LITEKARy REGISTER SUPPLEMENT : 
AND CEYLON 
"NOTES AND QUERIES." 
fUnc'er this heading, in fatnre, we mean to give a small " Snpplemeiit " with our Tropical Agriculturist 
monthly, according as there ia matter of safficient value so to be preserved.] 
JANUARY, 190#. 
MONSIEUR BURNARD'S MEMOIR ON 
CEYLON. 
(Continued from page 127.) 
On tliat account M. Van de Graaf had proposed 
to re-establish the tank of Giants, at first at the 
Company's expeace, but that had been disapproved 
of at B itavia, it was inceiuled to raise a subicription 
for tlie purpose. This failed also though the pro- 
ject, if effected, might have reimbursed the sub- 
scribers with profit in ten years, If Government had 
furnished labourers from the superabundant popu- 
lation of the Island of Jaffna. To ensure success 
to this project it migiit perhaps be necessary to en- 
trust its execution to au engineer officer, who miglit 
be chief and Cjllector of Mannar and interested iu 
the success of the plan, by a certainty that it 
would procure him a fortune. The produce of the 
drawing up of the two land Thonibos of Jafna- 
patam was surely worse applied than this would 
be. 
To give to the grains of the growth of Ceylon an 
advantage in price over those which are imported 
from abroad, and thereby to encourage the agricul- 
turist", it vvould be proj)er to place a tax of 2 per 
cent on nelie, and 3 on rice imported, nor is there 
any fear of preventing importation by that tax, as 
it would always fall on the consumer. When agri- 
culture was OQce re-established, in would then be 
advisable to still further augment this tax on the 
imported grain. 
Iron for implements of agriculture has increased 
astonisliingly in price since the taking of Tranque- 
bar. That of mature is too rough and brittle, and 
not adopted for this object, and it becomes too dear 
when transported in tiie rough. Government 
should therefore import it from Europe, and it 
might be portioned out among the labourers with 
good advantage. 
The native chiefs of the interior are, generally 
speaking, the greatest obstacle to the establish- 
ment of agriculture, because it is more or less 
adverse to their interests. They and their families 
are in possession of the best fields, which their 
dependants cultivate for them at a low rate ; it is 
for their interest that grain should be dear, and 
consequently that the whole of the lands should 
not be cultivated, nor so well as they might be. 
They are not less eoncerned in the maintenance 
of the old order of things, which preserves their 
nftuence over the people. Descended from ancient 
families, in which employments have always been 
perpetuated, the respect borne them carries a 
degree of fear with it, and this made them about 
50 years ago really lords in their provinces. The 
greater part of them have their patrons in Kaudy, 
wlio protect their families from father to ton, and 
give them an asylum in adverse times, that is, 
that theii b^d conduct obliges them to seek safety 
in Wight. 
These chiefs having had from the very commence- 
ment the keeping of the, revenues, have become 
rich, and the Dutch who, as we have already said, 
only thought of cinnamon and otherobjects of mono- 
poly, only began to attend 50 or 60 years asro 
to this internal branch of administration. These 
Dessaves and Commanders were suffered to enrich 
themselves, and therefore did not give themselves 
the trouble to learn the affairs of the country. They 
knew, on the whole, that the Mudlyar of Corle, 
or some other chief had long been guilty of 
malversation, and that he could therefore pay a 
heavy fine. They then investigated the conduct 
and made him to pay. On being named to any 
employment, t!ie person so appointed paid a sum of 
money called Cavojse, and under this terra the 
native chiefs paid also money when the Dessaves 
or Governors made the tour of the provinces. The 
chiefs lost nothing of those donations, for they took 
from the people the double of what they had given. 
This shameful custom prevailed till the appoint- 
ment of Governor Falck. That virtuous and en- 
lightened man proscribed it by his example as well 
as by his words, and never accepted the smallest 
trifle, as was proved of by his dying twenty 
years afterwards and leavinfi patrimony diminished 
by a fourth. If this example had any effect on the 
Company's servants it had none on the native 
chiefs, who only make their bad practices more 
secret. M. Van de Graaf, who with similar views 
succeeded the Government nearly rooted out the 
evil by two severe proclamations, and the resolu- 
tion passed on this head by the Council was ap- 
proved of at Batavia. The happiest effect of the 
administration of the interior followed those 
arrangements, and the chiefs were kept within due 
bounds, but they still preserved their inllnence over 
the natives, because they retained their authority 
and bbe right to collect the revenue. M. Van de 
Graaf thought their assistance necessary for the 
new plantations and encourngement to agriculture 
which he was projecting. His JIaha ]Mudlyar 
Abeyasinha is suspected of having misled him on 
several occasions as well on internal affairs as on 
those of Kandy. In the present state of things 
the power which the chiefs still have in the country 
is too great to allow us to imagine, we can eflect, 
without either open or secret opposition, the 
