146 Description of the Country around Columbo. 
here is remarkable ; aocl the vigour communicated by the cool- 
ness of the shades is very sensibly felt by an European. I ex- 
perienced this most satisfactorily in a walk which I took from 
Caltura to Columbo in December 1799- It was then nearly 
the hottest season of the year, and the distance between the two 
places above twenty-eight miles. I left Caltura at nine in the 
morning in company with two sets of palankeen boys who were 
to go the same road. In time, however, I left my fellow tra- 
vellers behind ; and after a delay of an hour in crossing the 
Caltura and Pantura rivers, and resting at Galkiest, I got to 
Columbo by half past four in the afternoon ; having performed 
the journey in the heat of the day, and in the space of seven 
hours and a half. 1 mention this drcumstance to demonstrate 
how much less enfeebling the climate of Ceylon is to the con- 
stitution of an European than any other part of India. There 
is no place on the continent, which I have visited, where I 
could have walked above half the distance in the same space 
of time ; and yet the road which I travelled does not lie six 
degrees from the line. I could mention other instances of ex- 
ertion which the climate of Ceylon has permitted Europeans 
to make, where they Avere assisted neither by the goodness of 
the road, nor the shades of the groves. A soldier in the Ben- 
gal artillery left Columbo in the morning, and arrived by sun- 
set at Kesouveorti, where we Avere encamped on our Avay to 
Candy, a distance of forty miles ; though he Avas often exposed 
to the burning heat of the sun, and many parts of the road 
were A^ery rugged and difficult to travel. 
The river at Caltura is one of the largest branches of the 
MuliAvaddy, and is here about a mile broad. It Avashes two 
sides of the fort by Avhich it is commanded, and is navigable by 
