No. 35. — 1887.] notes on ceylon. 163 



on the west side, where stand several small huts, for the slaves 

 of the Company to live in with their wives and children, and 

 which is a kind of negro village. 48 Beside these there is yet 

 another small gate, by which one goes to the pier and wharf, 

 where all the goods are discharged and loaded by means of 

 punts and small boats or skiffs, and also taken to the large 

 vessels, which mostly lie a good half mile or even mile outside 

 the bay on account of a bank, and the north wind in the 

 mousson, 49 in November, December, and January, as the north 

 wind blows sometimes very strongly there, and then the ships 

 cannot get out of the bay on account of the north wind, but are 

 driven towards the shore, so that they part from their anchors. 

 On the north side the fort has a bend towards the sea, like an 

 elbow, on the end of which stands a bastion with a four- 

 cornered tower well provided with metal cannon, as indeed a 

 large number of metal cannon stand all round the city. This 

 bastion bears the name of the Waterpas. Behind this bend, 

 towards the shore, lies the wharf for building small vessels ; 

 there stands a saw-mill, driven by the wind. In the middle 

 of this elbow stands a smithy, beside carpenters', turners', and 

 coopers' shops. Here gun-carriages and everything needed 

 on sea or land are made for the Company. The rest of this 

 crooked elbow is entirely occupied by store-houses, in which 

 the goods of the Company are kept. 



Close by the Gaalse poort stands a powder-mill, also driven 

 by the wind, where gunpowder is made. In the castle are 

 few respectable houses, and most of these built by the Dutch, 

 of which the house of the Governor, with that of the 

 Secretary, which is close by, is very large, and with its garden 

 forms a complete square. Its front faces the sea shore. The 

 wall or the fortification serves as a road for the said house. 

 At the one angle towards the east stands a bastion, and at 

 the other angle towards the west is a corp [sic] de garde, 

 where the Company and the servants, with the trumpeter of 

 the Governor, have their residence, close to the Water -poort. 

 The castle has two streets from the north to the south, the 

 longest of which, that runs right from the Water-poort to the 



