No. 35.— 1887.] 



NOTES ON CEYLON. 



171 



28 This sentence is printed so. It will be seen that the author 

 repeats it further on and completes it. 



29 Goalen = Galle. 



30 Of course the writer meant " Trincquenemaley " (Trincomalee). 



31 Areeh = ' arecanuts,' the trade in which was jealously monopo- 

 lised by the Dutch. Ribeiro says (Bk. I., chap. III.) : — " There are 

 sent every year from the kingdom of Cotta no less than a thousand 

 champanas (which are like smacks of forty tons burden) of areca. 

 This article has a large consumption throughout the whole of India." 

 In Le Grand's translation of Ribeiro this statement assumes the 

 following form : — "From the kingdom of Cotta alone they export 

 yearly more than a thousand boatloads, of sixty tons each, of a certain 

 sand, which has a great sale throughout all India. " To this Lee puts 

 the following note : — " I cannot discover what this sand is — no article 

 of export of the kind is found now." Tennent, in commenting on this, 

 says : — " But as Le Grand made his translation from the Portuguese 

 manuscript of the author, it is probable that by a clerical error the word 

 arena may have been substituted for areca, the restoration of which 

 solves the mystery." Here Tennent commits another error, for area 

 (modern areia), and not arena, is the Portuguese word for ' sand.' 

 Moreover, I doubt if the manuscript from which Le Grand made his 

 translation was the author's original, for this, published in Lisbon in 

 1836, by the Royal Academy of Sciences, reads areca; but a manuscript 

 in my possession, formerly in the library of the late Dr. Burnell, reads 

 area, and I think it probable that this is the manuscript which was used 

 by Le Grand. It is curious that Le Grand did not detect the error, 

 for in his addition to the chapter in question he describes the areca, 

 and mentions the fact of its large export from Ceylon. 



32 Yalentijn mentions this horse, and the " Beknopte Historie" 

 states that the Governor ordered from Persia and sent to the Kandyan 

 king "a lion, horses, tigers, and falcons." (See for further particulars 

 Tennent, II., p. 48 n?) 



33 The "Beknopte Historie" says : — " the chief Secretary of 



State, in the month of May of the same year, arrived by water very 

 suddenly and without any previous notice, being accompanied by a 

 large suite and extraordinary pomp ; delivering his message after the 

 usual superstitious ceremonials, namely, that the young Prince was 

 ere long to be appointed and proclaimed Emperor, whereupon hurrahs 

 on behalf of the Company immediately followed, and three discharges 

 of muskets and thirty-one cannon shots were fired in token of satisfac- 

 tion. As speedily as this Envoy had come, even such haste did he make 

 to depart, for he left the selfsame evening." Then follow details of 

 the matters discussed by the Governor and the Envoy during this 

 hurried visit. 



34 The " Beknopte Historie " says " Meanwhile the Envoy 

 Alebos, who had been sent, returned from Candia, without having been 



83—88 f 



