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the latter. Here it is otherwise : the facts of history are now 

 generally known, and coins are consequently valuable not so 

 much to prove the existence of certain facts as to illustrate and 

 explain the accounts we have of them or the allusions made to 

 them, in history and literature. 



And first with respect to the Portuguese, their settlement 

 in Ceylon appears to have been fatal to the Singhalese :-— it had 

 the effect of completely separating the people of the coast from 

 those of the interior, and shutting up the latter among their 

 mountains away from every opportunity of intercourse or com- 

 munication with foreign nations while they themselves were at 

 the same time destitute of all fixed laws and of all settled po- 

 litical institutions ; and in regard to the Singhalese of the 

 coast, in endeavouring to imitate their conquerors, they lost 

 at once their honesty, their principle, and their manners with- 

 out acquiring better in their place. Generally also, all trade 

 was carried on by barter, and taxes were paid in kind ; so that, 

 says the French Editor of Eibeyro, " there is not muchmoney 

 in the country." The Portuguese had however, it would seem, 

 introduced the use of pagodas pardaons* latins. The king of 

 Kandy had also allowed his subjects to make use of a kind of 

 money which every body was permitted to fabricate. He de- 

 scribes it as of very pure silver, and made in the shape of a fish 

 hook. It must have been the ridi. The king also struck, he 

 says, a kind of money called panan or fanam, which it was 

 forbidden to imitate under pain of death. But, adds he, all 

 kinds of money are very scarce ;f and says Bertolacci "what- 

 ever was the currency of Ceylon during the government of the 

 Portuguese, no vestige now remains of it."J This last obser- 



* The Pardo or Pardao at Goa is a silver coin worth four good 

 tangas, equal to two shillings and six pence sterling, 

 f Lee's Ribeyro, p. 43. 

 j Bertolacci, View of Ceylon, p. 77. 



