162 



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



[Vol. X. 



gate, because one goes to Negombo through it ; it is situated 

 in the angle on the north-east side. On the east and on the 

 south side it is very strongly fortified, with stone walls and 

 bastions and a very broad water, or tank, in which are many 

 crocodiles or kairnans. 41 On the north side is the sea, from 

 which it is separated by a small wall, in the middle of which 

 is a bastion, where troops are stationed with a sergeant. 

 Outside this wall, to wit, on the beach, is the fish market, or 

 the fish bazaar [visch-passer], 43 where a number of fishermen 

 live in little huts. On the west side is the castle, between 

 which and the town lies a low plain, almost as large as the 

 whole city, by a high road through the midst of which one 

 goes to the castle. This road was planted with trees when we 

 left there, 43 and they had grown well when we came away 

 again. 44 



The fort or castle is almost square, and has five bastions of 

 poor stone, which is cut out of the earth there of any size 

 that is required, and is called kapkok stone. 45 It is like small 

 pebbles lying in a hard clay, so that if a large square stone is 

 allowed to lie for some time in the water the clay dissolves, 

 and all the pebbles fall in a heap together ; but if this stone 

 is laid in good mortar, so that the water cannot get at it, then 

 it does good service. The castle has on the south side the 

 same tang 4Q or broad water as the old city, on the west side 

 the sea, and on the north side the bay, and on the east side 

 the old town, which is separated from the castle by a pretty 

 broad and deep moat. It has three gates, one through which 

 one enters from the old town, where the road still lay open 

 when I was there in 1693, notwithstanding that the blue 

 chiselled freestone all ready for making a fine gateway 

 therewith had lain there from the time I came to Colombo. 

 The second gate lies at the angle of the south-west side, where 

 the road goes to Gaalen, 47 and is named the Gaalsepoort [Galle 

 gate]. The third is the Water-poort [Water gate], where one 

 goes down along three sides by twenty blue freestone steps to 

 the bay or beach. Beside these there are two or three other 

 small gates, by which one goes to the works and to the sea beach, 



