A brief notice of Robert Knox and his companions 

 in captivity in Kandy for the space of twenty years, disco- 

 tiered among the Dutch Records preserved in the Colonial 

 Secretary's Office, Colombo, and translated into English^ 

 by J. R. Blake. 



The Dutch Records preserved in the Colonial Secre* 

 tary's Office consist of a great number of volumes and em* 

 brace a vast variety of subjects. The curious investigator 

 will have his labours amply rewarded by the rich store of 

 materials which those records will furnish on almost every 

 given subject j historical and political \ educational and 

 ecclesiastical ; foreign and domestic ; despatches to Holland 

 and Batavia ; official letters civil and military ; reports con*- 

 cerning tanks and cultivation, pearls and cinnamon ; in- 

 structions to Dissavas ; terms of contract with natives ; 

 treaties with foreign powers ; sailing directions for India- 

 men, and orders of battle for ships of war, &c. &c. Inter- 

 mingled with these and other important matters, one will 

 not only meet with a very orthodox Protestant catechism 

 for young people, but what also may have been regarded 

 by the sedate Dutch matrons of the period as equally 

 orthodox and important, a recipe for the making of beer !-- 

 not indeed the veritable beer of Europe— the offspring of 

 malt and hops — -but some colonial invention, and designated 

 either Klein bier or Zet bier. The brave soldiers of the 

 garrison of Colombo were found to be poisoned by abomi- 

 nable mixtures sold in the market under the respectable 



