CEYLON. 315 
might authorize a still more unfavourable construction of his 
conduct. 
The arrival of Mr. North was by no means an agreeable circum- 
stance to these locusts, who seem to have entertained a hope of 
driving him from his government. They, however, soon found, to 
their cost, that his firmness and decision were equal to his mildness 
and benevolence. He dismissed the most incorrigible, suspended 
others, and drove at once from the coast the tribe of Aumils and 
Debashes. He restored the Dutch laws and regulations, to which 
the people were accustomed; correcting the abuses of them by slow, 
and almost imperceptible degrees. It is much to the credit of the 
East India Directors, that they supported Mr. North in these mea- 
sures, and confirmed all his acts. Under the new and beneficent 
administration Ceylon soon wore a different aspect. Instead of an 
exhausted treasury, the revenue was nearly equalled to the civil 
expenditure. 1 he tanks which, like every other useful work, had 
been neglected, and from the state of which a dreadful murrain 
among the cattle has arisen, were repaired, and the company of 
tank builders was recognised, as under the Dutch. The dykes, wharfs, 
warehouses, and canals that had been nearly ruined, through the 
neglect of the Company's officers, were put into repair. The system 
of paying the Modeliars and others by accommodessars, or grants 
of free land, was abolished, and regular pay substituted in its stead. 
This measure, though it caused an apparent increase of expendi- 
ture, has, in reality, proved a saving, from the additional revenue 
yielded by the land. It has also had the good effect of gratifying 
the lower orders of people, who held land on the tenure of service, 
by liberating them from the control of the Modeliars, who diverted 
VOL. I. S S 
