of Trlncomalee. 6T 
It will, however, require great encouragement and many im- 
provements to render the town populous or anywise equal to 
Columbo. For the country around is not by any means so 
fertile as to tempt settlers to reside there ; nor are the natural 
productions calculated to attract commerce. The climate has 
also been looked upon as the hottest and most unhealthy of 
the whole island ; and both the 72 d and 80 th regiments suffered 
severely from it on their first arrival. These noxious qualities 
of the climate were owing in a great measure to the woods and 
marshes which come up to the very fort, and which the Dutch 
had never sufficient policy or public spirit to remove. Since 
the place has been in our possession, a very proper system has 
been adopted to render the climate wholesome. As I before 
observed, colonel Champagne, while stationed here with the 80 th 
regiment, cleared a large tract of ground, in the neighbourhood of 
the fort, from the jungles with which it was covered; and also 
drained several of the swamps and marshes. The good effects 
of these improvements have already been experienced, and the 
European garrison has since suffered very little from the climate. 
It is to be hoped that remedies may in the same manner be 
applied to the other defects under which Trincomalee at present 
labours: its trade is nothing, as there are no valuable natural 
productions to nourish it; but, from its situation, it is capable 
of becoming the richest emporium of the East. The want of 
commerce, and the uncultivated state of the surrounding country, 
are defects which flow mutually from each other; and the re- 
moval of one would soon, in a great measure, do away the 
other. 
As we advance along the coast to the north-west from Trin- 
comalee, little presents itself to the eye but a bold shore, and 
K 2 
