Foreign Notices : — Asia. . 



15 



the persons who are best acquainted with its doctrines "and tenets. The 

 man {fig. is. b) conversing with Rajah Pakse, is a Mahommedan physician, 

 of whom Sir Alexander Johnston has given the following description in a 

 note to a paper on the history of the Mahommedan inhabitants of Ceylon, 

 presented by him to the Asiatic Society of Literature, and printed in the 

 last number of the proceedings of that Society : — 



" I have a copy in my possession of a very curious and very ancient grant 

 in copper, made by one of the Cingalese kings of Ceylon, about six or seven 

 hundred years ago, to a great Mahommedan merchant, who was then 

 residing at Barbareen, in the island of Ceylon, and to his descendants for 

 ever, of certain privileges and immunities, in consequence of his having 

 introduced, from the opposite coast of India, the first weavers of cloth who 

 were ever established in Ceylon. By virtue of this grant, the lineal descend- 

 ants of that merchant now enjoy, under the British government, a portion 

 of the privileges which were granted to their ancestors by the ancient Cin- 

 galese government of the country, and which were successively confirmed 

 to them by the Portuguese, Dutch, and English governments in Ceylon. 

 The chief of this family was appointed by me, in 1806, native superintendant 

 of the medical department, under the control of the Supreme Court. He 

 was considered by the natives of the country as one of the best informed of 

 the native physicians in the island, and possessed one of the best collections 

 of native medical books, most of which had been in his family between 

 seven and eight hundred years ; during the whole of which period it had 

 been customary for one member of his family at least to follow the medical 

 profession. This same person made me a very detailed report of all the 

 plants in Ceylon, which have been used from time immemorial for medical 

 purposes by Mahommedan native physicians in that island. The cultivation 

 and improvement of these plants, as well as of all other plants and vege- 

 tables in the island, which might be used either for food or commercial pur- 

 poses, was one of the great objects foi; which His Majesty's government, at 

 my suggestion, in 1810, established a royal botanical garden in Ceylon."^ 



