144 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



published in the Kronvjk vanH Historisch Genootschap 

 (Proceedings of the Historical Society) of Utrecht for 1868, pp. 

 620-695, having been communicated to that Society by Prof. 

 H. C. Millies, who gave some information verbally regarding 

 the writer (which is not, however, printed in the Kronijh) y 

 and referred to the above-mentioned rare work. 



Dr. Daalmans' notes commence abruptly with a brief 

 description of the Cape of Good Hope, whence he travelled to 

 Ceylon, sighting on the way the island of "Molyn,"* and call- 

 ing for provisions at an unnamed island, inhabited chiefly by 

 Muhammadans. Although he does not mention the date, he 

 leads us to infer that his arrival in Ceylon took place in 

 December, 1687, and according to his own statement he left 

 Colombo for Batavia on February 10, 1689, having spent 

 " eighteen [sic] months " in the island. At Batavia he found 

 the drinking water not very good ; and he remarks that 

 " In Colombo nothing but water is drunk, but in Batavia set- 

 bier, which is made of two cups of sugar-syrup, a cup of 

 mum, and a bottle of water ; this, after being mixed together 

 and tightly corked in big bottles, is drunk the next day like 

 beer, and if more mum is added to it, it has the name of 

 chiamparade ; but those who find this drink too costly omit 

 the mum." 3 His notes on what he saw and heard are graphic ; 

 and he gives a very full description of the town and fort of 

 Batavia. Thence he proceeded to Pulicat, on the Madras 

 coast, where he describes the masula boats [_mossels ofte 

 cfoalengen] in which his luggage was landed, and where, he 

 says, he paid a pagoda for some tea. After a description of 

 this place and his doings there, he relates how he visited 

 the English Governor of Madras, the manner in which he 

 was treated, and what he saw and did. Again embarking, 

 he visited Sadras, Karikal, Negapatam (where he learnt all 

 about the preparation of pepper, which, he says, he had seen 

 growing in Ceylon, but had never seen picked), and finally 



* Doubtless Mohilla, one of the Comoro group, at which vessels outward- 

 bound frequently touched. See " Voyage de Francois Pyrard " (Tome I. 

 1619, pp. 42-48), where the island is called " Malailli."— B., Hon. Sec. 



