XXIV 



INTRODUCTION. 



nection with the government o£ Ceylon. I found 

 abundant details as to the capture of the maritime 

 provinces from the Dutch in 1795, in the narrative of 

 Captain Percival ^, an officer who had served in the 

 expedition ; and the efforts to organise the first system 

 of administration are amply described by Cordiner^, 

 Chaplain to the Forces ; by Lord Yalentia ^, who was 

 then travelling in the East ; and by Ai^thony Berto- 

 LACCi'^, who acted as auditor-general to the first governor, 

 Mr. North, afterwards Earl of Guilford. The story of 

 the capture of Kandy in 1815 has been related by an 

 anonymous eye-witness under the pseudonyme of Phi- 

 lalethes ^, and by Marshall in his Historical Sketch 

 of the conquest.*^ An admirable description of the 

 interior of the island, as it presented itself some forty 

 years ago, Avas furnished by Dr. Davy^, a brother of the 

 eminent philosopher, who was employed on the medical 

 staff in Ceylon, from 1816 till 1820. 



Here the long series of writers is broken, just at 

 the commencement of a period the most important and 

 interesting in the history of the island. The mountain 

 zone, which for centuries had been mysteriously hidden 

 from the Portuguese and Dutch '\ was suddenly opened 



^ An Account of the Island of 

 Ceylon, c^c, by Capt. R. Pekcival. 

 4to. London, 1805. 



^ A Description of Ceijlon, Sfc, by 

 the Rev. James Cordinee, A.M. 

 2 vols. 4to. London, 1807. 



^ Voyages and Travels to India, 

 CeyluJi, and the lied Sea, by Lord 

 Viscount Valentia. 3 vols. 4to. 

 London, 1809. 



^ A Vieic of the Agrictdhiral, Com- 

 mercial, and Financial Interests of 

 Ceylon, Sfc, by A. Bertolacci, Es(]. 

 London, 1817. 



^ A History of Ceylon from the 



earliest Period to the Year mdcccxv, 

 by Philalethes, A.M. 4to. Lond. 

 1817. The author is believed to have 

 been the Rev. G. Bisset- 



^ Henry Marshall, F.R.S.E., &c. 

 went to Ceylon as assistant sur- 

 geon of the 89th regiment, in 180G, 

 and from 1816 till 1821 was the 

 senior medical ofScer of the Kan- 

 dyan provinces. 



''An Account of the Interior of 

 Ceylon, &fc., by John Davy, M.D. 

 4to. London, 1821. 



^ Valentyn, in his great work on 

 the Dutch possessions in India, Oud 



