3^6 NEGUMBO. 
excuse, and begged their pardon from the Governor. I had paid 
the head fellow the whole of their wages, but again gave it to them, 
leaving his punishment to his Excellency, who promised me that 
he should be properly flogged, dismissed from his office, and oblig- 
ed/ to refund the money, which I begged might be given to the 
orphan fund. Some of the men, when I came to examine them, 
were objects fit for an hospital ; I therefore only retained thirty- 
four, and the Modeliar of the place procured twenty-six new ones, 
who, lest they should be out of the way, were confined in an out- 
house. I took my dinner, and at six actually departed, with a guard 
of sepoys, my four lascaryns, and my Cingalese servant that spoke 
English, and had lived with me since my arrival at Columbo. After 
passing through the town, we entered a grove of cocoa-nut trees 
that covered the sea beach. The sand was extremely heavy, and 
we got on but slowly. As soon as it became dark, we found the 
road illuminated by fires of cocoa-nut leaves on each side, with 
torches of the same stuck in the sand, and others carried by women 
and children, who ran from village to village opposite to the palan- 
quins. The scene was beautiful, and was occasionally heightened 
by the dry grass catching fire from the torches, and the flame run- 
ning along the ground. This road extended four miles to the Kay- 
male river, which being wide, and the boats small, we could not get 
over at once. We were all landed by eight o'clock on a barren 
spit of sand between the river and sea. Here were no cocoa-nuts, 
no villages, and no more torches. The darkness was more unpleasant 
from the contrast of the gay scene we had left behind. The country 
was sandy, with brush-wood, sufficiently ugly to make me not regret 
the darkness. My boys were in high spirits, laughing and singing 
