558 
THE TROP10M- ACTOtJULTUmST. 
[February’ 2, 1891, 
trip, and the incidents of which visit will be noticed 
subsequently. Meantime I would remark, that, as 
Eadunela is only about ten miles from Colombo, 
a trip thither is calculated to be interesting and 
enjoyable to those who appreciate river scenery 
and rich tropical verdure, and who take an in- 
telligent interest in the history of European con- 
nection with Ceylon : Portuguese, Dutch and British, 
as connected with the opposite remains of Malwana, 
The tree vegetal ion is richly luxuriant in the fertile 
bIIuvIrI soil deposited on the banks of the river, and 
the grass mi^adows which occasionally stretch away 
on each side are calculated to remind the tra- 
veller of English hay and clover fields, while 
the gradual transition from the flat country 
to the lower ranges of hills adds special 
interest to the journey. The prevalence 
of inconvenient but fertilizing floods in the 
Kelani valley, is indicated by long rows of 
guide posts along the sides of the road, 
by which mail coaches, carriages, carts and 
foot-passengers are enabled to steer their way, 
when the waters are out, as a consequence of 
heavy and sudden rain-storms on the Peak 
ranges, from which to the sea the course of the 
rivrr is not much more than sixty miles. The lower 
portion is lake-like in breadth and fulness ; but at 
about eight or ten miles from the mouth frequent and 
sometimes formidable sandbanks commence, by 
which the stream is compressed into narrow channels. 
The rapidity and force of the stream is, of course, in 
proportion to the narrowness of the orifice ; and while 
rafts, and eppecially boats, float easily down- 
stream, the difficulty of the navigation upwards 
may be judged of by the fact that while five hours 
on the water amply sufficed for our course of about 
20 miles from Hanwella to the Bridge of Boats, 
2J days would be required for the poling upwards. 
In the case of large and heavily-laden boats (and 
we were interested to see that besides rice the cargo of 
one such boat consisted mainly of Japan-made* shooks 
of tea boxes) the difficulty must be much greater, of 
which indeed we had proof, in the desperate exertions 
and wild, plaintive cries of the polemen as they 
painfully urged their boats against the rushing water. 
Some of the cargo boats had masts, but we saw 
no sails actually used. The north-east wind was, 
probably, far too gusty for safe sailing, The 
usual voyage upward of boats carrying rice and 
other supplies for the Kelani Valley tea estates 
from the Bridge of Boats to Yatiyantota is ten days, 
and occasionally a fortnight is occupied in the 
transit. This is slow work, but probably nei her 
car; nor railway carriage could compete with 
that on the river in cheipness. The con- 
trast between the hard labour of the upward- 
voyaging boatmen on the river at'd their lounging, 
lazy countrymen in the villages on shore was striking. 
But no doubt the latter work hard in spurts, while 
the boatmen have compensation for the hard 
work up in the easy floating down. One 
conclusion forced on us by an examination of the 
great river for twenty miles of its course was the 
non-feasibility of dredging and keeping a navigable 
course open up this stream, at any but a prohibitory 
cost. The deposits of sand and silt are in some 
eases enormous, and we could see evidence of 
great erosion of the banks and shifting of soil from 
one side to the other. There can be no question 
that the felling of forest and the cultivation of 
tea estates along the upper portion of the river 
have tended to increase the impediments to its 
• Made in Japan, out of timber from the forests of 
that island kingdom, by means of American machinery, 
and used for the packing of Oeylon tea, — surely a 
romantic incident in the free commerce of nations ! 
navigation by the quantity of silt washed down. 
And insanitation — temporary only, let us hope— has 
followed. On asking our good friend Mr. Amere- 
sekere as to the health of Hanwella, he stated 
that previously to the advent of the lowconntry 
tea enterprise the place was eminently salubrious, 
but that the change for the worse in the last five 
years had been marked. It is to be deplored 
that the advance of enterprise and material civili- 
zation, which cannot and must not be stayed, 
should involve such consequences, — in the incon- 
veniences of which the planters and their coolies fully 
share, — and we can only hope for a speedy ame- 
lioration of climate or the discovery of a potent 
enemy to the organisms connected with what we 
call “malaria.” 
The once important Fort of Hanwella, situated on 
what, up to the cession of the Kandyan Provinces 
in 1815, was the borderland between ” the Maritime 
Provinces ” and “ the Kingdom of Kandy,” is inter- 
esting from the natural beauty of its situation 
and the associations, ancient and modern, connected 
with it. Malwana, in the Dutch period was burnt 
and its small garrison of invalids massacred, the 
destruction thus effected, and which led to war 
between the Dutch and Kandyans, accounting for 
the few vestiges remaining of the fort and 
the palatial country-houses of the Portuguese 
governors. Hanwella, although the Kandyans, 
in 1803 took possession of the fort and village, 
was not long in their hands. After three 
days’ occupation, the Kandyan forces were 
ousted and driven back with great slaughter 
by troops from Colombo, under the command of 
Lieut, Mercer of H. M. 61st Eegiment. The British 
troops stem, on this occasion, to have been aided 
by an auxiliary body of loyal Sinhalese collected 
by Mudaliyar Solomon Dias Bandaranayake. After 
the massacre of the British troops in Kandy, the 
elated traitor-king marched his army against Han- 
wella. But the small fort was held by a soldier of 
a different stamp to the wretched Davie. Capt. 
Pollock, with hie small force, not only held his own, 
but became the aggressor, repulsing the enemy, 
who made a precipitate retreat, after great loss 
of men, arms and emmunition, and the aban- 
donment of the royal standards. Very different 
and altogether pacific are the recent associations 
conoected with the place in the successive visits 
to it, in 1870, 1876, and 1882, of members of the 
British royal family, in the persons of the Duke 
of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, and finally 
the two young Princes, Victor and George of 
Wales. All the royal visitors planted trees— jak, 
nuga, bo, mango, &e., four at least of which 
are flourishing, inside circles of laterite and 
cement. As records of the visits and the tree 
planting, there are inscriptions on three stone 
seats which are so placed on the rampart which 
faces the river, as to command beautiful views 
across and up and down the stream. The river 
takes a bend below the ferry, but upwards there 
is a long reach, the fine vista being closed by a 
grand background of the Adam’s Peak mountains. 
'The view of these, as dawn was breaking and 
the clear and increasing light revealed their features, 
before the sun had produced any curtain of haze, 
was exceedingly striking, contrasted as the blue of 
the distant mountains was with the silvery waters 
of the stream and the rich verdure of the vege- 
tation in the foreground. The crisp temperature 
here on the morning of January 3rd, following a 
night of special coolness, almost made us fancy 
ourselves back in the mountains which are “ round 
about ” Nuwara Eliya, although the elevation above 
sea-level is only 40 feet. At 2J miles from Han- 
wella, indeed, en route to the mountain Lake where 
