CHAPTER I. 



niYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.— GEOLOGY. ^JIINERALOGY, 



CLIMATE, ETC, 



-GEMS, 



General Aspect.— Ceylon, from whatever direction it 

 is approached, unfolds a scene of lovehness and gran- 

 deur unsm-passed, if it be rivalled, by any land in the 

 universe. The traveller from Bengal, leaving behind 

 the melancholy delta of the Ganges and the torrid 

 coast of Coromandel ; or the adventm^er fi^om Europe, 

 recently inm^ed to the sands of Egypt and the scorched 

 headlands of Arabia, is ahke entranced by the vision of 

 beauty which expands before him as the island rises from 

 the sea, its lofty mountains covered by luxuriant forests, 

 and its shores, till they meet the ripple of the waves, 

 bright mtli the fohage of perpetual spring. 



The Brahmans designated it by the epithet of " the 

 resplendent," and in their dreamy rhapsodies ex- 

 tolled it as the region of mystery and subhmity ^ ; 

 the Buddhist poets gracefully apostrophised it as " a 



^ " lis en out fait ime espece de 

 paradis, et se soiit imagine que des 

 etres d'une nature angelique les lia- 

 bitaient." — Albyrouni, Traite des 

 Eves, Sf-c. ; Reinatjd, Gcot/rapMe 

 d Ahoulf6da, tntrod. sec. iii. p. ccxxiv. 

 The renown of Ceylon as it reached 

 EuTOpe in tlie seventeenth century is 

 thus summed up by PtJKCHAS in His 

 IHh/nma(/e, b. v. c. 18, p. 550 : — 

 " The heauens vdih. their dewes, the 

 ap'e with a pleasant holesomenesse 



and fragrant freshnesse, the Waters in 

 their many riuers and fountaines, 

 the earth diuersified in aspiring hills, 

 lowly vales, equall and indifferent 

 plaines, filled in her inward chambers 

 ^vith mettalls and Jewells, in her 

 outward court and \i5per face stored 

 with whole woods of the best cin- 

 namon that the suune seeth ; besides 

 fruits, oranges, lemons, &e. Siirmoimt- 

 ing those of Spaine ; fowles and 

 beasts, both tame and wilde (among 



B 2 



