478 



THE NOETIIEEX FOKESTS. 



[Part IX. 



the identical tamarind tree, under wliicli two centuries 

 before Captain Eobert Knox, the gentlest of liistorians 

 and the meekest of captives, was betrayed by the Kan- 

 dyans, and thence carried into their liills ; to be detained 

 an inoffensive prisoner from boyhood to grey haks. But 

 to that captivity we are indebted for the most faithfid 

 and hfe-hke portraiture that was ever di'awn of a semi- 

 ci\dHsed, but remarkable people. 



Cottiar, or Koetjar (as it is called, in the old Dutch 

 maps of Ceylon), was a place of importance in the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries ; when it carried on an 

 active trade with the coast of India, whilst Trincomalie, 

 notwithstanding its magnificent bay, was then compara- 

 tively insignificant. It was this circumstance, and the 

 consequent facilities wliich it afforded for repaks, that in 

 1659 induced Knox, the father of the good old chronicler, 

 to resort to Cottiar, in order to refit liis dismasted ship, 

 Avheu he, and his son, and his ship's company, were seized 

 and consigned to their long captivity, by the order of Eaja 

 Sino'ha II. 



In 1612, the Dutch, by the treaty negotiated by 

 Buschouwer, obtained permission fi'om the Emperor of 

 Kandy to erect a fort at Cottiar, "provided the King 

 of Cottiarum may enjoy his customs and other reve- 

 nues ; " ^ and in 1675, they had constantly from eighty 

 to one hundi'ed ships, bringing clothes and other wares 

 from Coromandel, to be bartered for areca-nuts, pal- 

 myra sugar, and timber.^ The countrj^ surrounding it 

 was then full of \iUages ; rich in arable and pastm^e 

 lands; producing large quantities of rice for expor- 

 tation, and importing merchandise annually to the 

 value of one hundred thousand pagodas. But within 

 less than a century, the whole aspect of the place 

 was changed ; the Dutch abandoned their fort ; trade 



^ Bald^tjs, ch. X. p. 016 ; Valex- 

 TYK, Oud en Nieuio Ood-Indien, ch. 

 ix. p. 112. 



yALE^•TY^', ell. XV. p. 221. 



