243 
i'he Ctngtese from the Candians. 
sufTicieiit to their former European masters, if they could be 
brought to practise the outward forms of the Christian wor- 
ship; and their apparent conversion was therefore more fre- 
quently to be regarded as a badge of tame submission than a 
real improvement in religious and moral principles. A zealous 
eftbrt on the part of our government to introduce our learning 
and religion among the natives is the surest means of improving 
and consolidating our empire in the island. The higher or- 
ders of the Cinglese already afford an example of what tliat 
people may soon become by an intercourse with civilized so- 
ciety ; many of them display minds capable of receiving the 
most polished and systematic education. 
Notwithstanding the Dutch have been so long in possession 
of Ceylon and employed the natives as domestic servants even 
from their childhood, yet such is the extraordinary love the na- 
tives bear to their country and their strong aversion to leave 
it on any account whatever, that no attachment to their mas- 
ters, nor any persuasion could induce a Ceylonese to accom- 
pany them to Europe. It is only the meanest, and those prin- 
cipally of a spurious and mixed race, that can be even pre- 
vailed upon ever to go to the continent of India. 
I am happy to state that the English have been the first 
people who could inspire any of the natives with such an affec- 
tion as to induce one of those people to break through this 
strong and rooted aversion to leave their native country, Mrs. 
Robertson, the wife of colonel David Robertson of the Malay 
regiments and adjutant general in Ceylon, employed a young 
woman of the highest cast, and married to a Moodelier or head 
man, to nurse one of her children. This young woman formed 
so great an attachment to the child, and to her mistress, that 
I I 2 
