CiiAP. II.] INDIAN, ARABIAN, PERSIAN AUTHORITIES. 



599 



tlie Malabar Maglia, who invaded tlic island from Ca- 

 limia 1219 a.d., overthrew the Buddhist rehgion. de- 

 secrated its monuments and temples, and destroyed the 

 edifices and literaiy records of the capital.^ 



Kazwini, as usual, dwells on the productions of the 

 island, its spices, and its odours, its precious woods and 

 medical drugs, its profusion of gems, its gold and silver 

 work, and its pearls^ : but one circumstance will not fail to 

 strike the reader as a strange omission in these frequent 

 enumerations of the exports of Ceylon. I have traced 

 them from their earhest notices by the Greeks and 

 Eomans to the period when the commerce of the East 

 had reached its climax in the hands of the Persians and 

 Arabians ; the survey extends over fifteen centuries, 

 during which Ceylon and its productions were familiarly 

 known to the traders of all countries, and yet in the 

 pages of no author, European or Asiatic, fi^om the earliest 

 ages to the close of the thirteenth century, is there the 

 remotest allusion to Cinnamon as an indigenous produc- 

 tion, or even as an article of commerce in Ceylon. I 

 may add, that I have been equally unsuccessful in finding 

 any allusion to it in any Chinese work of ancient date.^ 



This unexpected result has served to cast a suspicion 

 on the title of Ceylon to be designated par excellence the 

 " Cinnamon Isle," and even with the knowledge that 

 the cinnamon laurel is indigenous there, it admits of 

 but little doubt that the spice which in the earher ages 

 w^as imported into Europe through Arabia, was obtained, 

 first from Africa, and afterwards from India ; and that it 

 w^as not till after the twelfth or thirteenth century that its 



^ 3Iahawanso, ch. Ixxx. Hajarcdna- 

 cari, p. 98 ; Rajdvuli, p. 250. Ttjk- 

 kour's Epitome, i^-c, p. 44. 



^ Kazwini, inCJildemeister, *S'«v};^. 

 Arah. p. 198. 



^ lu tlie Cliinese Materia Medicii, 

 " Pun-tsao-kanfi-nuih,''^ cinuanion or 

 cassia is described under the name of 



" kwei/' but always as a production 

 of Southern China and of Cochin 

 China. In the ]\Iing History, a pro- 

 duction of Ceylon is mentioned under 

 ilie name of " Shoo-heenu/," or "tree- 

 perfume ; " but my Informant, Mr. 

 \V}Iie, of Shanghae, is unable to 

 identify it with cinnamon oil. 



