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



[Vol. XIX. 



(Pottuvil) or Batticaloa ; and there cannot have been many 

 gardens of palms in the north. Robert Knox on his escape 

 in 1679 gives an account of the products of the" Malabar " 

 country through which he had passed to the north-west 

 coast, and of which he had learned by observation and 

 report. He says : " The commodities of this countrey are 

 elephants, hony, butter, milk, wax, cows, wild cattel : of the 

 three last great abundance. As for corn, it is more scarce 

 than in the Chingulays countrey ; neither have they any 

 cotton. But they come up into Neure Caulava yearly with 

 great droves of cattel, and lade both corn and cotton."" 



From an account of the Jaffna peninsula in the Dutch 

 times, when there were 150 villages (many more than in the 

 time of the Portuguese), we learn these were all in the north 

 of the peninsula ; for in the south forests prevailed, full of 

 elephants and other wild beasts ; and so numerous and bold 

 were the elephants that two of them waded across a lagoon 

 near Jaffna and appeared in the streets of the town about 

 the year 1660. We gather from this (and Baldaeus) that the 

 coco palms then cultivated were confined to certain villages 

 in the north of the peninsula and a few in the islands. 

 The palmyra was probably much more common. We take 

 it, further, that up to this time the coconut had not been 

 planted (unless a few here and there) at Mannar, Kalpitiya, 

 Puttalam, or Chilaw— indeed very few north of Negombo. 

 Probably the Maha-oya may be taken as the northern limit 

 on the western coast ; although farther inland the coconut 

 palm was found around villages north of that river, in the 

 Seven Korales, and generally near all villages throughout 

 what is now known as the Western Province. At the same 

 time, we cannot suppose — seeing what afterwards happened 

 in the time of Van Imhoff — that there was much cultivation 

 between Colombo and Kalutara. There were certainly some 

 gardens near Colombo, more particularly in the direction 

 of Kotte and the Kelani river as far inland as Sitawaka, 



* Page 356, Robert Knox's "Historical Relation." edit. 1817. 



