Chap. V.] TRIXCOMALIE. 485 



carved stone-work and slabs bearing inscriptions ^ in 

 ancient characters, are still to be discerned in the walls of 

 the fort, and on the platforms for the guns. 



The site of this sacrilege is still held in the profoundest 

 veneration by the Hindus. Once in each year ^, a pro- 

 cession, attended by crowds of devotees, who bring of- 

 ferings of fi'idts and flowers, repairs, at sunset, to the spot 

 where the rock projects four hundred feet above the 

 ocean ; — a series of ceremonies is performed, including 

 the mysterious breaking of a coco-nut against the cliff; 

 and the officiating Brahman concludes his invocation by 

 elevating a brazen censer above liis head filled with m- 

 flammable materials, the light of wliicli, as they bmii, is 

 reflected far over the sea. 



The promontory sustains a monument of later times, 

 with which a story of toucliing interest is associated. 

 The daughter of a gentleman of rank in the civil service 

 of Holland, was betrothed to an officer, who repudiated 

 the engagement ; and his period of foreign service hav- 

 ing expired, he embarked for Europe. But as the ship 

 passed the precipice, tlie forsaken girl flimg herself 

 from the sacred rock into the sea ; and a pillar, mth an 

 inscription now nearly obhterated^, recalls the fate of 

 this eastern Sappho, and records the date of the cata- 

 strophe. 



Shortly after the rupture between Louis XIV. and 

 the United Provinces in 1672, the French Admii-al de 

 la Haye took possession of Trincomalie. The Dutch in 

 their panic abandoned the fort, as well as those of Cot- 

 tiar and Batticaloa ; but the French, having laid waste 

 the surrounding country, were unable to provision their 

 fleet, and were forced to retu^e from their conquest.* 



They renewed the attempt in 1782, when Admu'al 



' Fac-similes of three of these I ' " TOT gedactenis van feancina 



inscriptions will be found in the van reede luf * * mydkegt desen 



Jouni. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. v. p. A°, 1087 24 atril orcEKEGT." 



550, 55(). * ^^\LENXYN, Oud en Xieuw Oost- 



^ On the 23rd January. | Indien, ch. xv, p. 256. 



I I 3 



