CuAP. VI.] POINT PEDKO. 535 



Gwii surplus produce of other articles to nearly an equiva- 

 lent amount. 



In the midst of these interestino; o;ardens is the villaire 

 of Point Pedro, a corruption of tlie Portuguese Punta 

 das Pedras^ " the rocky cape," a name descriptive of the 

 natural features of the coast. Point Pedro is not, as 

 generally represented, the extreme point of Ceylon, for 

 the coast trends still farther north at Point Palmyra, a 

 promontory some miles to the westward. Close by the 

 beach there is still standing the " tall Tamarind-tree " 

 commemorated by Baldasus ^, who preaclied under its 

 shade to the first Protestant converts in Ceylon, TJiis his- 

 torical tree is forty-two feet in circumference at the base 

 of the trunk. 



Point Pedro is an open roadstead, which affords, 

 however, tolerably secure anchorage within the shelter 

 of a coral reef iUthough twenty miles distant from 

 Jaffna, it must still be regarded as its principal port ; for 

 though Jaffna appears on the map to be situated on the 

 sea, the water shoals so, that the town is not approach- 

 able within some miles by square-rigged vessels, wliich 

 consequently receive and discharge their cargoes at Point 

 Pedro to the north, and at Kayts, in Leyden Island, 

 twelve miles to the south-west. To a <2;reat dcGfree, the 

 little town of Point Pedro partakes of the care wliich is 

 lavishly bestowed upon the gardens around it ; its streets 

 are trim and regular, its houses more substantial and 

 commodious than usual, and its Hindu temple and tank 

 are on a scale that attests the wealtli and hberality of its 

 devotees. 



In the evening we drove along the sliore to Valvetti- 

 torre, a village about three miles to the west of Point 

 Pedro, containing a much larger population, and one 

 equally industrious and enterprising. There was a vessel 

 of considerable tonnage on tlie stocks, the Tamil ship- 



1 BALDiEUS, p. 730. 

 M M 4 



