CHAP, in.] 



EARLY TRADE. 



441 



in connection with missions for the promotion of Budd- 

 hism, or embassies for the negotiation of marriages and 

 alliances with the princes of India. 1 The building of 

 dhoneys is adverted to as early as the first century, but 

 they were only intended by a devout king to be stationed 

 along the shores of the island, covered by day with 

 white cloths, and by night illuminated with lamps, in 

 order that from them priests, as the royal almoners, 

 might distribute gifts and donations of food. 2 



The genius of the people seems to have never inclined 

 them to a sea-faring life, and the earliest notice that 

 occurs of ships for the defence of the coast, is in connec- 

 tion with the Malabars who were taken into the royal 

 service from their skill in naval affairs. 3 A national 

 marine was afterwards established for this purpose, A.D. 

 495, by the King Mogallana. 4 In the Suy-shoo, a Chinese 

 history of the Suy dynasty, it is stated that in A.D. 607, 

 the king of Ceylon " sent the Brahman Kew-mo-16 with 

 thirty vessels, to meet the approaching ships which con- 

 veyed an embassy from China." 5 And in the twelfth 

 century, when Prakrama I. was about to enter on his 

 foreign expeditions, "several hundreds of vessels were 

 equipped for that service within five months." 6 



It is remarkable that the same apathy, if not anti- 

 pathy . to navigation, still prevails amongst the inhabi- 

 tants of an island, the long sea-borde of which affords 

 facilities for cultivating a maritime taste, did any such 

 exist. But whilst the natives of Hindustan fit out sea- 

 going vessels, and take service as sailors for distant voy- 

 ages, the Singhalese, though most expert as fishers and 

 boatmen, never embark in foreign vessels, and no in- 



1 TTTRNOTJE'S Epitome, App. p. 73. 



2 By King Malm Dailiya, A.D. 8. 

 Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 211 ; Raja- 

 vali, p. 228 ; Rajaratnacari, p. 52. 



8 B. c. 247. Mahawanso, ch. xxi. 

 p. 127. 



4 Mahawanso, ch. xl. TTJBNOTTR'S 

 MS. Transl. 



5 Suy-shoo, b. Ixxxi. p. 3. 



6 TVENOUR'S Epitome, &c., App. 

 p. 73. 



