INTRODUCTION. 



XXIX 



Collecqam Authentica de todas as Leys, Regimentos, 

 Alvards e mais ordens que se expediram para a India, 

 desde o establecimento destas conquistas ; Ordendda por 

 proviram de 28 de Marco de 1754. 1 These contain the 

 despatches to and from -the successive Captains- General 

 and Governors of Ceylon, so that, in part at least, the 

 replacement jof the records lost in the colony may be 

 effected by transcription. 



Meanwhile in their absence no other resource was 

 left me than the original narratives of the Dutch and 

 Portuguese historians, chiefly VALENTYN, DE BARROS, 

 and DE COUTO, who have preserved in two languages 

 the least familiar in Europe, chronicles of their re- 

 spective governments, which, so far as I am aware, 

 have not been republished in any translation. 



The present volumes contain no detailed notice of 

 the Buddist faith as it exists in Ceylon, of the Brahma- 

 nical rites, or of the other religious superstitions of the 

 isla/id. These I have already described in my history 

 of Christianity in Ceylon? The materials for that work 

 were originally designed to form a portion of the present 

 one; but having expanded to too great dimensions to 

 be made merely subsidiary, I formed them into a sepa- 

 rate treatise. Along with them I have incorporated 

 facts illustrative of the national character of the Singha- 

 lese under the conjoint influences of their ancestral 

 superstitions and the partial enlightenment of education 

 and gospel truth. 



Kespecting the Physical Geography and Natural His- 



1 MSS. Brit. Mus. No. 20,861 to 

 20,900. 



a Christianity in Ceylon : its In- 

 troduction and Progress under the 

 Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, 



and American Missions; with an 

 Historical Sketch of the Brahmanical 

 and Buddhist Superstitions, by Sir 

 JAMES EMERSON TENNENT. London, 

 Murray, 1850. 



