No. 34. — 1887.] PEARL FISHERIES OF CEYLON. 



31 



not, and would not, leave my duties so long as fishing lasted, 

 the cholera outbreak in stopping the fishery was possibly, in 

 a sense, providential to myself, as I might have died at 

 Salapatturai from dysentery, for the illness got worse, and 

 obliged me to leave Ceylon for the recovery of health. The 

 Almighty, in His great mercy, restored my health, enabling 

 me to return to Ceylon, and serve there until 1882, when I 

 retired from the office of Treasurer, after a public service of 

 over fifty years. 



A large Pearl Fishery is expected in 1888, and I say to those 

 who have the time and inclination for travel : " Go and see 

 this most interesting proceeding and the beauties of Ceylon." 

 The voyage is a pleasure trip : Gibraltar, Malta, Perim, and 

 Aden, instructive in themselves, and gratifying to see as 

 salient points of England's Empire. 



If you make Colombo in the early morn of the north-east 

 monsoon, when the sun is lighting up nature, you will see the 

 mountains looming in the distance, especially Adam's Peak, 

 wonderful in sight and legend ; the shore, lined to the sea 

 edge with the cocoanut and other palms — a wondrous, soft, 

 enchanting sight, that clings to memory, as in my case, 

 for now over fifty years, when I first saw the shores of 

 Ceylon on entering Trincomalee harbour. 



The Colombo Breakwater, a great engineering work, lately 

 completed (under the Government of our Chairman, Sir James 

 Longden), giving easy access and safe anchorage to the 

 largest class of steamers, and now entered by vessels of all 

 nations ; then the Town of Colombo, the Cinnamon Gardens, 

 and the Lake, are full of interest. 



The Railway, wonderfully constructed around mountain 

 heights to a summit of over five thousand feet, will convey 

 you first to Kandy, a beautiful place, and once the capital of 

 the Kandyan kings ; from thence through the Tea, Coffee, and 

 Cinchona districts to Nuwara Eliya, the sanitarium of Ceylon. 



Then there are the interesting Ruins of Anuradhapura, 

 testifying to the former greatness of Ceylon under her very 

 ancient native dynasty. 



