NOTICE 



THE FOURTH EDITION. 



The gratifying reception with which the following pages have 

 been honoured by the public and the press, has in no degree 

 lessened my consciousness, that in a work so extended in its 

 scope, and comj^rehending such a multiplicity of facts, errors 

 are nearly unavoidable both as to conclusions and detail. These, 

 so far as I became aware of them, I have endeavoured to correct 

 in the present, as well as in previous impressions. 



But my principal reliance for the suggestion and supply both 

 of amendments and omissions has been on the press and the 

 public of Ceylon ; whose familiarity with the topics discussed 

 naturally renders them the most competent judges as to the 

 mode in which they have been treated. My hope when the 

 book was published in October last was, that before going again 

 to press I should be in possession of such friendly communi- 

 cations and criticisms from the island, as would have enabled me 

 to render the second edition much more valuable than the previous 

 one. In this expectation I have been agreeably disappointed, the 

 sale having been so rapid, as to require a fourth impression 

 before it was possible to obtain from Ceylon judicious criticisms 

 on the first. These in due time will doubtless arrive ; and mean- 

 while, I have endeavoured, by careful revision, to render the 

 whole as far as possible correct. 



J. EMERSON TENNENT. 



VOL. I. 



