APPENDIX. 
AN 
ACCOUNT OF THE WAR IN CEYLON, 
In 1803. 
I N offering a second edition of this work to the Public, it may be expected 
that I should give some account of the late hostilities in Ceylon. With a 
view to gratify the public curiosity, I have examined the various accounts, 
both official and private, which have been received of these transactions. 
So very confined, however, and in many instances contradictory, is the infor- 
mation we have received in regard both to the causes, the conduct, and the 
probable consequences of the war, that it would be imprudent in me to state 
an opinion with regard to these subjects, without an opportunity of ascertain- 
ing more precisely the truth of the various reports. My knowledge of the 
character of governor North leaves, indeed, no doubt on my own mind that 
his conduct on this occasion was guided by a sincere desire to promote the 
interests of his country : but in regard to the policy or impolicy of his mea- 
sures, I shall present to the public the most authentic documents that have 
fallen into my hands, and every one will then be able to judge for himself. 
At the period when I left the island of Ceylon, I feared, from my 
knowledge of the situation of the court of Candy, that a good under- 
standing could not long be maintained between us and the natives. The 
whole affairs of state were directed by the chief Adigar, Pelime Talavoe, a 
man of ability, and admirably calculated, by his cunning and address, for 
political intrigue. He had placed the reigning monarch on the throne | 
and had afterwards, on some disgust, conceived the idea of again driving 
him from it, when the arrival of the English obliged him, for the time, to desist 
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