POINT DE GALLE. 
^67 
and bricked, the walls very thick, and the cielings boarded. The 
windows have the upper parts glazed, the lower are occasionally 
shut in by lattices. I took possession of a suite of very excellent 
apartments, which Mr. North left but two days ago, on his way to 
Colunibo. This information was doubly pleasing to me, as I found 
he would certainly be there to receive me, and that the country 
was passable. Colonel Maddison had the goodness to undertake to 
arrange every thing for myjourney, in such a manner that I might 
leave this place on the 50th. The European society here is small : 
there are only three ladies, except the Dutch women, who still 
keep a good deal to themselves. This seems to be principally oc- 
casioned by their poverty. Mr. North and those under him do all 
they can to concihate them. Whilst the Governor was here, the 
Colonel gave a grand ball, to which they were all invited, and 
danced till three in the morning. The fort is by far too extensive ; 
it is situated on a neck of land, and nearly surrounded by the sea. 
The land-locked part of the bason is very small, but it secures a 
landing free from surf, which, when the wind has any thing south 
in it, beats with prodigious violence on the rocks that form the ex- 
treme end of the peninsula. On one of these is erected the flag-staff, 
which therefore, in fact, stands without the fort. The air is cooled 
by the sea breeze, and Colonel Maddison represents the place as 
tolerably healthy, and by no means so insalubrious as these places 
are^ which are situated in the skirts of those lofty ranges, where the 
clouds, being first intercepted, fall in rain on the vallies. At present 
the cocoa-nut groves and jungle come too close to the water's edge, 
and the skirts of the town, for the air to be salubrious. There must 
be a complete clearing of the belt between the mountains and the sea, 
VOL. I. M M 
