424 ^4ppendix. 
those who can afford you any information upon the subject, and particularly, it is his 
Excellency’s wish, that you should endeavour to discover whether the outrages, said to 
have been committed, were the effect of wantonness upon the part of the Candians, or 
whether the sufferers did not, in some measure, render themselves obnoxious to the 
government, by carrying on a contraband and illegal trade. Your own prudence and ex- 
tensive knowledge of the affairs of Candy make it unnecessary to enter into further details. 
I have taken the liberty of enclosing all the correspondence which has passed upon this 
business with the commandant of Putelang, Lieutenant O’Connell ; and I shall request, 
that as soon as your investigation is concluded, you will acquaint me with the result of 
it, for the information of his Excellency, I have the honour to be, &c. 
Columbo, July 17, 1802. (Signed) Robert Arbuthnot. 
To Robert Arbuthnot, Esq. Chief Secretary to Government, Columbo. 
Sir — In obedience to the commands of government, conveyed to me by your let- 
ter of the 17th instant, I have the honour to acquaint you that I immediately repaired to 
Putelang, and now beg leave to lay before you, for the information of his Excellency 
the governor, the result of the investigation with which I was charged. 
The perusal of the enclosed depositions would, I am persuaded, without any com- 
ment of mine, afford to his Excellency the information he desired on the subject matter 
of my mission to Putelang ; but as it may be expected that I should not transmit the en- 
closed papers without some remarks, I shall content myself with briefly stating the amount 
of the information as it appears to me. 
In the months of March and April last, a number of natives, living under the British 
government, in and about Putelang, set out, in two divisions, with a number of cattle 
laden with various articles of merchandise, namely, salt, salt- fish, cloth, tobacco, and 
copper money, intending to dispose of them in the Candian country in exchange for 
areka nuts. 
The largest division, which I shall call No. 1, consisted of 46 persons (exclusive of 
7 coolies,) and 272 head of cattle, laden with articles of traffic ; and the smaller division, 
which may be called No. 2, consisted of 18 persons, and 130 head of cattle, laden in 
like manner. 
No doubt can be entertained but that the commerce into which the people entered, 
was universally deemed legal, and that they had long been accustomed to carry it on, and 
on that account the misfortune which they met with in the prosecution of it, cannot he 
accounted for on the grounds of contraband. 
Whether the Putlanders were guilty of any irregularity in the Candian country, which 
could serve as the pretext for the usage they met with, I cannot positively assert ; I have 
certainly not been able to trace any such ; and, unfortunately for them, it will appear, by 
a perusal of the enclosed papers, that after they had completed the object they had in 
view in the Candian country, and were on their return home with the areka nuts, which 
they had procured for the articles they had carried from Putelang, they were stopped, 
harassed by delays, and, finally, the whole of the areka nuts confiscated and taken from 
them, and which a specific account annexed to the depositions herewith transmitted will 
