LITERARY REGISTER SUPPLEMENT: 
AND CEYLON 
"NOTES AND QUERIES." 
fUn^er this heading, In fatnra, we mean to give a small "Supplement" with oar Tropical Agrioulturitt 
monthly, according as there ia matter of sufficient value so to be preserved.] 
OCrrOBER, 1903. 
MONSIEUR BURNARD'S MEMOIR 
ON CEYLON. 
THii) MEMOIR OF THE LATE MONSIEUR BURNARD 
DEAWN UP BY HIM FOB THE INFORMATION 
OF 8IE ALEXANDER JOHNSTONE IN THE 
YEAR 1809. 
When the Governor and Council of Ceylon re- 
qneated Sir Alex. Johnstone to go to England 
officially in i809 tor Llie purpose of explaining to the 
late Lord Londonderry, the then Secretary of State 
for the Colonies, the real state of Ceylon, and the 
nature of the different alterations and improvements 
which were deemed necessary by General Maitland 
(the then Governor) and himself, (he being one of 
the members of Council) in every Department of 
Government, Sir Alexander after making them 
acquainted with the objects for which he wa-i t^oing 
to England, requested all the Dutch and Native 
inhabitants of the Island candidly to give him their 
detailed opinions upon those subjects with which 
they were respectively conversant. In consequence 
of this request Mons. Burnard, a Swiss by birth, 
but one of the oldest and most distinguished of the 
Dutch Civil servants, who had been constantly em- 
ployed in the most confidential situations Vy the 
Dutch Governor Vandergraf, particularly in that 
chief [district ?] of Baticaloe, and who by his great 
ability and knowledge of the people had improved 
that province in a very remarkable manner, gave this 
memoir to Sir Alexander, in which he. Monsieur 
Burnard, takes a general view of the different 
systems of Government introduced to Ceylon by the 
Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English, and enters 
very much into detail upon the subject of descrip. 
tions of services, which every native of Ceylon had 
been from time immemorial bound to perform to 
Government, and point out the manner in which be 
thinks the Government ought to allow the people 
to commute those services for money payments to 
Government. Sir Alexander Johnstone at the re- 
quest of the late Lord Londonderry, made a trans- 
lation into English of this Memoir, and gave it to 
his lordbhip, as one of the most useful documents 
ho could read upon the subject of— 
Fragments of the ancient and modern state of 
the Island of Oeylon and its agricultures ; on the 
liabilities to service of ix,^ inhabitants ; its re- 
venue In general ; and some considerations 
on the establishment of the permanent sys- 
tem of taxation and adminstratiou for the 
interior of the Island, 
History, tradition, and mora especially the num- 
ber of antiquities existing in the island of Oeylon, 
leave no doubt as to its great population and its 
very oarefal cultivation in ancient times. 
It may be deduced from thif, that these advan- 
tages assisted to an abundance of valuable produc- 
tions, great fertility, and the extraordinary vege- 
tation which every observer will remirk there, 
must have formerly rendered it a flourishing 
country. Unfortunate events have no doubt grad- 
ually brought about the depopulation and wild 
state, into which this Island has been in modern 
time reduced. It is not improbable that the 
princes of the interior, having rendered themselves 
masters of the places on the coasts, devastated and 
depopulated them, from the timid policy which the 
conquests of the Pataus and Moguls in the penin- 
sula of lor'ia, had induced them to follow, they 
thought to secure their safety by surrounding 
themselves with forests. It may be remarked on 
this haad that, notwithstanding its proximity to 
the continent, Ceylon vvas never subjected in 
historical times, the fabulous periods alone give 
traces of an event of that nature. 
The Island is 90 leagues in length from the point 
of Ueondara in the south, to that of Pedro in the 
North, those two extremities being nearly under 
the same parallel.* Its breadth from Calpentyn, 
in the west to the bay of Vandeloo, in the east, is 
about 62 leagues, although most maps reckon 58 
leagues. Major Kennel in his excellent work 
states that it stretches itself out further to the 
west than the maps represent, and the proof which 
he gives to support his opinion appear reasonable. 
The general maps which we have of Ceylon are in 
every respect defective ; some more, some less 
than others. Among the maps of particular parts 
of the Ifeland, those which represent the north and 
east are the best, the limits of Kandy and the 
coasts having been measured. 
Tradition asserts that this Island was formerly 
much more extensive than it now ie ; that it was 
separated from the continent in its northern parts, 
and that it has lost a considerable extent of country 
in the S. E, where the low grounds (Basses) are 
situated. 
These events, which may have been occasioned 
by a tempest or some violation of nature, must 
have taken place in very remote times as the 
Vedain make mention of Ceylon (Siriudipe) as an 
Island, 
The coast of Ceylon from Tangalle to Chilaw, as 
well as a great part of the interior, has the same cli- 
mate and change of seasons as the coast of Malabar, 
whilst the rest of the Island is of the same tem- 
* Daondara he id and Point Pedro are nearly under 
theaaius marldiaa, not ou tba same parallel : thupar&l* 
lelj are nearly 4 degrees distauoa from each other. We 
say a mscidian of Longitnio and a pirallol of Li.titud<3. 
-Ed. C. Mrs. 
