Chap. IV.] 



BATTICALOA. 



465 



long series of years ; but, on the other hand, it is 

 equally evident that the custom tends materially to 

 augment the food of the district (especially during 

 periods of drought) ; to sustain the wages of labour, 

 and to prevent an undue increase in the market value 

 of the first necessaries of hfe. Eegarding it in this 

 hght, and lookhig to the prodigious extent of forest land 

 in the island, of which the Chena cultivation affects 

 only a minute and unsaleable portion, it is a prevalent 

 and plausible supposition, in which, however, I am little 

 disposed to acquiesce, that the advantages are sufficient 

 to counterbalance the disadvantages of the system. 



The old Dutch fort of Batticaloa is a grim httle 

 quadi^angular stronghold, with a battery at each angle 

 connected by a loop-holed wall, and surrounded by 

 a ditch swarming with crocodiles. The interior of the 

 square is smTounded by soldiers' quarters, and encloses 

 a house for the commandant, a bomb-proof magazine, 

 and, the invariable accompaniment of every Dutch for- 

 tification, a church of the most Calvinistic simplicity. 



In the fifteenth century, Batticaloa (which was formerly 

 called by the Tamils Alaticaloa, from Mada-kalappoo, 

 the " muddy lake ") was a fief of the kingdom of Kandy, 

 held by one of the chiefs of the Wanny ^ ; and on a branch 

 of the Natoor river there are still to be seen the remains 

 of a stone bridge which led to a palace of the " Vanichee,"" 

 or queen of the district.^ 



The Portuguese, whose jurisdiction at Batticaloa, did 

 not extend beyond the island of Poehantivoe, built the 



^ PoRCACcni, in his Isolan'o, pub- 

 lished at Padua in lo70, fj-ives a 

 strange account of the inhabitants of 

 "Batech," which from the context 

 would appear to mean Batticaloa. 

 He describes them as being per- 

 petually at war with their neighbours, 

 eating the flesh of their prison- 

 ers, and selling their scalps at liigh 

 prices : " di maniera die volendo 



VOL. II. II 



comprare alcima mercantia, danno 

 due 6 piu teste; all' incontro secondo 

 il valore: et clii ha piii teste in casae 

 riputato il piu ricco." — P. 188. This 

 information he got from the Moors, 

 but it applies with truth to no tribe 

 in Ceylon. 



^ VALKNxrN, Ou(7 en Kieidv Oo.4- 

 Indien, cli. xv. p. 223. 



11 



