ON THE WEST COAST OF CEYLON 63 



which would bring us home. Leave having been 

 obtained from our respective chiefs, we proceeded to 

 get our tents and other equipment together. 



A few days before our start — which, by the way, 

 was to be made on Christmas Eve — a letter came to 

 Will from a native, or rather half-caste subordinate, 

 in the Government Agent's office at Negombo, who, 

 hearing we were coming, wrote to offer to arrange a 

 drive for us on the day after our arrival. Will had 

 been stationed at the place some years before this, 

 and was of opinion that the writer was a sporting 

 chap, and would probably get us some shooting, 

 so we accepted the offer. This involved sending 

 tents and servants on the day before with instruc- 

 tions to pitch the camp near the spot where the drive 

 was to take place. 



At last all was ready, and early on the day fixed 

 we drove down through the unsavoury native town 

 to the jetty in the river. The steamer, a little ram- 

 shackle affair with wheezy engines, was crowded 

 with natives ; but a place was soon cleared for us, 

 and we started. The first part of the route is up 

 the Kelaniganga river. Before we had gone a 

 quarter of a mile we ran aground on a sandbank. 

 The crew and several of the passengers jumped 

 overboard, and after unheard - of exertions got her 

 off. When the steamer was at last got off the 

 screw refused to move, a rope having fouled it. It 

 took another ten minutes to cut this away, and I 

 began to think we should never get fairly started. 

 At last, however, we sighted the Leper Hospital, which 

 marks the entrance to the long canal which unites 

 the river with the Lake of Negombo. The canal is 

 monotonous and uninteresting in the extreme, but 



