ClIAP. I.] 



QUEEN'S HOUSE, GALLE. 



105 



landing at the pier constructed to replace the one 

 erected by the Dutch for embarking their cinnamon^, 

 we passed under the gateway of the fortress, and as- 

 cended by a steep and shady street to the Queen's House, 

 the official residence of the Governor, which Sir Colin 

 Campbell had placed at our disposal.- The mansion, 

 like all those built by the Dutch in Ceylon, is adapted 

 to the lieat, and other pecuharities of the clunate ; witli 

 spacious rooms, latticed windoAvs, tiled floors, and lofty 

 roofs, imperfectly concealed by ceihngs, which are gene- 

 rally left unclosed lest the white ants should destroy 

 the timbers undetected. The neglected garden, Avitli 

 its decaj^ng terraces and ruined "lustliof," contains 

 Indian fruit trees and plants almost retm-ned to tlieir 

 primitive wildness. Oranges, custard apples, bread-fruits, 

 bilimbis, and bananas are mingled with the crimson 

 hibiscus and innumerable other flowering shrubs, whose 

 brandies were covered with exquisite cHmbing plants, 

 chtoria3 and convolvuh ; and beneath their moist shade 

 grew innumerable balsams in all tlieii' endless varieties of 

 colom\ 



The groups collected about the landing place, and 

 lounging in the streets and bazaars of Galle, exhibit the 

 most picturesque combinations of costumes and races ; 

 Europeans in their white morning undress, shaded by 

 japanned umbrellas ; Moors, Malabars, and Malays, Chi- 

 nese, Caffi'es, Parsees, and Chetties from the Coromandel 

 coast, the latter with their singular head-dresses and pro- 

 digious earrings, Buddhist priests in yellow robes, and 



^ The landing wharf, with its 

 covered way, is described by \x- 

 n.ENTYN as the fayoiirite pri)nienade 

 in 16G3. It was called the JFambai/H, 

 th. i. p. 22. 



^ Above the entrance of this build- 

 ing', there is a stone let into the wall 

 bearing- the date a.d. 1687, under 

 the carved figure of a cock. If it 

 was a mistake of the Dutch to be- 

 lieve that the name of Galle was de- 



rived, not from the Singlialese word 

 f/alla, "a rock," but from (/alius, they 

 inherited the misconception from the 

 I*ortuguese, one of whose geu(n'als, 

 Azevedo, Faria y Souza describes as 

 hoisting the children of the Chulia 

 or Galla caste on the spears of his 

 soldiers, and shouting, " How these 

 young cocks ((/alios) crow!" — Porfu- 

 (/ueseAsia, iSc, vol. iii. ch. xiv. p. 277. 

 "(See ante, Vol. II. Ft. vi. ch. i. p. 2:3.) 



