( 6 ) 
and hitherto unnoticed Palk, disturb liis peace- 
ful slurabeis or those of iiis champions. Peace 
be to his a.shes, and otherwise K. I. P. 
[" R. I. P." we think in ratiier unreasonable in 
criticising, in place of thankiuf? " X " for coming 
forward when he did to give tlie public correct 
information. — Eu.l 
No. III. 
Sir, — Regarding the correspoudence in your columns 
as to the origin of the above name, permit roe to 
say, in reply to "X," that there are many instances 
of the transformation of names much less similar 
than " Palk " and " Valck." In the vernacular, the 
former would be the prononuciation of the latter name, 
just ns " office " becomes " oppice." Even in con- 
nection with Madras, to which your correspondent 
has referred, as a place where local (,'real names 
may have a chance of survival, a curious example 
may be quoted. A bridge was once called after a 
local high official of the name of Hamilton. The 
native pronunciation of this good old Scotch name 
ia " Amattan." Now there is a Tamil word " Am- 
battan," meaning a Barber. In time the bridge 
became, and is at present known as the Ambattau 
or Barber's bridge. Therefore, the Barber's bridge 
commemorates a former official of the name o£ 
Hamilton. The connection is scarcely obvious with- 
out an explanation : and yet this startjingly Bar- 
berous transformation has been effected within a cen- 
tury I I may also perhaps be permitted to say, that 
it is possible for one to have heard and known of 
the previous existence of Governor Ptilk, of his have- 
ing been a President of the Council of Port St. 
George, and of his name being and having been for 
a time used as a designation for a certain Strait, 
and jet at the same time suggest a doubt as to the 
correctness of the latter. Had the Dutch remained 
masters of the country, we should doubtless have heard 
much more of Valck than of Palk. At the time 
when these worthies reigned, the Dutch wore the 
ruling European power on both sides of the Strait. 
The western boanding Indian districts, and Ceylon 
itself, only came finally into the power of the British, 
long after the departure of the English Governor 
Palk. It seems curious therefore, that at a time of 
bitter competition between the two Powers, when the 
British had but a precarious footing in the locality, 
the Dutch should have thus favoured one of their 
English rivals ; or, that the latter should have been 
able to appropriate to themselves by name, a piece 
of sea dominated by the opposing power. It appears 
more probable, that the English, "afterwards taking 
advantage of the similarity in name — or perhaps 
unaware of the previous existence of Valck — appro- 
priated the honour in favour of their countryman. 
It may be of interest to state that the Tamil name 
of the strait is Pakkukkuda kadal. K. I. P. 
No. IV. 
Sir, — To what a strait has Governor Palk been 
reduced when a member of the Service to which he 
once belonged passes him over without remark, 
and makes a present of what was apparently 
his only chance of immortality (on this earth 
at least, to his Dutch neighbour and contem- 
porary ! 
It is clear from the letter of " R I. P." in your 
issue of the 17th inst. that it is Dr. Maclean and 
not Mr. Rea, who is responsible for the error. 
This however, merely adds force to my ilhistra- 
tion of the saying about the prophet and his 
own country ; tor now it appears that not one, 
but two, Madras officials were ignorant of the 
fact that there was a Governor of Madras last 
century, named Palk. This circumstance also 
shows how soon even a Governor may be forgotten. 
and that he may not escape oblivion even though 
lie hfui given his name to a strait and a bay. 
Had it been a stieet or a square in Ma<iras, hiii 
chances of remembrance would jterhaps have been 
better, though in Colombo one or two former 
rulers ot th-j Colony have recent!)' been deprived 
even of that cliance. 
I still venture to call Dr. Maclean's deriva- 
tion of the name an erior. I am not aware 
whether he gives any reasons for it ; but some 
strong reasons would seem to be ne<^>essary to 
get over the awkward lacts. first that the Dutch 
Governor's name was not Palk, but Falck or 
Valck and that it in hardly likely tkat within 
a century the name of the .Strait would havealiered 
from the one to the other, and secondly, that 
tliere wa.s a Governor of Madras last century 
who.se nanie does not require any alteration to 
make it suit the derivation. Why go in se»rch 
of a Dutch Governor who-^e name requires such 
alteration when there was an English Governor 
on the spot, ho to speak, whose name requires 
none. 
These seem to me strong enough reasons for 
preferring the latter, and suflicient even without 
any authority until stronger reasons are shown 
to the contrary. " R. I. P." however wants to 
know who niy antliority is, and why Dr. 
Maclean's statement should be " eelipAed " by his. 
Dr. Isaac Taylor, whom 1 quoted as my autho- 
rity out whom ajiparently " R. I. P." lias never 
heard of, is the author of " Words and Places " 
and is, I believe, looked upon as something of 
an authority on this subject. He i» possibly a£ 
well known in the literary ami philological world 
as Dr. Maclean " late icember of the Madras 
Civil Service." 
" R. I. P."s other argument is irresistible. He 
asks triumphantly " why has " X." delayed to 
take action all the.se (seventeen) years" ? \t has 
not occurred to hiui that although Dr. Maclean's 
Manual has been praised by such a learned 
Governor as Sir M. E. Grant-E)uff, even that has 
not been sufficient to make it a text-book among 
the Engli-sh residents of Ceylon. Their study ia 
but little upon "District Manuals of Adrn'inis- 
tiation." Our libraries do not keep this one, 
apparently because there is no more demand 
for it than tliere is for our local productions J of 
the same sort. It was only upon the appearance 
of Mr. Rea's monumental work, which gave 
some promise of permanency, (acre pcren- 
nius) to the 17-year old error, that it was 
possible for ' X.' to " take action," for the 
simple reason that He had never heard of the 
error before. 
It is curious that the two rival candidates for 
the honour were for a year or two contemporaries 
in office, Governor Palk of Madras ruling from 
1763 to 1767 and Governor Falck of Ceylon from 
1765 to 1783. X. 
No. Y. 
AVe are pleased to have the following decisive 
note from Sir. M. E. Grant-DufF. Writing from 
Lexden Park, Colchester, on the 2nd September, 
he says : — 
"I find from the best possible authority that 
there is no doubt whatever that Governor Palk 
gave his name to Palk's Straits. There seems 
reason to believe that the name was suggested 
by Rennell who seems to have surveyed the 
Straits and their neighbourhood as a very young 
man when he first came to India after leaving the- 
Navy in which he began life." 
