S80 
Civil and Military Establishments 
natural mildness and honesty of their dispositions, in which 
they excel all other Indians. In a country so poor, there 
are indeed few temptations to be dishonest or unjust ; and it 
is perhaps the rarity of crimes which has made the adminis- 
tration of justice be permitted to remain so long defective. 
I have now mentioned all the circumstances worthy of notice 
which I could collect with regard to those natives of Ceylon 
tvho live under the dominion of their native prince. The 
Candians, shut up as they are from intercourse with foreign 
countries, and proud of immemorial independence, might be 
supposed to enjoy amidst their native mountains and woods a 
life of tranquillity and happiness not to be looked for among 
those busy nations whose minds are inflamed by luxury and 
agitated with the thirst of gain. But this is far from being 
the case. The oppression of their governors, the constant 
dread of Europeans, and the superstitious fears arising from 
the nature of their climate, which continually haunt them, 
deprive this isolated people of all the enjoyments which seem 
congenial to their situation. It is to be hoped that our coun- 
trymen, by a generous and well-regulated policy, will speedily 
diminish their sources of unhappiness. Much of the gloom 
which overhangs the minds of the Candians took its rise from 
the oppressive exactions and destructive inroads of the Dutch. 
After the last and most severe blow which the natives sus- 
tained, on being deprived of Putallom which supplied them 
with fish, and the still more indispensable article of salt, they 
formed a resolution to abandon for ever a country which could 
not even supply them with the necessaries of life, but as the 
price of slavery. They were not, however, permitted to put 
this last effort of despair into execution : the Dutch were pos- 
