66 



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



[Vol. XIX. 



plantings of fruit trees (including the coco palm) by orders of 

 King Prakrama Bahu the Great ; but it is impossible to say 

 with what success, especially as regards palms. Undoubt- 

 edly such kingly attention to this most useful of tree 

 food-producers must have acquainted the people throughout 

 many villages and districts with its value, and accordingly 

 from the 13th century on to the middle of the 17th, when our 

 observation closes for the present, the Sinhalese throughout 

 the low-country of the south-west, between Dondra Head 

 and the Maha-oya river, and in villages perhaps ten, twenty, 

 or even thirty miles inland, as in Three and Seven Korales, 

 became more and more alive to the value of a palm which 

 so variously ministered to their comfort, entering into every 

 part of their life as food, drink, light, fuel, household uten- 

 sils, and building materials. We have accordingly added a 

 sixth distinct colouring in sienna, for villages north of the 

 Kalu-ganga in the Western Province, near Kotte, Colombo, 

 along the Kelani-ganga, indicating gardens planted up to 

 1450 A.D. ; and finally the seventh colouring (neutral tint) 

 covers planting done between the middle of the 15th and 

 17th centuries (up to 1660 A.D.), north of the Kelani-ganga r 

 about Negombo, in Seven and Three Korales, in a few 

 gardens in the north of the Jaffna peninsula, and at 

 Tangalla, Pottuvil, and Batticaloa. The wars which raged 

 almost continuously for 150 years between the Sinhalese 

 monarch and the Portuguese must have sadly interfered 

 with agricultural progress of any kind ; and there was not 

 the same strong inducement of a keen foreign demand 

 which prevailed in the case of cinnamon and arecanuts, to 

 induce a large export trade in coconut products. This 

 trade indeed did not attract much attention till towards 

 the end of the Dutch* and beginning of the British rule, 



* I learn from Mr. Anthonisz, Government Archivist, that in the Instruc- 

 tions left for his successor by Governor Ryklof van Goens, in 1675, no 

 reference is made to any trade in, or revenue from, coconuts, oil, coir, or 

 arrack ; although full mention is made of arecanuts, pepper, rice, elephants, 



