tinder the Dutch. 
49 
sion to deprive him of his rights in order to gratify their own 
avarice. A few articles of no great value, such as betel leaf, 
areka, and cocoa-nuts, were occasionally smuggled by the na- 
tives down to the Dutch provinces ; but these practices, if 
discovered, were severely punished by the King. 
Such was the situation in which affairs stood between the 
Dutch and the native Ceylonese, towards the commencement 
of the late war. It was now about one hundred and forty 
years since the Portuguese had been finally expelled, and 
no other European power had since that time been able to 
acquire a permanent footing on the island. It is not however 
to be supposed, while the attention of all the nations of 
Europe was so eagerly turned towards the commerce of the 
East, and while they maintained so many violent contests 
among themselves, that so valuable an acquisition as Ceylon 
could have escaped their notice. Such however 'was the dif- 
ficulty of approaching that island, except in a very few points, 
and such was the strength of the Dutch, and the weakness of 
most other nations in that quarter of the globe, that very 
few attempts were made to wrest it from them. Soon after 
the expulsion of the Portuguese, the French seemed inclined 
to dispute the possession of Ceylon. They appeared off the 
island with a large fleet, entered into a treaty with the native 
prince, and avowed their determination to drive out the Dutch. 
Ail these threatening movements however ended in nothing: 
an enterprise planned without wisdom was executed without 
spirit, and imaginary obstacles prevented the French from even 
attempting to gain a footing on the island. 
An attempt of the English, towards the conclusion of the 
American war, was likely to prove more formidable to the 
II 
