DUCK-SHOOTING IN THE EAST INDIES. 157 



Coach. The cool breeze which met us, and which 

 was doubly refreshing after a night which had been 

 particularly hot, and during which the mosquitoes 

 had fed as if their appetite had been laid on for the 

 occasion, increased my natural feeling of exhilaration 

 at getting a holiday, and explained the zest with 

 which I listened to the cantering of the willing nags, 

 and to the execrably blown bugle, which here supplies 

 the place of the " yard of tin." Collecting passengers 

 as we rolled through the long street of the native 

 town, we soon passed the lovely headland of Bona 

 Vista, the southern point of the harbour, and I was 

 fairly on my way to the most southern point of British 

 India, or rather of 



" India's utmost isle, Taprobane." 



Passing the Cogalla Lake, famous among the 

 inhabitants of Galle for picnic parties and crocodile- 

 shooting, we make our third stage by arriving at 

 Welligam, a little town sixteen miles on our way. 

 Just before entering it we pass a colossal human 

 statue, representing the Kousta Rajah, or Leprous 

 King, of Ceylon, which is carved out of the solid 

 rock at the roadside. 



Our road from here to Matara is less inhabited, 

 but the whole coast road from Negombo on the 

 west to Dikwella on the east coast may almost be 

 spoken of as one street a hundred and fifty miles 

 long. We reached Matara at 10 p.m., dusty and 

 hungry, and quite ready for tub and breakfast. Jim's 

 quarters were in the quaint little Dutch fort north 

 of the river, which still bears the inscription, " Redout 



