CEYLON. 251 



go to the latter, I should never be able to turn away from it 

 for Australia. 



Trincomalee, September 14. 



We reached this on the 11th ; a pretty place, but not 

 without some faults ; very few Algae, and these of the commonest 

 kinds. No boats for hire but rickety canoes, from which you 

 cannot dredge, or else great cargo-boats like lighters — added 

 to which, it is pretty hot under a vertical sun — so I suffer 

 somewhat from compulsory idleness. However, having a plant 

 collector engaged, I mean to stay here for a few days, and 

 send him, with a coolie to carry his gatherings, into the jungle 

 to collect flowering plants. I feel that I have not physical 

 strength to accompany him, as I cannot bear the sun after eight 

 o'clock in the morning. Except this lassitude, I am quite well, 

 never having had a headache since I left England. I live 

 regularly and carefully, but I shall not be sorry when I get 

 into cooler air. Catch me at Trincomalee again ! 1 hope to 

 address my next letter from Peradenia, Mr. Thwaites's garden, 

 in the high country, which is cool and pleasant. I shall be 

 quite at home with him ; but even here I do not feel lonesome, 

 only disappointed at my own inefficiency, and vexed that I shall 

 cause disappointment to my friends at home. What will they 

 say if I carry a dredge all round the world, and never once 

 throw it into a fishing-ground ! What a donkey it is ! 



Matelie, sixteen miles from Kandy, September 23rd. 



After staying some days at Trincomalee without finding 

 any prospect of making profitable collections, I set about seek- 

 ing a mode of exit. My friend, Captain Higgs, offered me an 

 old sea cot and a bamboo to sling it on. I had myself a small 

 mattress. I bought a palm-leaf mat for an awning, and thus 

 equipped, called the affair a " Palanquin ;" and hired twelve 

 bearers to carry it and me to Kandy, and four coolies to carry 

 my luggage. So, with sixteen men in pay, I left on the 19th, 

 and arrived at my present quarters this morning. To-morrow 

 I have every hope of reaching Peradenia, the whole distance of 

 six days' journey being no more than from Dublin to Limerick. 

 I cannot help feeling, as I lie on my back, slung on a pole, 

 that it is a sort of cruelty to animals to be borne along, the 



