their presence there 

 are rave. The most curious is con- 

 tained in the Life of Jo. Christian 

 Wolf, who was one of their ofhcials 

 at Jaffiia. Taveruicr, tlie French 

 traveller, touched at (lalle inlG48; 

 and Thunberg, the Swedish natura- 

 list, landed on the island in 1777, but 

 his journeys extended no further 

 than from Matiu-a to Colombo, and 

 his information is confined to the 

 collection of gems at the one place 

 and the preparation of cinnamon at 

 the other. (TnuNitEiiG, Voyaj/es, vol. 

 iv.) Amongst the iVnv ICnglish tra- 

 vellers who visited Ceylon during the 

 Dutch period, was Sir Thoiuas Her- 

 bert, a cadet of the Pembroke family, 

 who has given an erudite accomit of 



VOL. H. 



the island in his Travels into Africa, 

 the Great Asia, and some parts of 

 the Oriental Indies and Isles adjacent, 

 Loud. MDCXXXiv. He, however, re- 

 cords it as " the tradition of this place 

 that JNIelec Perimal, king of that island 

 (Ceylon), was one of the Magi tliat 

 offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh 

 unto oui- Blessed Saviour; and also 

 that at his return he made kno^\^l 

 the history of God's incarnation, and 

 made many proselytes, of which some 

 to this very day retain the faith." 

 '' Candace's Emmch," he says, "bap- 

 tized by Philip, preached Clirist in 

 Taprobane, if Dorotheus, Bishop of 

 Tyre, who lived in the days of the 

 gi-eat Constantino, had good authority 

 for reporting it." Sir Thomas men- 

 tions that " infamous ape's tooth 

 which Constantino, a late Coan 

 \iceroy, foreil)ly took away, and upon 

 their proffering a ransom burned it 

 to ashes," p. .'MS. 



^ Knox himself, one of these de- 



F 



