12 
RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 
whom there are over 2,000,000, the other races being Tamils (of whom 
there are nearly a million), Burghers, Eurasians, Moors, Malays, Vedahs 
(aborigines), and so on. 
The island has an excellent government of the paternal sort, admin- 
istered by a governor who is appointed bv the King of Engand. He is 
assisted by an executive council of five, but has power to overrule their 
advice. There is also a legislative council of nine, including members of 
the executive, together with eight unofficials appointed by the governor, 
representing the mercantile and planting interests and the native com- 
munities. 
CATAMARAN WITH SAIL, CEYLON. 
The island became a British possession in 1795. Prior to this the 
Dutch, who had held it for 138 years, had' wrested it from the Portuguese, 
who ruled it for 141 years. Interesting reminders of both of these 
conquests are found in the high-sounding Portuguese names that many 
of the Singalese bear, and in the Burgher types which remain quite 
Dutch, both in name and appearance. Neither the Dutch nor the Portu- 
guese had ever conquered the whole of the island, which was accom- 
plished by the British in 1815. Since then there have been a few 
rebellions, which, however, were easily suppressed. During the last one, 
in 1848, some 2,000 up-country Singalese were put to flight by thirty 
Malays who wore the British uniforms, a proof that the ancient warlike 
spirit of the Kandyans is practically extinct. 
