No. 63. — 1910.] PROCEEDINGS. 
71 
the Colombo Museum, and its great regret at the severance of his 
connection with Ceylon. It is recommended to the Society that 
Dr. Willey be elected an Honorary Member for life under Rule 7." 
The recommendations of the Council were adopted by the 
Meeting. 
4. The Chairman moved — " That this Society desires to 
record its profound regret at the death of Mr. Donald W. Ferguson, 
and its appreciation of the very valuable services rendered by 
him to the Society and to historical research in Ceylon, and to 
express its deep sympathy with his family." 
In doing so Mr. Arunachalam said : "It is my sad duty to 
announce to the Society the death of one of its most valued 
members — Mr. Donald Ferguson. He belonged to a family which 
has for almost a century been identified with Ceylon, and has laid 
the Island under many obligations. He began life as a journalist 
on the staff of his father's paper, the Ceylon Observer, and rose to 
be one of its editors. 
Following the tradition of his cousin, Mr. John Ferguson, who 
was till recently our President, and of a great journalistic figure 
in the past, Mr. John Capper, of the Ceylon Times, who was for 
many years our indefatigable Secretary, Mr. Donald, Ferguson did 
not confine himself to journalism, but entered with zest into 
literary work, of which our Society reaped a good harvest. 
Compelled by ill-health to leave Ceylon, he settled down in 
Croydon and devoted himself with undiminished ardour to his 
favourite literary pursuits, chiefly the history and antiquities of 
Ceylon. The quantity and quality of his work, which would have 
been great for a person in vigorous health, were truly surprising 
when one remembers the conditions under which that work was 
produced. 
He was a man of varied and profound research, master of many 
languages, ancient and modern— perhaps the greatest linguist on 
the roll of our Members. There was scarcely a branch of Ceylon 
history or antiquities in which his opinion was not listened to with 
attention and respect. 
But the field which he made specially his own was the Portuguese 
and Dutch period of Ceylon history , and especially the Portuguese 
period. No Member has made more numerous or more valuable 
contributions to our journal. I hold in my hand a long list of 
those contiibutions. The most important of them was the 
translation which he undertook for our Society of " Barros and de 
Couto's History of Ceylon," and compl3ted with exhaustive notes, 
receiving the well-merited thanks of the Society. 
He laboured for us and thought of us to the end. Not long ago 
he presented this Society with a precious MS. copy of " Ribeiro's 
Cordon," which had been used by Abbe le Grand in making his 
translation. A Paper which was recently received from him on 
the " Earliest Dutch Visits to Ceylon " will shortly appear in our 
Journal. When his doctors had given up hopes of his recovery, 
he wrote ^ pathetic note, expressing his regret that he would not 
live to complete other tasks he had set himself. 
