XXviii INTRODUCTION. 



The British, on the capture of Colombo in 1796, 

 were equally solicitous to obtain possession of the re- 

 cords of the Dutch Government. By Art. XIV. of the 

 capitulation they were required to be " faithfully deli- 

 vered over;" and, by Art. XI., all "surveys of the 

 island and its coasts " were required to be surrendered 

 to the captors. 1 But, strange to say, almost the whole 

 of these interesting and important papers appear to have 

 been lost ; not a trace of the Portuguese records, so far 

 as I could discover, remains at Colombo; and if any 

 vestige of those of the Dutch be still extant, they have 

 probably become illegible from decay and the ravages 

 of the white ants.' 2 



But the loss is not utterly irreparable ; duplicates of 

 the Dutch correspondence during their possession of 

 Ceylon are carefully preserved at Amsterdam ; and 

 within the last few years the Trustees of the British 

 Museum purchased from the library of the late Lord 

 Stuart de Rothesay the Diplomatic Correspondence and 

 Papers of SEBASTIAO JOZE CAKVALHO E MELLO (Portu- 

 guese Ambassador at London and Vienna, and subse- 

 quently known as the Marquis de Pombal), from 1738 

 to 1747, including sixty volumes relating to the history 

 of the Portuguese possessions in India and Brazil during 

 the 16th 17th, and 18th centuries. Amongst the latter 

 are forty volumes of despatches relative to India entitled 



1 Amongst a valuable collection of I 2 Note to the second edition Since 

 documents presented to the Royal ! the first edition was published, I 

 Asiatic Society of London, by the i have been told by a late officer of 

 late Sir Alexander Johnston, for- ! the Ceylon Government, that many 

 merly Chief Justice of Ceylon, there | years ago, what remained of the 

 is a volume of Dutch surveys of the Dutch records were removed from 

 Island, containing important maps the record- room of the Colonial Office 

 of the coast and its harbours, and ' to the cutcherry of the government 

 plans of the great works for irriga- agent of the western province ; where 

 tion in the northern and eastern pro- 



some of them may still be found. 



