136 
Pettah of Columbo. 
and behind it a large oblong stone building supported in front 
n ith pillars, and intended for the reception of the Candian am- 
bassadors. A number of bazars are here kept by the native 
men and women : they are abundantly supplied with vegetables, 
dried fish, and fruit. 
In this part of the pettah are vast numbers of carpenters, 
smiths, and artificers of various sorts, particularly workers in 
gold and silver. Here are also a great number of black mer- 
chants, and canoplies, or black accountants ; as also manufac- 
tui'ers and traders in the ditferent kinds of precious stones 
found in Ceylon. 
Columbo taken all together is, for its size, one of the most 
populous places in India. There is no part of the world where 
so many different languages are spoken, or which contains such 
a mixture of nations, manners, and religions. Besides Euro- 
peans, and Cinglese, the proper natives of the island, you meet, 
scattered over the town, almost every race of Asiatics ; Moors 
of every class, Alalabars, Travancorians, Alalays, Hindoos, Gen- 
toos, Chinese, Persians, Arabians, Turks, Maldivians, Javians, 
and natives of all the Asiatic isles ; Persees, or worshippers of 
fire, who would sooner have their houses burnt and themselves 
perish in the flames, than employ any means to extinguish it. 
There are also a number of Africans, Cafrees, Buganese a 
mixed race of Africans and Asiatics ; besides the half-casts, 
people of colour, and other races which proceed from a mix- 
ture of the original ones. Each of these different classes of 
people has its own manners, customs, and language. 
The language spoken most universally, both by the Euro- 
peans and Asiatics who resort to Columbo, is the Portuguese 
of India, a base, corrupt dialect, altogether different from that 
